The Abyssal Dunes: Page 01
Only in a Cain and Yurk story would you ever find me deign to begin the story with something like “Hey! Hey, bro!”
But Cain and Yurk talk like that. That’s their thing. They may be the only characters we meet who talk like this, but it definitely lets you know it’s them and not somebody else.
The line in the original prose story is simply “Wait up, bro!” Before we segue into the next sequence of events and begin to establish the location. But in the comic, the location is front and center right as we begin. A big element as I’ve previously mentioned was the location–almost a main character in and of itself. Jerome wanted to stretch his creative muscles on crafting a location that was unlike any place we’ve visited previously. Obviously inspired a bit as well by games like Dark Souls and Bloodborne where the environments tell a great deal of story on their own, without exposition.
The actual look of the ruins went through a great many revisions, the first of which Jerome pieced together back in 2016. As Jerome’s skills in lighting and composition and architecture improved over the years, the nature of this first page changed as well. The ruin was changed to look more menacing and ominous, and the time changed from night to a more vibrant dusk. As you can see in the original comp, Cain and Yurk are pretty much unchanged themselves, but it’s the mood and tone of the environment that’s changed the story itself.
So, welcome! Welcome to The Abyssal Dunes!
For guest art this week, a wonderful piece from reader Jay LaMagna featuring a certain canid general we haven’t seen in quite a while!
It’s CLOVIS! And he looks kinda happy, actually! But that could be blood on the ground around his feet, so maybe he just murdered some folks? Maybe that’s why he’s so happy!
Anyway, thank you so much for the wonderful art, Jay! It’s always nice seeing Clovis swing back around into the public eye again. He was with us for far too short a time.
See you all next week!
Yay! First comment!!! This looks awesome!
Great page!
The header image is very creepy, a big change from what we’ve been seeing up to now. Only thing is… I can’t see it unless I turn off my ad blocker. My best guess is that’s because the filename is AD_header.jpg. Maybe it’s just me, but if other people are having this issue, you might want to consider renaming it.
TAD_header.jpg would probably be the quickest fix. If you were feeling more ambitious, maybe go with TheAbysssalDunes_header or CainAndYurkSpooktacular.jpg. You know, something classy like that. ;)
Oh man, if that fixes it, that’d be awesome :) I reuploaded it with a new name, let’s see if it works!
Looks like it’s working now. Thanks, Alex!