Prologue: Page 12
The final two races of the Four Kingdoms get their time in the sun this week – though it will extend well into the first chapter, as our main story protagonists are both Tamian and Lutren!
As we’ve mentioned a few times throughout the creation of the comic, the Redwall series by Brian Jacques was a big inspiration to us. The squirrels and otters of that series are a bit of a direct homage to that, and their kingdom of Sunsgrove is also intended to be a bit of an homage to Jacques’ “Mossflower” and “Loamhedge” naming pattern.
Click for full-size
This thumbnail is actually from the previously mentioned “War of the Western Deep” concept we were working on before “Beyond the Western Deep” was redesigned for the web. The first couple pages of the comic were dedicated to showing the rift between the Lutren and Tamian races, and the many rifts in the Lutren race itself. While the Tamian was a consolidated and close-knit people, the Lutren were scattered across countless tribes up and down the coastline. Unification under a single banner was not an easy task for the Lutren, so the idea of then unifying with the Tamian seemed unnecessary. There was also the small matter of the Tamian thinking the land-bound Lutren were an abomination of the lowest order that made civilized conversation between the two races rather difficult.
It was not until the Polcan arrived on Sunsgrove’s coasts with conquest on their mind that the Lutren and Tamian managed to overcome their incredible differences and found the joint kingdom of Sunsgrove.
Click for full-size
The old-old version of this sequence consolidated the Lutren and Polcan into a single panel (seen last week) and this panel here showing the Tamian slaying a giant flesh-eating centipede creature we call “Treewalkers”. The Tamian scouting culture is heavily influenced by these destructive beasts, with groups of warriors patrolling the forests of the Western Deep on a regular basis to prevent them from ever getting too close to the Tamian capital city of Terria.
When we redid the opening sequence, we wanted to do a better job of showing off the size of these massive creatures in relation to the smaller Tamian tasked with taking them out. We also wanted to capture the battle and intensity of the moment a bit better than we did in the old version.
Something more like this
So we went back to the drawing board for the panel and worked out something more akin to the above image, which is a crop from an older cover mock-up Rachel put together a few years back. The final result is what you can see in this week’s page!
SNAPS. That is a big centipede. Definitely wasn’t expecting that. :O
Are there other monsterish creatures roaming around?
There very well may be! It’s a big world, after all!
Thank you so much for this comic. I’ve been depressed ever since Brian Jacques passed on, his books were my childhood and to me what you are doing is evidence that this man did indeed touch the hearts and minds of millions. You are the continuation of his legacy and the start of your own.
Thank you so much for the kind words, Tim! Rachel and I both have a longtime appreciation and love for the Redwall books, so we’re happy to see fans of the series reading Beyond the Western Deep and enjoying it :)
No problem, you deserve all praise. The quality of the art is fantastic and I can’t wait until we start to get to the juice and all the characters show up. If you ever publish volumes in the future I’ll be sure to buy them.
I think I can finally read Brian Jacques’ last two books, I’ve been avoiding them because I didn’t want to accept that it’s “over”.
The prologue is almost over, and then the first chapter will begin – and we’ll start to meet all those characters from the Cast page that haven’t been seen for the last two months :)
I’m not sure if Rachel has read The Sable Quean or The Rogue Crew, but I particularly enjoyed both. The Rogue Crew in particular felt like more of a return to the classic Redwall stories, and was a nice (though bittersweet) way to end the series.
I love the Lutren armor. So hardcore and practical-looking.
I’ve gotta give Rachel credit on that one – when we were doing the “War of the Western Deep” story, she really dove into Lutren culture and figured out a great design for the armor. Rachel’s design sheet for the new Lutren armor updates can be found here: http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_oE0JorkqBFo/TT47T4BJIcI/AAAAAAAAALM/KpHtO7AD6H8/s1600/LutrenDesign.jpg
Awesome! the last few pages have really impressed me! (not that that’s a surprise, you guys are great!) How did you give the scroll part their look? I can give some of my drawings an old paper look, but it’s not as saturated and lacks color unlike yours.
Thanks – that’s great to hear! c:
The old paper is actually made of two different paper textures that I combined and then put various filter layers on for contrast, saturation, that kinda thing. It sounds complicated, but was just the end result of experimenting until I had something I liked.
And then the scroll drawings/script were overlaid on top in Photoshop… though they were all drawn with an ink brush on paper first, for that extra little bit of authenticity. X)
Yay, squirrel archers! :D
At last we come to the Tamian and Lutren, which is fitting as it’s members of those two species we’ll be spending the most time with in the comic.
I guess it’s also approprate that we get to see them in their moments of badassery, with the Lutren in a naval battle with the Polcan (they must be really confident if they can stand up and bark order while an arrow barrage is landing just inches away from them) and the Tamian fighting against one of those cool giant centipedes! Once again, really good use of scenery, especially in the bottom panel.
I always knew that this comic was heavily influenced by Redwall, and it’s sad that Brian Jacques passed away not too long ago. While I was never that fond of his books (I preferred fanfiction based on Redwall) it was still a bad loss for all of us.
It’s also interesting to get more history between the two races, and more views into how the panels have changed over the years. I was rather surprised at how the Tamian apparently viewed the Lutren as “abominations” simply for being not being as good at climbing the trees – those must’ve been some racist squirrels! Good thing that they overcame that attitude.
Lutren stout
Tamian secretive
Ha! As soon as I saw the word “Lutren” I thought ‘… Did.. They base that off the Redwall books? AWESOME!’ So cool to find out my hunch was right!
I know I’m late to the party (only just found the comic today, will probably read through the archives all day today) but you’ve got yourself a new fan. The art is beautiful and the effort you out into worldbuilding is fantastic.
heya puck! Welcome (belatedly) to the Salmon Party!