Beyond the Western Deep is a webcomic that we’ve been publishing for free online at www.westerndeep.net, a new page every week, since 2012. At 350+ pages across multiple volumes and guest-created side stories, the world of the Western Deep has become a playground for classic fantasy adventure that evokes memories of the Redwall series, Mouse Guard, and dark 80’s animated films like The Secret of NIMH and The Black Cauldron.
Following the incredible success of our Volume One Kickstarter back in the Fall of 2018, we’re ready to bring readers the next chapter of the Western Deep saga with the same gorgeous hardcover presentation of the first volume. Our philosophy remains the same as before: if the story is freely available online, any physical collection should go above and beyond to earn its place on your bookshelf.
Volume Two has actually been published before in a run of paperbacks you might have spotted in a local comic shop or library. However, that version lacked any bonuses or guest art, requiring us to assemble a brand new, never-before-seen collection of material that we’re proud to reveal in this Kickstarter campaign for the very first time!
At 124 pages in length, Volume Two includes the second chapter of the Western Deep story, an extras section with concept art and in-universe commentary, and a guest art section featuring the work of Lackadaisy Cats creator Tracy Butler, Redwall artist and Bolivar creator Sean Rubin, Western Deep guest artist and and Magic of Anaria creator Leah Briere, and Tank Girl colorist Ned Ivory.
In Volume One, we established a world on the brink of war, and the fated characters poised to impact it on both sides of the potential conflict.
As before, the story is told across two very different perspectives:
The Ambassadors: Three diplomats from the peaceful kingdom of Sunsgrove venture through the forests of the Western Deep in a bid to quell the growing powder keg of unrest in their neighboring kingdom. If the north goes to war, so too does the world.
The Sratha-din: Led by Hardin, a ruthless warlord hailing from the bitter Northern Wastes. The Sratha-din is a tribe of like-minded warriors dedicated to preserving their culture in the face of systematic oppression by their southern neighbors.
In this volume, their stories collide in the most unexpected ways, sending the world spiraling into conflict that will no doubt be felt far beyond the Western Deep…
Beyond the Western Deep is a collaborative effort between me (Alex Kain, the writer) and Rachel Bennett (the artist). We also occasionally invite other artists to craft side stories that fit into the greater Western Deep canon, including Jerome Jacinto (Tooth and Tail, Armello) and Leah Briere (Magic of Anaria).
I’m actually a video game writer by day, working full-time at Guild Wars 2 developer ArenaNet as a Senior Narrative Designer/Writer, and having contributed to games like Dust: An Elysian Tail, Armello, Salt and Sanctuary, and even receiving an Independent Games Festival nomination for Excellence in Narrative for my work on Tooth and Tail with Pocketwatch Games.
I also contributed a story to the New York Times Bestselling and Eisner Award winning anthology Mouse Guard: Legends of the Guard Volume 1 with artist Sean Rubin. You can check out my full portfolio of work at alexkain.net.
Rachel has been the main series artist for Beyond the Western Deep since our earliest concepting way back in 2008, crafting the distinct looks for all our characters and the world they inhabit. She also helps edit the storylines, scenes, and dialogue from outline through scripting and final lettering, bringing her artist’s perspective to every step of our creative process.
A QUICK NOTE ON DISCORD INVITES!
Every single pledge tier comes included with an invite to our Western Deep Discord server! If you’re new to the Discord (and haven’t been removed previously!), you’ll be sent a link sometime after the campaign ends and be asked to send a DM to a moderator with your Kickstarter email address so we can verify you were a Kickstarter backer. In other words, hang on to whatever email address you pledge with!
NEW TIERS FOR THE MUSIC-LOVERS AMONG US!
Nolan Markey is the mastermind behind our wonderful orchestral main theme, and his incredible work can be heard in television shows like Stars Wars: The Clone Wars and Star Wars: Rebels. He’s offered to help us produce TWO limited and very cool tiers!
THE “TOPSHEET” PRINT
This is an oversized 11×17″ printout of the first page of our main theme, signed by Nolan Markey himself. We’re produced 15 of these, and including the Volume Two Limited Edition bundle along with them. These look amazing framed up on a wall!
THE FULL ORCHESTRAL SPIRAL-BOUND SCORE
This 8.5×11″ spiral-bound book contains the orchestral arrangement of the main theme for BEYOND THE WESTERN DEEP as was heard in the pitch video above (and will be sent to backers in digital form as one of our earned stretch goal rewards)!
The spiral-bound orchestral score weighs in at 13 pages and is signed by Nolan Markey. We’ll be producing three of these for the Kickstarter campaign, and each one comes included with the Volume Two Limited Edition bundle!
MORE STANDARD VOLUME ONE HARDCOVERS!
We’ve been just completely blown away by the reception for Volume Two! So, we dug through our vault to find some new goodies that potential backers (or existing backers!) might be interested in checking out.
First and foremost, with the postponement of Emerald City Comic Con, Rachel and I have decided to take a bunch of the copies of Volume One that we were going to be selling there and add them to the Kickstarter!
“BATTLE-DAMAGED” LIMITED VOLUME ONE HARDCOVER COMBO BUNDLES!
The Limited Edition of Volume One that we sold in our first Kickstarter campaign was a really slick book that the whole Western Deep team was proud to have produced. Unfortunately, a number of them were damaged in transit thanks to poor packaging. After making sure that our original backers received undamaged copies, we were left with a number of compromised, scuffed covers that we’ve been selling at a comparative discount at conventions ever since.
The printer offered to print us up some dust jackets to “cover” the issue, no pun intended, but we never felt comfortable selling them at full price. SO! Since there seems to be such an interest in Volume One this time around, we decided to lay our cards out on the table and offer a SUPER LIMITED COLLECTOR’S EDITION BUNDLE with these “battle-damaged” copies of the Limited Volume One hardcover.
As you can see on the left, the matte covers are scuffed and altogether not very aesthetically pleasing. But with the dust jacket added, as you can see on the right, everything looks the way it’s meant to.
Rachel even went above and beyond in designing this special V1 dust jacket, added fun little spot gloss versions of Quinlan and Hardin to the front and back;
Because the Limited Ed. Volume One book covers are scuffed, we are offering them as part of a special Limited Edition Volume Two bundle at a reduced price: $25, the same as a standard volume.
There will not be ANY MORE Limited Edition Volume Ones after these are gone!
NEW LEAH BRIERE ORIGINAL WATERCOLOR PAINTING!
Leah Briere’s pencil work for the “Fireside Chat” piece was the very first tier to get pledged to, so she decided to paint ANOTHER PICTURE!
This watercolor piece of the canid soldier and aviary master Sigrid (who makes her introduction in Volume Two) measures 4.75×6.75″ and comes pre-set into an archival fabric mat so it can fit into a standard 8×10″ frame!
Okay, let’s talk rewards! First we’ll start with the book itself. Just like with Volume One, we’re planning a standard matte cover. This artwork was originally used in the paperback limited release we did through a publisher back in 2016, and has never been seen in hardcover form!
But there is also going to be a Kickstarter-Limited version of the hardcover as well! This will feature a completely separate cover design, stark black with spot gloss and gold foil lettering. Unlike our first Kickstarter campaign, we’re limiting the number of these right out of the gate. 150 of these will be for the bundle tier, and the remainder will be reserved for our art-focused tiers.
The interior pages are going to be exactly the same in both copies, running 124 pages (twelve more pages than Volume One) with brand new, never-before-seen extras and concept sketches that we compiled for this edition. The originally-printed paperback version never had any extras or guest art, so we had to put everything together from scratch for this! Needless to say, we’re really excited to get it into your hands!
In our last campaign we put together a really fun double-pin set featuring series protagonists Quinlan and Dak. This time around, we felt it was appropriate to focus on the only character who’s graced every cover we’ve ever done: the warlord Hardin!
The first batch of soft enamel pins turned out perfectly, and we’re excited to see Hardin come to life in a similar way. BUT THAT’S NOT ALL! You’ll notice down in the STRETCH GOALS section that we’ve got a second pin already concepted out.
That’s because if we hit that stretch goal, every single backer who’s getting the Hardin pin will AUTOMATICALLY be upgraded to receive a two-pin set, for FREE, featuring the super mad otter dad himself, Kenosh:
We think he looks adorable in pin form, even when he’s being a total grump. Remember, if we hit that stretch goal, everyone who gets Hardin gets Kenosh as well–so let’s try and hit it!
Our prints have been well-received in the past, both at conventions and in our last Kickstarter. As per tradition, we’ve decided to craft a brand new, campaign-original print that will ship in most of our physical tiers:
For this campaign, we’re offering a WHOLE BUNCH of crazy art tiers. These were the first tiers to go in our last campaign, so we’re expecting these all to go pretty quickly!
All of these tiers come included with the Kickstarter-Limited Hardcover bundle, in addition to the artwork.
COMMISSIONS
There are four unique commission tiers that will be available to backers, albeit in limited quantity.
First, main series artist Rachel Bennett will be once again offering both WATERCOLOR CARDS and DIGITAL CHARACTER COMMISSIONS.
Rachel’s watercolor card commissions measure 2.5×3.5″, and include a hand-painted character of your choosing. The character will need to be from the Western Deep story, or be an original character adapted to the comic’s style.
The digital art commission will be a larger size, and drawn in the comic series’ official style. As with the watercolor cards, the character will need to be from the Western Deep story, or be an original character adapted into the comic’s style. The painting will also feature a flat background. A physical version of the image will be mailed to you following its completion, separate from the Limited Edition Hardcover Bundle rewards.
Jerome Jacinto, the artist behind Western Deep stories Song of the Eastern Sands and The Abyssal Dunes is also offering a pair of digital painting commissions! These will feature a character of your choosing, though the character must be either from the Western Deep canon, or a character that can be adapted into the universe by Jerome. The artwork will be delivered digitally to you, and measure size A4 (8.29×11.69″) at a minimum.
The above piece, featuring Rook from Western Deep story Song of the Eastern Sands, was created as a Kickstarter reward in our first campaign, and is a pretty good example of what to expect in terms of quality!
Our last commission tier is actually not for a painting, but for music! This is a unique one, so I’ll do my best to explain.
Nolan Markey is a Hollywood composer and close friend to the Western Deep creative crew. He started his musical career interning for Battlestar Galactica, The Walking Dead, and God of War composer Bear McCreary before moving onto writing for well-known series like Star Wars: The Clone Wars and Star Wars: Rebels.
For this campaign, we are offering a unique CUSTOM MUSIC COMMISSION, where Nolan will work with the backer to craft a 2-3 minute piece of music that sounds like it was ripped straight from a soundtrack! Nolan will craft a theme in collaboration with you, use state-of-the-art digital samples to flesh it out, then bring live performers on board to give it that extra oomph!
Nolan’s musical skill is on full display in our campaign video up above, and we also cut a nice trailer featuring his music for the animation, which you can check out here:
As I mentioned above, the extras section for this hardcover was produced specifically for this run of books, which means we’re in the unique position to be able to offer one-of-a-kind original artwork from the book itself in the form of pin-up pencil work.
Tracy Butler, creator of Lackadaisy Cats (and a huge reason why Beyond the Western Deep started as a webcomic in the first place) created this wonderful guest piece for Volume Two, featuring characters Hardin, Rhosyn, and Rathik. She was kind enough to send us the original 11×14″ signed pencil work as a backer reward for the campaign. I was tempted to keep these for myself, but alas, I must be strong! So we’re making these pencils available to one lucky backer!
Additionally, Magic of Anaria creator Leah Briere, who did the artwork for Western Deep side story The Scholar and the Seawal, contributed a wonderful piece for Volume Two’s guest art section as well! Her pinup piece features characters Bevan and Eira, and she was kind of enough to send us her exquisite pencil work! The 9×9″ pencils are signed by Leah herself, and we’re excited to make these available to one lucky backer as well.
Lastly, Redwall artist and Bolivar creator Sean Rubin, who wrote a gorgeous foreword in our first hardcover, will be contributing his pencil work to our campaign as well. If you’re a fan of the Redwall series, Sean was the illustrator for the final two books in the series: The Sable Quean and The Rogue Crew, and did cover illustrations for the officially-produced Redwall audiobook packaging. If you’ve ever wanted to own a Rubin original (featuring one of his trademark libraries no less!) this is the piece to get!
One thing we’ve been really excited to share about this campaign is the short animated sequence that precedes our pitch video! Long before we’d planned out the fine details of this campaign, we knew we wanted to work with Patrick Stannard and his incredible team at Knights of the Light Table to show just how “animated” the world of the Western Deep is. He and his team did not disappoint!
Patrick’s flair for stunning animation and action choreography is easily recognizable. You’ll find it in Netflix’s Castlevania series, Seis Manos, and in TWRP’s incredible music video for Starlight Brigade (now hitting nearly 7 million Youtube hits)!
As part of this wonderful partnership, we’re pleased to offer a set of three ULTRA-LIMITED prints, hand-signed by Patrick Stannard himself. There are three variants (which you can see below), and there will only be FIVE OF EACH VARIANT PRODUCED!
You all caught us by surprise with our first Kickstarter! We’d planned one single stretch goal, then blew past it by several thousand dollars, leaving us scrambling to find cool new stuff we could offer in return. This time, we came prepared (hopefully).
Every print-receiving pledger gets an additional 5×7″ print featuring Tracy Butler’s ermehn artwork, and all pledgers can download an MP3 of the Western Deep theme, recorded by Budapest Scoring (performed by a live orchestra and chorus)!
Every physical reward tier receives a free sticker sheet featuring select versions of our Discord emotes.
A Kenosh pin is added to the Hardin pin to make it a two-pin set. Every backer who pledged to a tier containing the Hardin pin gets the Kenosh pin added free of charge.
All physical reward tiers receive a pair of free IRON-ON FLAG PATCHES featuring the canid and ermehn flags.
A PDF collection containing bonus artwork and a series of prose tales in the Western Deep universe penned by series writer Alex Kain will be included for free in ALL pledge tiers.
All physical reward tiers receive an additional five iron-on patches featuring the rest of the Western Deep flags, and a second sticker sheet!
In addition to all the stuff listed above, if we hit this number you will have made it possible for us to REPRINT VOLUME ONE of Beyond the Western Deep! Once the campaign ends, we will make these copies available on the Backerkit store for a limited time at a steep discount as thanks for your incredible support!
When we ran our first Kickstarter campaign back in 2018, we had no idea whether we’d even come close to our goal. Thanks to our amazing backers, we blew past our goal and were able to put together a hardcover book that we’re proud to put in people’s hands.
Rachel and I, along with the entire Western Deep creative team, have spent the last year-plus assembling this brand new hardcover collection, designing the new rewards, and collaborating with creators we know and trust to bring you the absolute best campaign we could put together.
With your help, we want to produce another great hardcover comic–one that earns its spot on your bookshelf! So, let’s do it together!
No matter how much preparation you do for a Kickstarter campaign, there’s always the potential for unanticipated problems. The trick, we’ve learned, is to partner with professionals who know what those problems tend to be, so we can head them off as much as possible! To that end, we are proud to be partnering with Sara McHenry (http://saramchenry.com/), who helped us manage vendor logistics, budgeting, and tier pricing in our last campaign. Her assistance helped make everything go smoothly for us despite it being our very first campaign. Last time around we made a promise that I will reiterate here: Should any issues arise in production or fulfillment, you can expect timely updates and explanations as to what is going on, and how we plan to rectify the situation. Publishing books, creating physical merchandise, and then shipping them both around the world is hard work. Sometimes things can go wrong, but if they do, you’ll hear about it from us along with an action plan for how we intend to make things right.