The Enchanted Dagger

This is Issue 5 cover variant b.   As I was about to get to work on my original cover idea, a much more elaborate scene of Roger prancing about the circus, this idea for a cover popped into my head.  As we’ll see, it’s based on an interior drawing, when we meet the mysterious Wraith, who I’ll talk more about later because it’s worthy of a post.  I was psyched about the inspiration, mostly because it meant a whole lot less work to do, but also because I thought it made for an interesting cover…different than those before it (and not just because there wasn’t room for my name at the bottom…).  I’m still planning on making variant a…maybe for the back cover.  I’ve yet to master cover art.   Does this cover need more?  Don’t know yet…  As always, this is still a work in progress….

At one point I realized how slow I was going on the production department, I thought about dropping Issue #5 on the edit room floor.  Of all the EDag set pieces, Roger at the circus did the least to further our story, strictly speaking.  Eventually, I decided that I liked it as a lighter segment to butter people up for the more consequential Issue #6!  I decided at that point to shorten issues 5,6,&7 to 18 pages and include the original Enchanted Dagger Golden Age stories as back ups, for a nice 24 page issue.  Unfortunately, I misremembered  how many pages those old time comics were!  Seven!  Which meant I actually only have 17 pages to get our story told.

So I kind of had to scrunch things in a bit in Issue 5, which was too bad, I’d have liked the extra page.  Issue 6 I’ve decided to also make 17 pages to get to include another Golden Age story.  I decided to make Issue 7 a regular 24 pages (mostly because there was good stuff in it!).

We’ve already seen Golden Age Enchanted Dagger Episode 4 here online.   The printed edition of EDag #5 will debut for the first time, my remastered Golden Age Enchanted Dagger Episode 1!  Interesting creative development on that front.  I had been aware that there were reprints of the original Enchanted Dagger stories after their first printing in Harry Chesler’s Yankee Comics.  Roger would fill space in other Chesler productions.  I realized that instead of just relying on the original Yankee Comics source material, I can layer the editions and utilize all of them I my refurbishment.  Hopefully it will make for some interesting comic art once I give it the special treatment.

Speaking of printing.  I’m getting an order in to the printer for Issue #3 by the end of the month!  New comic book!  Three Issues!