The Enchanted Dagger

Woo.  This one took a while to get on up here.  Not for any particular reason or special difficulties…(I’ve been happy with how the last couple pages have gone and hopefully this one will hold up too)…mostly just annoying day job interfering with a good work flow/ production schedule.  Things will lighten up after next week…hopefully I can crank out the last few pages of Issue 6 with some gusto.  Then It’ll be onto Golden Age Redux…as well as another new scheme!

I’ve mentioned that I’ve been dying to get started on my Purple Hairy Man project.  In point of fact I’ve already begun plotting it and writing the first “album” which is what I think people are beginning to break their comic projects down into these days…a European style 50-60 page offering, easier to package for the crowd fund platforms.  As I’ve thought about the new project, one sticking point is how to approach the art style.  On one hand I definitely want to produce some actual artwork, as opposed to just making it on the computer…pencil drawings at least.  From there I’m trying to figure out how I should Ink it and color it.  I could ink it by hand, the old fashion way and give it a more Manga vibe.  Or I could stick to the computer, maybe with my vector style/photoshop touch up which I have gotten a little bit more proficient with.  I’m also very tempted to take a more painterly approach.  I love the concept design style….also Sana Takeda’s work on Monstress.  The Photoshop painter work is very exciting to me… but i’m not practiced up on it, even though I’m a bit familiar with computer coloring, of course.  I feel that my work in general has leaned towards the color…but not so far as the European Ligne Claire style which disposes with most of the ink shading of American comics.   And Manga is mostly black and White….does that sort of Shirow Masamune hatch heavy style of inking even work with color?

To address this conundrum and finally change up my approach, which I’ve been talking about for years, and also to satisfy my need to work on something other than Roger Chalmers and also to get started on some Purple Hairy Man work, I’ve decided to afford myself a special PHM 6 pager!  Okay, maybe an 8-12 pager.  Plus an 8 pager and another 6 pager.  What I’m trying to say is that I’m going to make a few PHM short stories over the next period of time while finishing work on EDag.  One of my favorite comics in my teen years was Judge Dread, a character who worked great in the short story format…a little inspiration.  I’m committed to charging ahead with EDag, but I think the creative side track will do me some good.  I’m not sure what story number one’s approach will be, except to say that I’ll be ditching my cumbersome Illustrator coloring for sure!

Or I could just keep doing it the way I been doing it (head explodes).

One last bit.  In staying true to the design elements of the Golden Age original character, I totally missed an obvious alteration, namely that Doctor Voodoo, ne Vodun, should be of Caribbean decent!  I’ve tried to give him a little bit more ethnicity in this recent appearance.