Well! That was quite a twist the other week, wasn’t it? Following up a bombshell like that took a little extra time this week, so we apologize for keeping you on the edges of your collective seats — but as you can see, some familiar faces have arrived to make the wait even MORE worthwhile! Bevan! Rhosyn! Where have you been?

165_rough

When I said that the Action Lab-published perfect-bound version of Beyond the Western Deep was hitting May 27th, by the way, that was a mistake on my part! It’s apparently aimed to hit bookstores on June 10th! Of course, if you’re the impatient type, you can always order the book or combo pack from our online store (www.westerndeep.bigcartel.com). Once these self-published hardcovers are gone, they’re pretty much GONE for good, after all! I’ll also have them at a couple more conventions this year:

Boston Comic Con: July 31st-Aug 2nd

Hartford Comic Con: Sep 19th-20th

Bing Con: October 24th

Obviously Boston is the big one remaining — because of my and Rachel’s jobs we can’t really do the whole continental convention circuit like normal comic folks, but we do try to get in one big show outside New England each year that we both visit. This year, obviously, was Chicago. Not sure about next year, yet! We’ll have to see!

We have some very special guest art this week, from reader and artist extraordinaire Daryl Gray! Several months back, he did a wonderful Tamian warrior piece for us, and promised then to do new illustrations featuring all the seven races of Dunia. Well, Daryl sent over the pieces last week and they completely blew us away! Are you ready for an AWESOME OVERLOAD?

image-2 image-1 image-5 image image-3 image-6 image-4

These pieces are exceptional, Daryl! I love the stylized portrayals and color work, and Rachel and I both are particularly fond of the Polcan’s awesome fur coloration (which really does help sell its partial inspiration from the European Marbled Polecat)! We absolutely love these pieces — thank you SO MUCH for sending them over, and I hope this isn’t the last time your art delves into the world of Western Deep!

Lastly, and this is mostly just me being super dorky, but I’ve been seriously enjoying the soundtrack to The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt and using it as background writing music for quite some time (since I nabbed some sampler tracks a few months back actually). It pulls a lot of inspirations from Eastern-European folk music, with Polish folk group Percival supplying some incredible vocals and instrumentation. It was co-written by Mikołaj Stroiński (who I came to learn about from his incredible score to The Vanishing of Ethan Carter earlier this year) and Marcin Przybyłowicz, who both bring incredible stuff to the table. Oh, and here’s the link to the full OST on Youtube if you’re curious :)