Hot Shot of the Week Companion Feature
10 Questions About Savage Dragon #135 with Erik Larsen
Erik Larsen is the creator, writer and artist of the long-running Image Comics series Savage Dragon, as well as one of the co-founders of Image Comics. Currently, Larsen is the Publisher at Image, a job that demands a lot of his time and efforts, but he remains active as a creator and has never farmed out an issue of his creator-owned title. Prior to his time at Image, Larsen became well-known as the artist of characters like Marvel's Spider-Man and DC's Doom Patrol. Savage Dragon #135 revisited one of Larsen's earliest works--1982's Graphic Fantasy #1 from Ajax Comics Group, in which he and collaborators Al Harris and Kevin Keyes introduced a number of characters, including "The Dragon." Little did anyone know...!
Comic Related: So, Graphic Fantasy #1 was written and drawn by a guy named Al Harris. A quick search of comicbookdb.com, my go-to for people's back-catalog, has no mention of him. Is he a guy that you still keep in touch with? And how did he come to write and draw things that you've become so intimately linked with over the years?
Erik Larsen: You've got that pretty mixed up. Graphic Fantasy had three stories written and drawn by three different guys. I inked all of the stories in the book. Al Harris wrote and drew Prism, I wrote and drew the Dragon and Kevin Keyes wrote and drew Iron Hawk.
Savage Dragon #135 brought back Al Harris's character Prism and I reprinted the Prism story from Graphic Fantasy #1, which Al drew and I inked.
I reprinted the Dragon story a few years back.
I'm still in touch with Al. He's a teacher up in Washington state.
CR: Sorry about that. I was going by the credits box on the front page of the reprint, which was just the one story, and the cover that had all of them on it. When I was a kid, Savage Dragon was known for crazy levels of violence. I know that when I last spoke to you (in 2001), you had said that you were intentionally evoking more of Kirby's influence and using a little less of the over-the-top stuff. Where are you with that these days? I ask because of the splash page on 6. Not much by Geoff Johns standards, but certainly not something you would have seen in Stan & Jack's Fantastic Four.
EL: I do whatever suits the story. Savage Dragon was, in my mind, the missing link between Marvel Comics and Vertigo. It's more intense than Marvel books but not as pretentious as some of the Vertigo fare. It's a book for people who still like superheroes but don't go for all the cleaned up Comics Code approved stuff. It's got more of an edge.
CR: The comic book title is one thing, but why do people in the book call him "Savage?" If they actually THINK he's savage, don't they think that might annoy him?
EL: It's a name the media stuck him with but it's not a name he uses. At the time I started doing the book I wanted a combination of words that I could trademark. I can't own the word dragon.
CR: Any chance of a Dragon in '08 Presidential campaign? Back in '04, the Bush punch was one of my favorite comic book covers in ages.
EL: Not a chance. I don't want to repeat myself. That, and it's hard to keep that timely given the lead time of publishing.
CR: What about Prism resonated with you that you felt compelled to bring him back at this point? And for that matter, why wait until now?
EL: I always thought he was a great visual and it was something I'd always meant to do. I liked the character and I had an idea that I wanted to do.
CR: I thought I remembered you saying at one point that you would probably keep doing Dragon for as long as you were working in comics. Is that still true?
EL: Yeah. I like him.
CR: With the book publishing less regularly since your editorial duties increased, have you considered avoiding longer arcs? Or are you just carrying on as normal, telling the best stories you can and letting them unfold in whatever time is necessary?
EL: More the latter-- foolishly. Bit I'm kind of stuck because I'm in the middle of something. It would kind of suck to just end thing abruptly. In the long run that would be more detrimental.
CR: Is there a connection between resurrecting Graphic Fantasy concepts in Dragon and Image's The Next Issue Project?
EL: Not really, no. Other than breathing new life into old characters.
CR: On that note, what do you think of Alex Ross's Project Superpowers, now that the zero issue has been released?
EL: I've only read the one issue and I found it to be pretty dull stuff. The covers looked great but I had trouble staying awake reading it. I kept nodding off. It had this pompous and self important air about it. It took itself so seriously, and all the characters just stood around talking. Nothing happened. It tried so hard to be Watchmen but it fell flat.
CR: I've never asked something this open-ended before, but I frankly think Dragon deserves it: Can you give a quickie sales pitch for potential new readers?
EL: I'm not really too good at that. Savage Dragon is a celebration of everything good about comics. It's funny-- it's ridiculous-- it's exciting. It's an unrestrained superhero comic book. It's balls-to-the-wall bombastic rollercoaster ride.
And I can't think of a book I'd rather do.
Click here to check out Savage Dragon #135
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Page last updated on April 8, 2008