Rewards

in which our hero gets ready to reward his generous backers

Dear Readers,

If all goes well, the physical rewards for my recent Kickstarter campaign will be in the mail tomorrow. As of this writing, I’ve got all of the rewards sorted, all of the shipping labels printed, and all of the boxes ready. I’m missing one address, which I hope will come in between now and tomorrow morning, but I plan to ship everything that I can ship tomorrow—no matter what.

For those of you who missed out on the Kickstarter but would like to buy a copy of the shiny new comic, issue #2 is now available for purchase in my Ko-fi shop. You can find copies of issue #1 and the prologue there, as well.

As for updates on issue #3 and how that’s going, it’s full steam ahead! I’m working on pages 7 and 8 this week, and I plan to start sharing art with y’all on December 11. I’ve also plotted out the production and release schedule for the whole of 2025, and I’m happy to share with you the tentative dates when each of the next four issues of The Blood of Seven Queens will drop:

• Issue #3: January 29, 2025

• Issue #4: April 30, 2025

• Issue #5: July 30, 2025

• Issue #6: October 29, 2025

Finally, because I’m just super-proud of how they came out, I wanted to share digital sneak peeks at three of the seven postcard-sized prints I created for the Kickstarter. I’m still debating whether or not to put these on sale, or if they should remain exclusive to the Kickstarter, but we’ll see. If you have an opinion on the matter, drop me a comment or a shoot me an email.

Aesling: The Sleeping Beauty
I worked on Aesling’s portrait first and she helped me figure out what I wanted each of these portraits to be. Here she stands on her husband’s throne, with the sword she inherited from her mother, and she’s taking a nap. The key, I decided, was to give a hint at each character’s personality—while also hinting at their fairy tale roots.

Bonnie: The Beauty sans Her Beast
My version of the titular heroine from Beauty and the Beast is a Highlands diplomat who falls for a “bestial” clansman of another species. Here I wanted to suggest a dress from Outlander with a nod toward the popular Disney color scheme for Belle, while also representing the beast somehow (the fur on the throne).

Daisy: Let Down Your Hair
I’ve done a lot of portraits lately of Daisy using her long hair as a weapon, so I wanted to go for something a bit more relaxed and peaceful here. We should still see that she’s inspired by Rapunzel, but we should also get hints of the fierce and mischievous woman she is in my own story.

And that’s all for now. I’ll see you back here next week with the other four portraits from the series and more news on issue #3.

Yours,
Chris