Chapter 3: Page 45
Apologies for the delayed page last week — Rachel was fighting off a rather nasty flu and work-related craziness (along with the announcement of Never Stop Sneakin’) had me distracted to the point of ineffectiveness. STILL! We’re back this week with the next page, and if you thought Ashtor would let himself get talked down by his leader, well… I suppose he doesn’t even really give him a chance, does he?
For guest art this week, a piece from a brand new contributor, Storm! It’s doubly awesome because it’s guest art of a character we haven’t seen for a little while: Janik!
Storm actually caught sight of Western Deep at a comic convention we tabled last year, and after catching up on the series was compelled to draw this piece. Thank you so much, Storm! It’s great to see Janik again :)
That reminds me as well — little bit of housekeeping: neither Rachel nor I will be tabling any comic conventions this season. There are a number of reasons why, but we’re hoping that changes for next year. At the very least, I will be attending Emerald City Comic Con in Seattle this upcoming March, on Saturday. I’ll just have a normal guest pass and be walking around buying up all the cool indie comics I can find, so if you want to say hello, feel free to ping me on our DISCORD!
Don’t forget you can come hang out with all of us on the Western Deep Discord right here: https://discord.gg/2nA6JM8
Still not sure if you want to join? Check out these custom emotes Rachel made for it! HOW CAN YOU RESIST BLEP BEVAN AND WINKING DAK?
YOU GET HIM ASHTOR! nice page! and FINALLY we’re at least about to get some answers! it’s only been 2 years since the Sratha din ditched Deltrada!
Ashtor did you sleep on the wrong side of the bed or something? You’re getting that crazed look in your eye, you might need to get that fixed. But yes vulnerable Hardin is pretty much the most enjoyable thing out of this whole scene. It’s like when you were in school and that one kid got in big trouble and the entire class went “Oooooooo”
Nice Janik drawing there Storm. Its a very different expression from her usual self but it’s nice to see characters express more than their default emotion -> ex Hardin just now lol
Can we say “Another great page?”
I knew we could!
Guess Ashtor’s decided to prove he’s the angriest bird here.
Oh thank heavens. We’re finally getting an answer. Slow and painful as the process may be.
Is it bad that the first thing this reminded me of was a Calvin and Hobbes strip (that I can’t find a picture of right now) where Calvin wants to learn what Hobbes knows about love, Hobbes won’t tell, and they end up fighting, screaming “TELL ME!” “NO!” TELL ME!” “NO!” “TELL ME!” “NO!”?
It’s such a weird feeling to see Hardin have an expression besides angst/boredom/pissed in panel 2. About time too! Bevan calls Ashtor Ash, that’s cute haha.
So happy to see that Ashtor isn’t a push over. He’s voiced his opinion a couple times but he placed his trust in Hardin, only to be disappointed. Go get ‘im Ashy-boi >:0
Seconded. I do love Hardin’s expression here. He’s more surprised than angry, and knows there’s no way Ashtor will take ‘no’ for an answer (but still tries to weasel out of it, pardon the pun).
Also, it’s fun to see the difference between Rathik and Bevan in a nutshell here. Rathik is annoyed by the physical aggression (likely because of who’s on the receiving end), while Bevan is worried because his friends are fighting. We always knew you were a softie under that hood, Bevan!