Beyond the Western Deep

Look at that dagger! It’s gilded and stuff! It’s jewel-encrusted! When I wrote this particular bit, the description of the dagger wasn’t particularly detailed:

Yurk leans into the open sarcophagus and retrieves a large, ceremonial dagger. Its hilt and blade are embedded with precious gems. It looks ridiculously valuable.

Jerome decided to punt the specifics of the dagger past the thumbnail, which is always a good plan when you’re just attempting to convey the basics of the panel for pacing purposes. This is how the dagger looked in the thumbnail phase:

There, ya see? Sometimes all you need to convey a shiny thing is some text saying SHINY THING!

Speaking of shiny things, reader Gabry sent us in some very fun guest art of our favorite Scholar of the Spire, Isa! As Gabry wrote:

“I really can relate to Isa. I love books, and try to write sometimes, travel when I can, but most of all I am also directionally challenged. So I drew this picture based off a real event from my childhood.”

Isa is indeed directionally challenged, as we learned in the short story that we published shortly after the ending of her first comic story, The Scholar and the Seawal. As a Scholar of the Spire, she must travel to many places throughout the Four Kingdoms, and while I’m sure she’s memorized many a map in her day, it’s easy to get turned around when you’re wandering around the woods or a wide open plain on foot!

Thank you so much for the wonderful art, Gabry! We’re so glad that you’re enjoying the comic!

Also, I know we’re at a bit of a cliffhanger in the story right now, but I’m going to be putting up a hiatus image instead of a normal page next week. I’m going to be back home for the holidays, but we’ll be back to our normally-scheduled Cain and Yurk adventure the following week.