The Enchanted Dagger

Oh jeez, it’s been months.  Sorry I’ve been sitting on this latest page for a few weeks.  Hey!  We’re down to our last couple Robert Pious Kalthar pages so lets savor every odd marking and proportion.  Actually some rather fetching drawings of Kate on this page (her name is Kate, right?)  While working on this one I came to appreciate it as a quintessential R.S. Pious Kalthar page.  Artistically it’s a good representation… but even more so sub-textually.  It vaguely almost looks like Kalthar is getting rammed by a red hot poker in that those last two panels, perhaps a subconscious manifestation of RSP’s feelings towards writer Harry Shorten.  But that’s just idle speculation.  Hard to say what kind of feeling Pious, a young black man in 1941 New York if you’ll recall, had about working on this kind of material but I’m sure he must have been happy for the work.  I’ll try to get thru some more of this Kalthar material this fall.   I’m ready to put it behind me and get back to everything else I’ve been procrastinating on.

The summer work schedule had some good results.  I cut down to 3 days at work and was able to get the better portion of 6 of the lat 9 pages drawn up to a pretty good point and I’ve been Inking them.  I’m still hoping to have the bulk of this material colored up by February so I can get the 20 page PHM story I thumbnailed over the summer draw up before the spring labor season starts.   Might take a couple extra weeks off this December to get some of the EDAg coloring done.  Issue 7 is inching closer to completion.  It’s going very slow right now but I’m just letting it.  I’ve probably been over indulging in pot and Youtube as well which certainly doesn’t help… will be trying to curtail that pastime.  Getting past 7 & and Kalthar will lighten my load a bit.

To my great satisfaction, I was finally hit with some inspiration for the final PHM story for Meet the PHM#1.  My Page count was at 36 between the first two stories.  I wanted to come up with one more story to go in the first book.  (I’m also considering a special additional 8 page story that I will call supplementary… not a PHM story per se, but complimentary in a world building sort of way).  So my page count is between 36 and 44 pages.  My printer can print up to 60 pages in a staple bound format…  I think that would make for a nice thick book!  So yeah, inspiration took hold and I really love where its going.  Regarding the first two intro stories… well, you gotta start somewhere.  But this new one would really represent the whole vibe I’m going for… a great adventure story with some great villains to boot.  Naturally, true to form, it immediately expanded beyond is 16-24 page limit.  I could milk this one for a good 48 pages easy.  I was so inspired I sat down and plotted out a 5 or six page action segment from early in the story and it just flowed out.  that almost never happens, usually its like pulling teeth.  I already have good main storylines for what is becoming issue 2 &3  of the MtPHM story arc… now I’m thinking this new story can play out thru the first 3 issue and then collect in one volume.  Hahaha, then we can begin the main epic story arc, good lord.

Ugg is all of this going to happen?  Hopefully most of it.  These first three issues are a must and then..well.  I wish my ability to produce the work was lining up with my imagination’s ability to think them up.  I have volumes floating around up there.  And still 50 pages worth of EDag to finish!  Not to mention the actual business part, which I have no excuse to continue putting off now that 7 is almost done… And I still have to get 4,5, and 6 printed.  Sigh.. where did I put that bong…

Ack!  I just checked.  Ive still got 18 pages of Kalthar to go.  Excuse me while I stick my head in the oven…. (looks like at least one more RSP story tho!)