Sorry for the delay everyone! This page gave us some trouble — though not necessarily in the fun “let’s show you the process of what went wrong” kind of way, and more in the boring common issues that can pop up: staging, perspective, making sure characters look the right way and are also looking the right way. There were just a lot of tricky minor details that needed to get ironed out, which delayed the final page. The finished background art is still forthcoming: apologies again!

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This week, we’ve got a great piece of guest art from reader Joshua Madoc, who was inspired by Veigue’s two video-game themed pieces of the last couple weeks and decided to offer his own take on matters with this super-sweet crossover between Beyond the Western Deep and the arcade classic Knights of the Round, a 2D brawler that also supported three players at once, making this setup a match made in heaven!

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For those who did grow up in the arcade generation, you can check out the beginning of this video to see what Josh was basing his piece off of. There was also an extensive amount of background information on these arcade brawler versions of the main trio that I feel like I just have to share:

– Dakkan is the wisecracking best friend with a big dumb gap-toothed grin, and some nicks on the face that indicate him to be more than just his jokes, and has a complicated relationship with his father, whom he both idolizes and bickers with when the former is orally mentioned. He is fast with a staff and nunchuks.

– Quinlan is the reluctant scout, with a past fear of his grandfather that eventually turned into respect, and then lingering burden of expectation by the unknowing, as his grandfather, defying his assumption of being a ruthless warmonger, fully accepted his grandson’s decision to become a scout, and only Quinlan himself heard first-hand his grandfather’s regrets in his final moments until his sudden death the day after, causing him to be weary of those other than the ones in his inner circle. He has a keen hand for ranged weapons, even the humble sling.

– Kenosh is the quiet, world-weary old man who is otherwise polite to all but his son, whom he finds issue with the latter’s worship of his past feats, that also reminds him of his son’s obliviousness to a side of warfare that he has never seen before. His weapon of choice is his devastating sword that is mostly concealed in a lacquered wooden scabbard made from the head of a sturdy galley oar.

My favorite detail there is definitely Kenosh’s sword being held in an old galley oar. That’s just plain cool :) Thanks so much for the awesome piece, Joshua! It’s so awesome seeing my love for old-school arcade games meshing so awesomely with the world of BWD.