Out of the frying pan, and into a pitched battle between the Canid and Ermehn! This is one of those pages where there isn’t much else I can say aside from “how about that awesome battle, huh?” I’d always had an image in my head for how the battle scene might look, and Rachel just kinda ripped it out fully-formed, like Athena from the mind of Zeus!

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The thumbnail for this page illustrates once more how occasionally, in service of the action we choose to portray panel-by-panel, sometimes we need new lines from certain characters. In the original script, Quinlan has his “By Tesque” exclamation again — which might work timing-wise if we consider it’s been a month and a half since you saw the page where he said it last. BUT! When you’re reading this in book form or speeding through the archives, seeing the same exclamation twice so quickly would be a bit jarring.

Originally, Dakkan had an exclamation that was something akin to “By the tides,” but Rachel rightly pointed out that having Quin and Dak both have a “By the [insert culture-specific word here]” exclamation might seem a little convenient. Rachel put in Dak’s “Sonuva” as a placeholder in the thumb until we could come up with the current exclamation for him :)

This week, for guest art, it’s a Christmas Holiday Spectacular! Both Veigue and Saraa Luna have been cranking out some amazing Christmas-related artwork that I would be remiss not to show this week. Much as I would love to spread it out over a few weeks, I think it makes sense to show it all on the page that will be visible on Christmas! SO! Here we go — starting first with Veigue’s super-cute piece of Ashtor and Eira:

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Kilts and ugly Christmas sweaters could eventually become a thing in the Northern Wastes! After all, ugly as they may be, those sweaters are COMFY! This piece is just incredibly cute — thank you so much for putting it together, Veigue!

Continuing this trend of ugly Christmas sweaters, Saraa Luna created a quartet of Christmas pieces featuring our Sunsgrovian cast that just screams “Somebody who didn’t know me very well bought me this sweater and now I have to wear it to the family gathering because otherwise they might be offended!”

shiitaketissues_xmasKenosh

shiitaketissues_xmasQuin

shiitaketissues_xmaxJanik

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Kenosh pulls off the Christmas sweater thing with his usual “Meh, whatever” approach. Honestly, his sweater isn’t even THAT BAD. It’s when you get to Quinlan that you realize there’s possibly some kind of terrifying market in Terria for oak-leaf-themed sweaters. Janik also manages to avoid donning an ugly sweater in favor of her mistletoe-berry-colored (and accessorized) getup.

As I’m sure we all could surmise, it was destined to be Dakkan who donned the most heinous of ugly Christmas sweaters. His is adorned with (most likely completely functional) Christmas lights. I wouldn’t be surprised if the same hidden battery pack that drives the Christmas lights also makes the stars twinkle and the Christmas tree star glow. Basically, Dakkan is a walking fire hazard here.

Also, Saraa — I appreciate the salmon coffee mug filled with cocoa :)

Have a wonderful Holiday, everyone!