Chapter 3: Page 2
Dear readers, may I introduce Mitra! While Theo has the honor of being the first named Vulpin character we’ve done in a comic, Mitra is the first we’ve seen in the main Western Deep storyline. She is Janik’s lifelong tutor, serving her family for years as an assistant and educator in all matters related to Tamian, Lutren, and Vulpin society. She’s rather smart, this one! And now that Janik is stepping up to help her father with ambassadorial duties, it’s up to Mitra to make sure she’s ready for whatever Nessa has to throw at her.
Designing Mitra and the other Vulpin members of Janik’s caravan offered ample opportunity for Rachel to nail down Vulpin clothing styles. While Mitra lives in Sunsgrove, there is a sizable Vulpin population there that prefers the forests of the west to the deserts of central Dunia. While some Vulpin have adopted Tamian or Lutren style clothing, Mitra takes special care in preserving her Vulpin heritage, and continues to wear proper Nessian garb as a result.
This week for guest art, a fun surprise! Saraa Luna, welcome back to the guest art section!! :D
We ALL missed your art, Saraa! Thank you for indulging us with this fun rendition of Kenosh — we haven’t seen him in a while! From Saraa’s post, the text translates to: “God, give me patience, because if you give me strength I’ll kill them.” That is most appropriate for our #1 diplomat :)
VOLUME 2 IS NOW AVAILABLE IN STORES, INCLUDING OURS!
Also, some news! Not sure how many of you caught my comment last week, but we now have about 30 copies of Beyond the Western Deep: Volume 2 in the Western Deep Online Store! You can check it out by following this link right here:
You can also grab Western Deep Volume 2 EVERYWHERE because it’s officially OUT! Please leave a review where and when you can — if you enjoy the story, that helps to spread the word!
Please drop a review here at Goodreads or on Amazon to help us get the word out! Go, Salmon party! Go go!
Excellent page as usual, and it’s nice to see our Vulpin friend has a name we can put with her face now.
Went ahead and snagged one of those Volume 2s you were offering to support you guys. Unfortunately I don’t have the first though. Is it also available in retailers?
Anyways, looking forward to more :)
Volume one can be bought through Amazon. https://www.amazon.com/Beyond-Western-Deep-Alex-Kain/dp/1632291037/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1478333240&sr=8-1&keywords=beyond+the+western+deep
Which brings me to another question- Alex, which brings in more revenue for you and Rachel- buying volume two through the store or through Amazon? Or is that one of those rude questions?
A perfectly reasonable question I think :) We do make more with the Western Deep store copies, technically, since there aren’t other store profits to consider.
is no surprise that janik has problems figuring out the names even some other ambassadors have a hard time remembering names is well unless they spin time seeing each other and knowing a lot more of each other.
i love the art of kenosh you can eve see a little bit of a smile.
Mitra’s design is very pleasing looking and I love how her overall attire flows (especially with the blue and orange colors). It’s also surprising to learn that there are a good amount of Vulpin living in Sunsgrove.
Perhaps it’s because how often we generalize things, but I assumed the other races are either comfortable with their way of living or too proud to reside in other areas (Then again Song of the Eastern Sands proved me wrong on that). I guess relationships like this will be just one of the many tragic points that’ll soon follow once the land becomes engulfed in political chaos evidently.
Saraa no matter what strife you endure, know that your art is so full of joy and I hope to see more of your work in the future! I love this little Kenosh illustration you did! The quote is very fitting for him.
Well, we knew from the prologue that certain pockets of Vulpin were more open and accepting of other cultures than was common across the Four Kingdoms. do agree that the Vulpin in Sunsgrove bit surprised me too- but that’s probably at least partly why the Land’s End is more easily accessible from the ground.
Also, I feel like this hasn’t been clarified: does “Dunia” refer to the world at large or just the continent?
I don’t think Saraa is suffering any struggle currently. Then again, I didn’t know she could español, so I guess I am not really fit to relay Saraa facts to people.
I think Dunia refers to the world, if memory serves me, and I am surprised that more Vulpin don’t move out of the desert. Nevermind that the place is at the centre of the story’s setting, it’s hot and sandy and hot, who would like to live there?
“It’s hot and sandy and hot, who would like to live there?”
Do you take issue with the sand?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hi5jjXTPtyY
(I’m so, so sorry . . .)
El mundo tiene muchos sorpresas. But yeah, no, I’ve had to deal with some fun stuff that isn’t really relevant here. The important thing is that I am now back in the state to draw grumpy old otterdads, and hopefully more characters besides grumpy older otterdads. I did draw two mini generals and some mini Quin faces, so that’s start.
Vulpin and most desert foxes are built to live in the desert so I suppose the conditions don’t bother them too much. At least most of them.
Welcome back, Saraa :) We kept the salmon fresh for you!
Haha, thank you! It’s good to be back.
I loved the “Got Blowdried” face! Made me laugh!
What’s so surprising about choosing to live in a nice forest instead of a blazing hot desert?
Given the choice I know which one I’d pick, both as a human and if I were reincarnated into Dunia as one of the foxies.
I should add that I do hope that we get to see some of these Vulpin at some point.
Will it necessarily result in tragedy? Sunsgrove and Navran seem to be fairly close. We’ve got immigration and strong diplomatic ties (some ambassadors have no real power and are just seen as quaint, inconsequential nobodies by their hosting government; Rowan is clearly not one of these). So the two kingdoms would appear to have a vested interest in helping each other out should something like a massive land war break out. But what are the odds of that happening?
“animated” seems like an ironic word to use to describe Rachel’s art, but it really . fits. Her poses are always so dynamic and lively. I love how unique each member of the caravan looks, too- and I love Mitra’s design! I’m still going by the “vulpin backstabbed the Tamian” theory as hinted at in the prologue scrolls, although it’s nice to get some canon information on the relationships between the races, at least as said relationship works in the present!
I really like Mitra already. I’m still a bit wary simply out of habit, but i love her design and what I’ve seen of her personality so far. Is it jsut me or are he earrings the most complex earrings we’ve seen- all the others are simple metal rings, even on King Dabheid.
Eyepatches seem to be a fairly common thing among the lutren, lol. Not a bad thing at all, just an observation. These two in the back don’t look like guards, so I wonder what their role in the caravan is. I’m fairly certain I saw an armored Tamian guard on the first page, but I could- that said, I’m sure they have at least some protection, not that it will be very effective against the Canid assassins. I’m not sure if Rook and Beck or the other Sand Spiders will be appearing in Rachel’s style, but I’m quite looking forward to the rendition if/when it should occur!
I really love the lighting on this page, and the way it interplays with the shading of Mitra’s veil and the color variances on her fur. The sheer detail and thought you put into your work never ceases to amaze me Rachel- I really missed your artwork. Please take care of yourself, though- don’t be afraid to take breaks or hiatuses if you need them.
Another thing I’d like to note that I don’t think I’ve mentioned a lot- Alex, I love the way you do dialogue. you manage to be very nuanced while keeping the word count down and uncluttering the page. I think this aspect of Beyond the Western Deep more than anything else has ruined other comics for me- when you open a lot of even critically acclaimed comics, there’s a face full of exposition or speech bubbles that occupy half the page and it clutters the page and makes it a lot harder for me to read. It’s not a bad thing, per se, but it bothers me now and I find myself trying to restructure the scene in my head. And being wrecked isn’t a bad thing, at all. Beyond the Western Deep is definitely better than most things out on comic shelves- it’s been what, twelve years since official conception, if not longer? And again. The sheer thought and love and care put into literally every panel really makes it stand out.
Sorry to go off on a ramble it’s four am over here and I have even less of a filter than normal, lol.
No comic, be it web or physical, holds a candle in terms of text when compared to prose.
What I mean to say is: Read War and Peace or some such and you shall never complain about text-length in comics again.
Unless you made War and Peace into a comic
The issue in comics is when you let the text bog down the delivery of the narrative. Prose is all text, so you are free to set a pace (snappy, wandering, dense, etc) and stick to it. It’s a bit different when you juxtapose text with images, which are usually designed to be “read” as quickly and clearly as possible, and can sometimes carry information that would take paragraphs to describe. A few lines on a script page quickly turns into a speech bubble behemoth that chokes out the art and slows the pace waaay down.
Alex comes from more novel-style writing, and there was definitely a learning period where we wrestled out how much text was needed, and how much the art could be relied on to convey information.
Those were some extremely painful early drafts, I’ll tell you :) Rachel put up with a lot of my nonsense early on, indulging me in some really overblown monologues that fortunately all got cut/streamlined/improved as we both gained a better feel for the unique foibles of the comic medium.
Ugh, I still remember this… http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_oE0JorkqBFo/SZcbiNhuAkI/AAAAAAAAAE4/irkPR6p_7bM/s320/BlogFeb1.JPG
Well, where is the vulpin mamluks?
Mitra.. Mitra…. isn’t that a monotheistic god in Conan O’Brien the barbarian’s universe?
Perpetually Angry Ostrich continues to be an endless source of amusement to me.
Nearly every picture of an ostrich I’ve ever seen looks grumpy. X)
He and Kenosh can be kindred spirits, then.
Also on the theme of arbitrarily foisting emotional turmoil upon silent background characters: Yellow Tamian back there does not look like a happy bunny. That’s some deep melancholy you got there boi!
MY REVENGE SHALL BE REPAID TENFOLD YOU FUZZY DEMONS! DOWN WITH THE OPPRESSORS!
Birds don’t have lips. They don’t have brows. They can’t smile.
Nor talk.
Nor cry.
“You know Avir, Alonna, Hadar, Javad, Makan;
Orah and Shani, Tamir and Samara;
But do you recall,
The last council members of all?”
NEW NAMED CHARACTER ALERT!
When choosing someone to tutor your child in the politics and culture of another nation (and species, in this case), you can’t do much better than choose a member of that culture (and species) for the job, all else being equal.
I wasn’t so sure about Mitria last week, but I’m developing quite a liking for her now. It’s nice to have a tutor character who doesn’t fit the “eternally stern” archetype for once. She smiles and lightly teases Janik here, proving that she has a soul! Can we keep her?
I wonder if any of the other people of the caravan are going to be new named characters. There’s clearly a lot of design work put into the Vulpin leading the ostrich, and there’s still that other Tamian who looks like he’s also part of the diplomatic corps. And there’s also the guard and the four porters.
I find it funny how everyone was so quick to distrust Mitra before we even got to know her. It reminds me how everyone was (and still is) distrustful of Theo even though he hasn’t done anything wrong.
I blame this on Kenosh. Ever since his surprise backstab, everyone just doesn’t trust old people anymore.
I wasn’t suspicious of her, just afraid that she might turn into the stereotypical stern, constantly quizzing schoolmistress type.
Very happy that that isn’t the case.
To be fair, Theo is the seasoned and secretive leader of a group of thieves (and also very calm about everything) so it’s not like he’s got a blank slate behind him.
To be fair she looks smug and evil
Just wanted to say after reading the picture about the vulpines design, I am thankfull that characters in this story have more realistic body shapes rather than falling under the usual fantasy stereotrypes, IE, villages filled with barbarian muscle builders or holiwood sculpted bodies. You know the ones :/
It is nice to find characters who are just ‘normal’. XD
Ironically, the only happy-looking background character right now is a Canid(?). I’ve seen Rachel draw Vulpin only a couple of times in the past so it might take me a few pages to get “up to speed.”
That’s a Vulpin. Dressed in Vulpin clothes and too skinny to be a Canid, and no Canid would be traveling with the party right now. Not after Otterdad McBrows pulled what he did (among other reasons).
Well we don’t know when that event has taken place in relation to the scene here. It could have been the night before, or after. Either way, it would be improbable that EVERY Canid is up to speed about what’s going on, remember this is a time period where there isn’t instantaneous communication. That one bird that was released might not have even reached its destination yet. And even if it did, the message would have to be copied to every other Canid and that would take time.
Either way, the party we see here started its journey way before any of those events happened, so if there aren’t any Canid in the party it’s for other reasons.
That’s true. I get the general feeling that there aren’t many Canid in Sunsgrove anyway, at least not outside of previous embassy escort duties (excluding bar canid and some scattered residents).
nice page! I really like Mitra’s design. it makes sense for a Vulpin to come over and teach a soon-to-be ambassador about their homeland. let’s hope that Janik won’t get pulled into a huge political mess like Quinlan… oh wait, there’s the assassination attempt on ol’ man Rowan, Kenosh’s little Deltrada surprise, and its rippling effects across the four kingdoms… but then again, SAND SPIDERS TO THE RESCUE!
I think the rest of the Salmon Party has already mentioned a lot of what can be pointed out… including the perpetually angry ostrich.
Haha really though, I’ll have whatever these vulpin are having. They’re the only ones having a good time, it looks like. Guess no one else is very thrilled about heading to the desert. It gets everywhere, that sand.
Also, I always love to see reference sheets for characters. Mitra has just a fantastic design.
The best thing about this entire update is the look on Mitria’s face in the part of her character page where she’s holding the scroll.