Hey everyone! A quick update on the current state of The Black Well, Part 3 coming up in a moment. But first, I want to just say thanks once again for all your support of this endeavor. I realized earlier this week that it has now been a year since I decided to give Kickstarter a try and launched this project. It's been an a great year, thanks in no small part to all of you. The book's taken longer than I'd initially hoped it would (but then, comics always take waaay longer than anticipated - there's a trade secret for ya), but we're now in the home stretch, as they say. I hope following along with the making-of stuff has been interesting for you; it was always part of my idea for this experiment. I know this has been a really rewarding experience for me, and I hope you guys enjoy the book when it's all done.

A brief bit of business: there are still a handful of backers who have never responded to my requests for their addresses so that I could send their much-deserved rewards. I sent out a number of such requests in the months immediately following the end of the funding period last winter, but since I got deep into drawing the book I haven't been sending further follow-ups. So, if you're among that handful who never received their reward, expect another message in the next few days, or just send me your address directly. Note: this of course doesn't apply to those of you who pledged for original art from the new book - there are still more pages to come, so feel free to wait until the end to make your page selection.

And speaking of the end, I'm happy to say I've finally finished writing the script for the third and final section of the book, still entitled THE CLOUD. My initial rough estimate of how long this part will be comes to about 75 pages - I'm in the midst of breaking it down and thumbnailing it now and am hoping to condense it a bit, since 75 pages would take quite a while to draw. But expect the next part to be the longest of the three. In the next update, I'll give you a few hints on what to expect, as well as some thoughts on mystery (or "mysterious" stories, anyway) in general. In the meantime, since it'll be some time yet before I can show you finished art from this section, here's a concept sketch to give you a feel for the setting of the book's conclusion. Talk to you soon...