The Abyssal Dunes: Page 43
The problem I occasionally run into being a writer is that, as the saying goes: “a picture is worth a thousand words.” This is true, of course, but I would always contest that depends on what it’s a picture of. In this case, I think the idiom could be altered to something like “an expression is worth a thousand words.” Because… Well, just look at poor Yurk:
Yeah, Yurk is so done with being in that cave. And I could always write Yurk just saying to Cain “I am so done with being in this cave” which would be humorous and fit with his character, but their past experiences have left Yurk temporarily shocked. Yurk is currently incapable of speaking, perhaps even thinking coherent sentences. This is where the incredible talents of folks like Jerome come in.
Similar to how I might write a parenthetical for a voice actor in Guild Wars 2 to make sure they have the appropriate mindset for a particular line, making sure that the artist knows the overarching tone of a line/character/scene really goes a long way in helping bridge that gap between the intent of the script and the final page.
For the cave design itself, the original idea here was to have it be more well-lit with natural sunlight, to really give that notion of being on the precipice of safety–but further chats with the Western Deep “brain trust” (encompassing Varuna, Jerome, Rachel, and Leah) diverged from that concept for something a fair bit more visually interesting, inspired by real-life bioluminescent caves like New Zealand’s stunning Waitomo.
The soft blue of the bioluminescence offers a similar feeling of safety, but also provides a nice segue moment between the pure darkness of the underground ruins they just escaped and the circle of sunlight beginning to stream down from above.
Our BackerKit Store is OPEN!
https://beyond-the-western-deep-volume-two.backerkit.com/hosted_preorders
As mentioned last week, our BackerKit pre-order store is officially open for business, containing books, prints, stickers, and pins. We even went and added a limited number of the Quinlan/Dak pin sets from the Volume One campaign! If you’re missing the set, now’s the best time to grab them!
Oil mixes with water better than Yurk does.
Poor yurk
This page is so beautiful.
Also I really like hearing your behind-the-scenes info, Alex! As someone dipping their toes into comic writing, I find it both fascinating and insightful. I’d love to see a snippet of the scripts you write, and how they compare with the final product.
Neat depth of field effect
Hey I know this is super unrelated to the current events in the comic but are the ermine tribes (especially name wise) inspired by the juskta tribes in Taggerung
TEN POINTS FOR GRYFFINDOR! :)
Yes, the way the leaders are worked into the tribes’ names is a direct homage to the Juska tribes from Taggerung.