Chapter 4: Page 01
After several days on the run from their canid pursuers, our heroes look decidedly worse for wear. Let’s maybe not tell them that in outside-the-comic time, it’s been 908 days since their last in-comic appearance (during the transition to Janik and Mitra’s arrival at Cenolau) and nearly three whole years since their last full scene concluded.
On the bright side, Quinlan and Dakkan may be kicking off this chapter, but even when this first scene concludes, they reappear later on this chapter too–so if you’re fans of these two, you’ll have a lot to be happy about in Chapter 4!
One element you might have noticed in Rachel’s thumb notes is that this page is actually a spiritual call-back to the opening of chapter 2 (page 2, to be exact).
Notice the similarities? Rachel had a lot of fun contrasting the two as a means of showing just how much has changed since the two friends left on their journey–and while it hasn’t been that much time to them, big changes have rocked their respective worlds. Even though they’re trodding similar ground on the way back to Sunsgrove, nothing can ever really be the same again.
Rachel, Var, and I–as well as Jerome and Leah–couldn’t be happier to welcome you to the next main chapter of Beyond the Western Deep. This a BIG chapter, and serves as a mid-point of sorts for Beyond. We hope that you enjoy it, and look forward to hearing your thoughts in the comments below!
This week for guest art, I wanted to share this beautiful piece that was done by reader Nova Nocturne, featuring Quinlan in a decidedly heroic, optimistic pose (which I think he’d appreciate after stumbling around in this week’s page)!
We absolutely LOVE this piece, Nova! Quinlan looks wonderful in your style, and we really dig the mix of his scout and royal captain garb. This pose also reminded me of our VERY FIRST COMIC PITCH waaaay back when Beyond the Western Deep still went by the name “The Four Kingdoms” (I know, it’s not very descriptive, is it?)
We’d been trying to get the series picked up by a comics publisher, and put together a small run of comic books that had sample pages (which have since been completely redrawn), the script for chapter 1 (which has since been near-completely rewritten), and art of all the major characters (all of whom have since been redesigned). Yes, it wasn’t the best showpiece of our world, but we were just starting out in comics and didn’t know any better.
Eesh, that is OLD. Like, 2010 old! But I think the last decade has been kind to the world of the Western Deep–things have since improved for ol’ Quinlan and Co.!
And remember, if you have guest art that you’d like to share with us and the rest of the Western Deep community, please send it to us at hello(at)westerndeep.net
Have a great weekend, everyone!
Good to see those two back, I missed them. Also, I LOVE the way Dakkan’s face show fatigue, it’s really credible. Excited about chapter 4!!!
Loved the call back to the first pages of Chapter 2! So excited for this new chapter!
God this site is beautiful. This depiction of fatigue and fear in boys looks so relistic that I would hug these two and protect them forever. I would like to draw like that, but I think such talent comes with age
Does Dunia rotate in the opposite direction that Earth does?
Hi Trees! It doesn’t, no–the sun still rises east and sets west (so in that last panel for instance, you can see the sun starting to rise in the bottom left, which has Dakkan looking north for their possible pursuers).
Thanks for the world info.
I was thrown by the little compass rose in the pencil layout where I mistook the sideways W for an upright E and realised I’d been making the assumption Dunia was like Earth when, as a fictional planet you could make it do whatever you like.
Haha well, whaddyaknow? Rachel’s informed me that she actually DOES need to fix it X) Shows what I know!
Oh no! I apologise! The last thing I wanted to do was make work for either of you.
The left-to-right movement continuity is slick and cool but you could keep panel 3 the same and we can just imagine the ‘camera’ is now on the east side of the characters.
I blame open world video games for instilling in me the need to know which way the ‘map’ is oriented.
Not a problem! And just like that, the page is fixed! :)
Pfft. I was hoping to slip a fix in all sneaky-like before anyone noticed. Curses. XD
I’m not sure what my brain was doing when it drew that obviously incorrect compass, or when making all the other subsequent decisions.
The new lighting looks goood.
Brains can be dumb sometimes and frustrate us with their deftly delivered illogic. I have no trouble remembering my postcode right up until the moment someone asks me my postcode at which point my brain will unerringly supply one for a house in a different country I haven’t lived in since 2008.
Woo, new chapter! I noticed the callback to the earlier page, and I really like subtle storytelling like this. The contrast tells how much they have changed on their journey without needing words or explanations.
Boy, the state our heroes are in sure is a 2020 mood!
Also, that fanart is awesome, Nova!
In my defense, I started writing this scene six years ago–so if anything, I predicted the 2020 mood well in advance X)
And agreed on the fanart! Nova’s a wonderful artist!
WOW, 908 days?! It didn’t even feel like so much time has passed…
Anyway, great work as always.
Three–? Impossible!? I haven’t been following this comic for three years, have I? Where has the time gone?
Anyway, it’s great to see these guys back in action. The side stories have been cool, but I’m happy to return to the title characters. (Quin is Western and Dak is deep. Get it because he swims? I’m hilarious. :P )
Wooohooooo! Chapter 4!!! Poor Dak, he looks awful…. D:
I hope there’s plenty of Ermehn in this chapter, I love the fluffy weasels. :)
I also hope no one dies. D: