Beyond the Western Deep

And here’s a link to the proper YouTube encoding of the GIF above:

Welcome to the first week of our WINTERSDAWN EXTRAVAGANZA where we’ll be sharing some wonderful new projects with our readers over the next several weeks through the rest of December and most of January. Just so folks have an idea of what’s coming each week, I’ll continue to repost the calendar:

Dec. 18th! TODAY! There’s a fun little teaser for THE THING I keep teasing! See more below!

Dec 25th! There will be a fun guest comic to celebrate the holiday!

Jan 1st! On New Year’s Day there will be a full and official announcement for the side project I just hinted up above!

Jan 8th! The week after that (just two days after my birthday!) there will be a brand new Western Deep prose short story that ties directly into the side project I just hinted at up above (twice)!

Jan 15th! The OFFICIAL RELEASE of the side project, which Western Deep fans new and old alike should really enjoy :)

Jan 22nd! The last week of Wintersdawn will be devoted to a behind-the-scenes MAKING OF post focused on the side project. There will be a lot of great stuff in here, and hopefully gear folks up for the return of main Beyond the Western Deep pages on January 29th.

That gif/video clip up above with a pixelated Dakkan is definitely a teaser, but of course there’s more. What’s this? Some kind of pixel art forest scene? What on earth could this be a teaser for?

Longtime readers and those familiar with my work outside of Western Deep will probably know where this is headed, but rest assured that the full announcement on January 1st will be comprehensive and explain exactly what it is readers are in for.

I can say with some degree of certainty that this is unlike anything we’ve ever done, and the whole Western Deep creative team is very excited to share the specific details with you on January the first!

For guest art this week, a fun holiday-themed piece by longtime reader, art contributor, and community member Jerijune starring Tosch as Santa Claus and Quinlan as…well, a very weirded-out Quinlan! He knows what’s up.

I particularly love the ugly holiday sweater Quinlan is wearing, the snowflake-emblazoned “Santa” armor, and the toy crossbow with the suction cup dart. Quinlan probably isn’t getting away from this particular encounter–the moment he asks “Santa Tosch” for his most desired Wintersdawn gift (my guess: “Freedom, and also not getting tortured in your garrison’s dungeons”) a bunch of canid soldiers are likely to show up and escort him right back where he doesn’t want to go.

At least he’ll have the sweater in case the dungeon gets cold.

Because it’s probably cold in there.

ANYWAY, I hope you all have a wonderful weekend, and I will see you all next week for our fun little holiday one-pager, featuring some incredible artwork by Song of the Eastern Sands and The Abyssal Dunes artist Jerome Jacinto!