And that’s it. The final panel was originally a question to the readers of “Comic Book Crossroads” about whether they wanted to see more of Brads adventures, but since “Comic Book Crossroads” folded before I ever got this chapter to Mike Norton to publish, that question became meaningless.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this trip through Brads old adventures, and if you enjoyed them please drop me a note.

My only double-page spread. This loses quite a bit when separated into two pages, so I’m including it here as the 2 page spread. Sorry for making you scroll!

The final chapter of the “The Sword of Zeheran”. My collection of “Comic Book Crossroads” does not include an issue where this appeared, so either I’ve lost it, or the fanzine folded before this chapter could appear. So this may actually be the first time it appeared anywhere! (If you know otherwise, please let me know!)

We follow that up with one of my least favorite pages. I thought it would be dramatic to pull back and show Brads leap in silhouette, but instead I ended up drawing stick figures. That panel completely fails. The fight sequence is confusing, and while I like the shot of Brad fighting Tumar outside the panels, it’s never clear what happened. I wanted to convey a bit of the confusion of a fight, and I succeeded, but too well, I think.

On the upside, you can make out where Rick hid my name in the runes in the lower left panel.

Rick really did some nice work on this page. You can’t see it in the reduction but he actually hid my name in the runes around the pit, and he turned the energy of the sword into a light source in that lower left panel, really turning it into one of my favorite panels of the series. I think the characters across the middle are the best I ever drew them. This is just a great page.

I’m particularly fond of that little inset of Tumar, though when I drew it, that opening panel with Brad leaping for the bag and rolling and grabbing what he needs was the most fun.

We get to the Sword of Zeheran, and our allies turn against us. Show of hands, who saw that coming?

This chapter originally appeared in “Comic Book Crossroads” #17, April 1994.

This page is tough. See that giant sword in there? I spent hours drawing intricate crossing circles and patterns on it, more time probably than I spent on the rest of the entire page. But I didn’t communicate that to Rick. He’d been given freedom to make changes as he felt necessary, the art on the series definitely improved because of his contributions, but I didn’t think to tell him how important this sword was to me, and he changed it. He thought it should be heavier, bigger. He thought it was a two handed sword, when I knew the story called for it to be a one-handed sword. When he redrew it, he drew over my intricate patterns with simpler runes. It was the only time I was disappointed in the final inked pages.

Having said that, looking at it now, all these years later, Ricks sword works just as well as mine did. I drew it again, smaller, in the next chapter, and Rick dutifully inked it as I drew it and when I compare the two images, I don’t see a big difference. Its amazing how much larger these things seem when you are too close to the work.

I really like the pacing on this page. I also like that Brad and Zindabarone are having a conversation about the main plot, while the rest of the group is arguing amongst themselves over credit for the last fight in the background. I always thought that was a nice touch.