The Enchanted Dagger

Production on my EDag story was kind of a spur of the moment decision.  I had an outline for a “Tale of the Irreal” lightly plotted out and discovering good ol’ Roger gave me a convenient foil, an anti-villain if you would, to hang the story ideas on.  I intended to make a short story about the contemporary political culture and before I knew it it had become the present creative quagmire that we’re mired in, a graphic novel length tome.  At the time I began, I had only read one of the original Edag stories, the 4th (which I have already refurbished and is on our site here at the end of issue 4).  It wasn’t until later on that I happened upon Classic EDag #3, on the Four Color Shadows golden age comics blog.  It had probably been there the whole time (just as all the original EDag stories are up on the Digital Comics Museum), I just hadn’t made much of an effort to find them.  I think there was some intentional to that, delaying the accumulation of knowledge to maximize any fresh inspiration to be gleaned.  In any case, I was surprised to find that the plot of  Episode 3 centered around grave robbing, a theme which was also a plot point in our story, as we have already seen back in Issue 4.  I thought it was a pretty weird coincidence!  Just the same, I’m sure I interpreted that eeriness as a green light from the void to press on with the Enchanted Dagger even though I had my doubts about it.

Take note of original EDag artist/creator George Tuska’s grave.  Artists didn’t get much, if any credit for their work in many of the old time comics, a condition that was still prevalent well into the silver age (and some would say today).  I assume Jim Dale must have been a friend of Tuska’s who died young.  Also, you gotta love Roger’s green zentai suit!  Truly ahead of it’s time!  What a freak!

Here’s how the original page looked, courtesy of Digital Comics Museum.  I just darkened it up a bit.  Too dark?