If you’re like me, you woke up this morning and thought, I think it’s time for the world to finally see Dizes Dager.
But I alone have the power to make that happen.
A couple weeks ago I finally cleaned my garage, and in a box of my kids’ school papers my wife ran across a stack of my old books. Not dusty copies of Baldur’s Gate, mind you, but really old “books,” written when I was just a wee lad and somehow not included in the package that was given to one of my teachers, who lost them. There were a few, some from as late in life as seventh grade.
Dizes Dager is my favorite of the bunch, winning out even over Monster Stores and The $10,000,000 Man (who you will all agree, I’m sure, is $4,000,000 better than The $6,000,000 Man).
I’m not sure now if this was meant to be a comic book or something like the storyboard for a movie. I’m clearly credited as an animator, and characters from the cartoon Johnny Quest are also credited as actors, so . . . whatever that means.
I think what I like most about it, other than the obvious (it’s startling full-color art!), is that I have no idea what Dizes Dager means. What is a Dizes? Is Dager just Danger misspelled? Are the Dizes dangerous, or are they in danger?
Now, for the first time in maybe thirty-five years, you have a chance to help me figure it out.
Dizes Dager, the understated cover
It begins cleanly enough. . . .
Dizes Dager, Page 1
I hope you were reddy for how cool that was!
Dizes Dager, Page 2
It’s a Dizes! Ha!
Dizes Dager, Page 3
Holy smoke, I guess it isn’t latter after all!
Dizes Dager, Page 4
Boivios?
Okay.
Dizes Dager, the startling conclusion.
Humble beginnings are better than no beginnings at all.
Until next week, Boivios!
—Philip Athans
Oh, so beautiful and hilarious. Found a yarn-bound book of my youth recently. No words. It seemed to involve a man and horse falling into a world made of mud. Mud monsters, mud caverns, mud pits. Boivios!