Hi everyone!

We've made it home from our trip to the annual Festival de la Bande Dessinée in Angoulême, France, and I must say... it was awesome. Not only was it rejuvenating to get off the grid (relatively speaking) for a couple of weeks, but it was great to see so many friends and authors again. Unlike most conventions in the US, this festival truly is focused entirely on comics and the historic fandom that keeps the art form alive. No movies, no video games, no tabletop games, very few cosplayers (although there is a healthy manga fandom), just COMICS. The 9th Art. And it is heavenly...

We were hoping to see Merwan again this year, but he is already hard at work on the 3rd book in the ASTER series. These things take time, considering that he paints everything with traditional watercolors on board, so I can't say when it'll be done, but it's coming...! And you know we'll be here to bring it to you once it's ready. 😉

We have heard from a few backers abroad who have received their packages this week. I believe all UK/EU packages have shipped as of today; if you haven't received yours yet, please give them 5-10 business days to make the journey. Hopefully, you won't be waiting that long.

Backers in Australia and New Zealand - your packages should be on their way to you within the next week or so. Aetherworks (the fulfillment warehouse) is finishing one other campaign in the queue ahead of us, but they'll get to ASTER immediately following. I believe the Address Verification email should go out soon, so keep an eye on your email inboxes for that.

For those of you in Asia, your packages should be going out very soon now that everyone is back at work from Chinese New Year. I suspect they'll be finished this week, but we will get confirmation shortly.