Song of the Eastern Sands: Page 14
Yup, Felis locks! Ah well — maybe whatever’s in that chest will help? Could their haul have been a bust? We’ll find out next week! Now that they don’t need to be quiet or try and mask their presence in any way, a more direct approach to opening the strongbox will surely do.
Readers might also have noticed that Beck is wearing pieces of the lamellar armor popular with Lutren warriors. We wanted to give her a mix of both Lutren and Vulpin visual elements, and these armor pieces are cast-offs she would have picked up from various traders passing through the city. The western coast is pretty far away from Nessa, so a good piece of Lutren armor, even a matching set shoulder pauldrons like hers, would be hard to come by in any wearable condition. Older versions of her design featured a more complete set, but we scaled it back over time so the Vulpin influences were more prevalent than the Lutren ones.
Readers might not have noticed straightaway, but we’ve actually gone and started to make some edits to the pages in Chapter 2! If you’re in for a trip down memory lane, swing on back to the beginning of Northward and you’ll see a few minor fixes (Kenosh no longer magically dons his armor before confronting the bandits), and some more noticeable things. For example, the palette of the next scene at dawn has changed to include less red and more blue to suggest morning light, whereas before it felt a bit too much like evening. Some expression tweaks were made to chapter 2 page 13. And, perhaps most noticeably, chapter 2 page 16 is now colored!
You can expect more chapter 2 improvements in the coming days and weeks as we continue to finalize things for the book. We don’t have a date in mind for publication yet, but we will absolutely have it ready for this upcoming convention season. Why, we’ve already submitted our application for Boston Comic Con’s Artist Alley in August, so the clock’s a-ticking! :)
“What’s in the box?”
Poor Asha . . .
I’m very excited for the next page, as well as the joy of hunting for the edits back in chapter 2. Can’t wait for the book!
Also great art from VarVau, as usual. Is she wearing a stolen piece of Canid armor?
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kLDhMU5JvMk&w=420&h=315%5D
You know, in some strange strange universe, It would be pretty funny if the box turn out to be a man-eater chest.
I noticed those few edits before a while back and just figured either Rachel’s been secretly fixing them or I was going crazy. But speaking of revisiting, VarVau you were the first one who shared any fan art for this site! I really dig your action-painterly style (man those rough textures!) and Brea looks really cool. I have a soft spot for characters wearing hoods.
As far as the man-eater chest goes, there’s always the old D&D joke:
“My friends and I came into the tavern, took a seat, and ordered some ales and a good meal. The bartender came over and asked us why we were still carrying all of our weapons.
I said, ‘mimics’.
We laughed, the bartender laughed, the table laughed, we killed the table. It was a good night.”
Actually, the first was Sawyer and his Canid warrior, featured on the commentary for page 14 of the Prologue. Varvau’s first piece was a realistic Quinlan- Chapter One, page 1.
Oh you’re right! I totally skipped over Sawyer’s drawing.
Plot twist: Nothing of value is inside!
Joke aside, seems to get good.
That would be so very appropriate, yet mean.
It boggles my mind how Beck can go from so nightmarish in her scene with the Felis merchant to so sweetly innocent-looking in this week’s panel two.
And speaking of panel two, Theo’s eyes look a little “off” to me. If I lean in real close I can see how it works artistically, but from a foot or more back it looks like his right eye is seriously drooping compared to the left.
One thing that’s NOT off is VarVau’s guest art. Is it my imagination, or is the guest art getting better and better? We’ve had some really good stuff from our dedicated readship recently, but this I think takes it to a whole new level. Looks like professional quality to me, and if such an illustration were to appear in an actual book that I paid actual money for, I would not feel shortchanged in the least. Keep up the great work, one and all!
It certainly helps when her mouth isn’t all the way open. Also maybe her exaggerated expressions were part of her act, distracting everyone around her so that they won’t even remember her face,just her molars!
oh god… just when the nightmares were going to stop…
It’s another box.
Looks like Beck is about to collapse the wave packet and find out if there is in fact, loot in the box!!!
Schrödinger’s box.
Yeah, the quick way is pretty often the loudest, but who’s going to barge in and question them about it here, eh? :D
Gosh, I love the interplay between Felismum and Asha. I think those two are quickly becoming my favorite characters here, although there’s certainly competition. Maybe I’m reading too much into it, but Theo definitely seems more Fagin-y, less Iroh-y to me, although that doesn’t mean he doesn’t care or that I’m right.
I sense a potential McGuffin coming up. Now, of course, we can infer the motive is money- but is it money for money’s sake or, like aglets, is there a specific, snister purpose? I’ve said before that they may not be expecting/the chest may not have money in it. Going by Beck’s expression, I’m willing to bet that what’s in the chest is not what’s expected. Valuable, perhaps, but not what the crew was hoping for.
I really like the way the last two panels are structured, and the design of Beck’s collar.
Is it going to be all three of you at Artist’s Alley, or some combination thereof?
“…like aglets, is there a specific, snister purpose?”
Yeah, right!
Next you’re going to tell me that topically applied fluoride renders teeth detectible by spy satellite.
The girl scouts are responsible for crop circles, you eat peanut butter sandwiches, and the Lutren Captain is plotting to backstab the Canid general. But few think to ask these questions.
*plays the X Files theme*
No, no- this is the song of my people:
Asha’s face in the first panel is absolutely killing me! In fact out of all the character expressions we’ve seen thus far (excluding Beck’s memorable ones) hers have been the most evocative, like when she was almost discovered in the tent, and here. With just a simple look, so much about her character and her feelings come across to the reader in a way that isn’t obtrusive or overly wordy. I want to give her a hug. Huge shoutout to Jerome!
Can’t wait for the next page! I spent most of my day reading through everything that’s been uploaded here. I was also wondering when you might put up the next few chapters up for sale on Amazon? It seems as if only the prologue and first chapter is being sold, sorry if I’m wrong :). I really want a physical copy now!
Thanks so much for reading, CatsEye! Right now we only have the first volume, but we’re working on finishing the pages for a printed volume 2 (a bunch are missing colors as you probably noticed on your read-through). Our plan is to have the book ready for this upcoming convention season, so hopefully in a couple months!
Any updates on the upcoming book will be posted on the website, so stay tuned :)
Hi, CatsEye. Welcome to our readership!
Welcome to the Salmon Party, good to have you aboard!
I’m surprised that Beck is using a knife to open the box. Since they have plenty of time, a little Hfl or thermite would do the job without risking the destruction of the tool.
I doubt if they need to sneakily return the container. :)
And a new tool set as well….