Beyond the Western Deep

Last night, the Western Deep team was celebrating a most momentous occasion: our second Kickstarter, 8 hours before its conclusion, crossed beyond the highest possible stretch goal we’d planned for at $35,000. Now, we hadn’t really expected to hit it–it was a stretch goal after all, intended to be aspirational at best. The idea of printing a brand new run of Volume One hardcovers and being able to offer them to backers at a crazy discount was something we’d WANTED to do, but ultimately figured wouldn’t be possible as the campaign got closer to its end.

Then we got an extra week from Kickstarter–exactly the boon we needed. It was a relatively slow build up to those final days, but with just 48 hours left on the clock, the spigot opened up and we earned nearly $4,000 in those two days. And then it all came down to the final hours. Would we cross $35K and make our ultimate stretch goal?

Yes. Yes we did. Obviously there is still a lot left to do–like actually printing the books and getting the merchandise manufactured (which is going to be a bit tricky with most of the world still reeling from the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic) but we’re planning to push onward as best we can to ensure all our backers get everything they pledged to as quickly as possible.

It’s been a crazy 37 day campaign, and in a lot of ways this is just the prologue of what’s to come as we start making physical goods again (it’s been a few years since our first campaign, so we’ll see how well we remember that process). But just remember that Rachel, Var, Leah, Jerome, and I are all ready to deliver the best Western Deep products that we can possibly make!

AND NOW BACK TO OUR REGULARLY-SCHEDULED PROGRAM: THE ABYSSAL DUNES STARRING CAIN AND YURK!

Such a complex locking mechanism on that door! You’d think whoever designed the doors around here never would’ve expected TIME to be a factor in wanting to get one open! The architect probably didn’t even run a focus group to ask them important questions like “How important is it that you be able to open this ceremonial door in a timely fashion whilst being pursued by a swarm of ravenous insects?”

These are the important questions, and it’s why quality assurance is so hard these days!

And HEY! Guest art! Remember that?

Truth be told we actually have a nice backlog of amazing guest art that I’m planning to start posting up again, but I wanted to share this wonderful piece by an incredible artist who goes by the handle Fortunata Fox (Redwall readers will get the reference immediately).

As you might have seen on social media, there is a new art meme making the rounds that asks for character recommendations in a grid. Fortunata not only bucked the going trend of six characters (by taking on nine!) but also included Western Deep‘s very own General Clovis, looking as pompous and rude as he ever was!

This also includes characters from TWO OTHER PROJECTS I WROTE FOR! Hopper from Tooth and Tail and both The Stranger and The King from Armello. It’s so fun to see all these characters together–and I also love Fortunata’s renditions of other wonderful characters like Mae Borowski, Asriel Dreemurr, and of the course the incorrigible Weekly from Blacksad.

Amazing work, Fortunata! We love your art style, and seeing a Western Deep character portrayed in it really made our collective day! :)