Song of the Eastern Sands: Page 45
And so ends the Song of the Eastern Sands!
It’s hard to believe that we started this chapter almost exactly one year ago (October 24th, 2015). Jerome has been an incredible artistic force on this chapter, and rest assured there will be more we do together in the world of the Western Deep. I’d like to just take a moment and, from the bottom of my heart, thank him for doing such an incredible job on Song of the Eastern Sands. I love how the story turned out, I love how the characters turned out, and I love how you — our incredibly awesome readers — have given us so much leeway to tell this fun side-story.
So, it’s been a year since the beginning of this chapter, but do you know how long it’s been since we’ve seen JANIK in the comic? Show of hands?
Her last appearance was in the Land’s End Tavern in Chapter 1, waaaaay back on January 27th, 2013 A.D. That’s right, it’s been almost FOUR YEARS since our favorite Tamian politician has graced the pages of the comic, despite showing up periodically in fan works here and there. Well, don’t worry, Janik fans — she becomes an official point-of-view character starting with Chapter 3. Actually, she OPENS Chapter 3! This page actually segues directly into things. Think of it like a match cut between two different art styles.
I promised a little while ago that Chapter 3 would introduce a lot of fun new stuff right out of the gate. Well, consider this page a bit of a teaser :)
To give our friends the Sand Spiders an appropriate sendoff, I wanted to use this incredible piece of artwork that Jerijune did back in early September. I love how it looks, so I figured I would shared it here for everyone to see:
It’s the Sand Spiders kicking butt in the embassy! I love the composition of the piece, as it really nails the sense of chaos and high adventure within the scene. It’s also a little silly and amped up, relative to Beyond the Western Deep, which captures a lot of the core philosophy behind the whole chapter.
Next week we’ll be posting the Chapter Title artwork for Chapter 3, along with updating the banner and perhaps a few other things! I know our Store is due an update, so that might be coming soon.
HEY READERS, CHECK THIS OUT!
So, New York Comic Con went really well! I’ll have more info next time, but I wanted to mention that I came back from the convention with a few extra copies of Beyond the Western Deep Volume 2!
Seven copies, specifically, that I’m going to sell to readers on a first-come-first-serve basis through here. If you’re interested in buying a copy (which I will sign and bundle up with a mini-print), send an e-mail to thewesterndeep (at) gmail (dot) com to claim your copy.
I will confirm them in the order received, and then you’ll need to Paypal over the money for the book and shipping. The shipping will be Flat Rate, and ideally continental US only for a total of $15.75. If you want a copy and you’re outside the US, that number will be higher to factor in shipping, but I will let you know the cost beforehand.
I love the last page!!! Is that a pack ostrich they’re using? Awesome!! And I especially love the SotES poster, with the confetti! That’s such a great pov.
Jerijune’s artwork is astounding! The amber beads flying through the air is so great!
And . . . *Gasp* The Volume 2 Cover Art is so gripping! Hardin’s eyes say it all. As for the available copies, I’m writing this post after sending in an email!!! :D
Ha, as soon as I saw that page I knew it was going to be a seguing (is that a word?) page.
I love the coloring on this page- the sky and its purples and blues looks lovely!
I doubt that Vulpin lady is Alona Vennik, but she’s clearly high-ranked enough to be involved in the escort the Sunsgrovian diplomat mission. And I love the use of an ostrich (?) as, presumably, a pack beast, although probably not a ride. And that Tamian looks like he’s a more regular soldier- there’s definitely a distinction between the Tamian Military and the Tamian Scouts, the former of which Caldus was in and wanted Quinlan to be in, and seem to be more honored in Tamian society than the Scouts- presumably why Crim wanted to lead them so bad. (sucks to suck, Crim)
Song of the Eastern Sands has been an utterly fun ride- death, trauma, conspiracies and all! (I really love the touch of having the coda included in the End bar, let me add. That’s //perfect.)
On to Chapter Three. It’s been a good year, and hopefully everyone’s ready for the aftermath of Chapter Two, since the Sunsgrovians seem to be largely unaware of the, ah, incident at Deltrada (Ironically, not jr). I’m willing to bet that the Canid shwo up before the Spiders do, even if it’s not by much. Hopefully Janik knows her share of Tesque- or maybe she can just talk her way around them. I guess we’ll find out!
My feelings regarding Chapter three:
Oh, and who’s Alonna Vennik?
Ha, my thoughts //exactly.
Alonna Vennik was mentioned in The Mark, they are a member of the Vulpin Council and the person who threw the party that the Spiders crashed.
I’m gonna miss our merry band of misfits. But then there’s Janik in Jerome’s art style, which is really awesome! And the story was pretty thrilling, too!
Now that we’ve had a year to recover from a certain Lutren literally backstabbing a Canid general and ditching his son and best friend, I think we’re ready to see the effects of the Deltrada incident on our young heroes.
The ostrich, though… Well, it makes sense since they’re closest things to beasts of burden, but… Well, it just sounds kind of silly to have it lug your stuff around. But then again, SOTES is a light-hearted story.
Brace yourselves for the plot-heavy things to come!
They don’t really have many other options when it comes to beasts of burden, though. Remember, all the mammals are sentient in the world of Dunia so that eliminates most, if not all, of the animals that we humans use as beasts of burden. I’m willing to bet that this is also why slavery is such a big thing in Gair- the Spire didn’t build itself, after all. And considering slavery is one of the oldest constructs in the human world, and our concept of race has been heavily influenced by it. However, in the world of Dunia, the concept of race existed since the beginning time. This leads to the heavy racial divides that we’ve seen, and also probably means that slavery is irreversibly influenced by those differences.
…TDLR, it’s ostrich or carry all the stuff you’re moving to Nessa yourself, and while Janik probably doesn’t have that many possessions, they still have the supplies for the journey (particularly water, I imagine) and carrying a fifty-pound pack if you’re not used to it slows the journey down quite a bit, in addition to not being that dignified.
Ostrich yay! Congrats on finishing the chapter, it has been a long ride.
Are you serious, it’s been 4 years since we last saw Janik!? It felt half of that to be fair, but I’m all for finally catching up with our favorite Tamian Adviser to the Vulpin Nation of Navran.
It’s a little sad to see SOTES coming to a close for now but it was such a treat having Jerome illustrate the comic. The color palettes where really vibrant and it gave me a little inspiration to try to make scenes in art. Thanks Jerome and I’ll be very much looking forward to the next ballad of the Sands Spider’s Song.
Lastily, I love your finale style piece of the sand spiders Jerijune! Look how much butt they’re kicking! (Rook is literally kicking someone’s butt that’s…hilarious). Your art is a like a box of chocolates, you never know what you’re going to get…pardon the weird analogy.
Thanks! Same goes to @evamere
Oh and fun fact about the process making the fan art: I was playing the suicide squad’s OST (most of the upbeat songs anyway) while I was making the piece. and for me, the pace of the songs I listen to determine the composition, so things got a bit chaotic when Ballroom Blitz started playing…
Just so readers know, the printed version of Volume 2 is the softcover Action Lab release. There aren’t any plans for a hardcover just yet.
Good to know.
How long until the book is officially added to the online store?
I’ll be trying to get that squared away within the next few weeks — Rachel and I need to coordinate an order between Action Lab and Diamond to get a shipment paid for. In the meantime, we’ve got t-shirts and new prints :)
Well, this was a fun ride! Thanks for taking us to Nessa, even if I’ve been on the edge of my seat for chapter 3 for a year straight. Nothing against Jerome, but to leave that kind of cliffhanger around for this long is a little sadistic. But this chapter did turn out to have some main plot elements, so it’s all fine.
I hope that Chapter 3 is still going to have a proper title page–I really liked the limited art style of the last two.
More Janik is going to be great–it is pretty hard to believe that it’s been 3 and 2/3 years since she last graced the homepage. Luckily, it sounds like we’ll be making up for lost time very soon! I’m particularly interested in becoming acquainted with the two Vulpin and the other Tamian with her.
And the cover of chapter 2 is fantastic. Better than the first, in my opinion, and I thought that the first book’s design was great.
One more week . . . we can wait that long, can’t we?
Wow. Time sure does fly past! It’s been a year already?
Ah, I’ll but I’ll always fondly reminisce about all the fun times we had in that year, with all the Beck’s mouth memes and silly Theo sleeping in the cupboard comics. It’s been a great year and I can’t wait to see this comic continue for another!
*sniff* here’s one last gag comic for our favorite dysfunctional gang… http://jeri-june.tumblr.com/post/150523068950/we-have-a-beck-becks-teeth-to-be-precise-x
Wow, what an end to Songs of the Eastern Sands. = )
First and foremost, amazing work with the sequential artwork for this special story Jerome, your paintings and story-telling continue to inspire and I personally look forward to more future works from you.
And thanks Alex for sharing with us this wonderful perspective and extension of the BtWD universe. What a nice break from the main story and to write something that is set in a Desert/Arabian nights vibe is awesome.
Blimey it’s been FOUR YEARS since Janik made a comeback appearance? That’s insane. The community here is admirably patient and loyal to the series and that’s a really great thing to see. Keep up the awesome stuff and Jerijune – awesome work on the fan art – keep at it with the entertainment mate!
I’m gonna place a prediction here, and maybe I can look back at this comment to see if it is true! 2018 is when we’ll see the end to Chapter 3. If we’re lucky and stay consistent 2020 will see the end to Chapter 4. And in that time I’ll be rubbing my hands and getting my VA crew together for production to BtWD: The Movie Part II. Can’t wait. *thumbs up*
Man… I’ll be 35 years old by then. XD 8-)
The Salmon party is hyped enough as it is for Chapter 3, Elson! And the cliffhanger is driving our collective minds mad! And now you speak of a second BWD movie?! It’s a hype overdose at this point! AAAAGGGHHHH
I think Alex and Rachel said a long time ago that BWD would have a total of twelve chapters (please correct if wrong or confirm if right), so by extending your prediction the comic will end around 2036. And that assumes no other side stories or long delays stemming from personal issues from the creators.
Yeah, we shouldn’t have to worry about our fun drying up anytime soon. I mean, there are newspaper comics that have a shorter run than that. Calvin and Hobbes only ran for ten years!
We might’ve said 12 at one point? But the current story outline pegs us around 7-8 chapters.
I vaguely remembered the “12” comment from when i started reading (back in May 2014), and it was old news then.
7-8 chapters seems a little low, actually–that would mean we’re a quarter to a third of the way through the comic already, and only have 5-6 chapters to explore (and presumably, resolve) the massive war that’s about to break out. But I trust that it will feel right when it unfolds.
Oh wow, I thought Calvin and Hobbes will still goin’! O.O
Calvin and Hobbes ran from 1985 to 1995.
My goodness, it was made the year I was born – woo! :D And I was in Year 10 of high school in 1995 – during that time I haven’t started drawing ~ yet. Fives years after, that is when I started drawing stuff for fun – mainly Sonic stuff.
Aaaand all the books are claimed! Sorry for anyone who was late on the draw, but don’t worry! It’ll be available within the next few weeks online via comiXology and major retailers!
Oohhhhh. I cannnnn’t waiiiit.
THERE’S A NEW BANNER!
The new header looks fantastic! I am really intrigued by this Vulpin lady.