When planning out this comic version of the ancient Saga of Didrik, I realized I needed one more character than the normal cast of three in my little troupe of players. I had a couple different choices - I could double up and have one of them play two roles, which can get confusing and feels a bit sloppy, or I could reintroduce another of my childhood comic characters to fill the minor part, but running through the rolodex of candidates, none of them seemed suitable to play Gerb's three year old son - That is until I remembered someone else who, though not technically in my stable of comic characters, used to periodically appear in my comics, who in fact would get upset if I didn't occasionally include him. He was very small bear with a very big ego.
Meet Newmar!
When I was married, Newmar entered our lives as my ex-wife's teddy bear who, very Winnie-the-Pooh like, began accompanying us everywhere. He had quite the personality and though he had no voice, spoke volumes through his gestures and body language. After a while my ex said it was as though she were channeling him to move him into his various positions and actions so he could express himself - It was automatic and intuitive, and not something she would even think about. He really had a life of his own ("No officer, it wasn't my idea. It's our teddy bear that goaded me into driving over the train tracks really fast so that our tires left the ground...") particularly when he declared himself a wizard, donning a purple wizard's gown with stars and moons on it, a scarf that acted like a cape, and multi-colored stripey witchy socks. There were a couple of times when he got tired of waiting for me to draw him, so he took matters into his own hands and started drawing the comic, starring him of course, without me.
Anyway, I just wanted to give a brief introduction for those of you following this comic and wondering where the heck this wizard bear came from. And now page 5 of The Saga of Didrik!
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