Beyond the Western Deep

Subtext and long dramatic beats can be tricky in a comic that releases one page every week, but this moment is one I felt like we’d been building to for a very, very long time–and it needed this kind of room to breathe properly. Rachel handled it brilliantly, I think, finding just the right ways to space out the beats of the scene so each page ended at just the right moment to lead into the next page.

It’s a tough needle to thread, and Rachel’s really flexing her dramatic storytelling muscles here–which, as the writer of the scene, I can appreciate!

Longtime readers of Western Deep may know where Bevan’s story is headed (I covered his tragic backstory in both a Choose Your Own Adventure Twine story and a prose adaptation called Fall of the Evyn-din that can be found on the site), but I’ve never been a particular fan of requiring people to read side-stories outside the medium of the main story to understand why characters are the way they are. My thinking is, if it adds to the commentary and themes of the main story, it should probably BE in the main story–so now that we’ve gotten a bit about Kenosh and Dakkan’s backstory, it’s finally time for Bevan to talk.

Though as you can see, it’s not without some difficulty. I just love the overlong beat where Kenosh doesn’t know what to say and decides to give Bevan some space–classic Kenosh move–but Bevan actually calls him back, determined to tell somebody. Is this something Dakkan ever did? Knowing their relationship, I doubt it.

Speaking of ermehn, here’s a fun piece of guest art by Dilu Kha that came across my feed! This guy looks like he means business!

He actually reminds me a bit of the tribal guardian Hardin had to fight through to get his army for the attack on Deltrada (it’s probably the scarf) but hopefully this fellow doesn’t have the misfortune of winding up in a similar situation.

ALSO, hey! KICKSTARTER STUFF!

I’m pleased to say that most of the Kickstarter rewards have been mailed out to backers by our fulfillment company, and the rest should be going out fairly soon. The only major hang-up there has been with regard to our bookplates, which required us to re-order a batch and for Rachel and I to both resign all of them before mailing them to the fulfillment company.

BUT that should all be taken care of, and those last packages should be going out relatively soon. Thank you all SO MUCH for all your help in funding our Volume 2 campaign, and we’re looking forward to everyone getting their rewards and being able to enjoy the books and the fun merch!

See you all next week!