Part of the whole daily thing is that I want to try to do different things with the sketches/art. Whether I fail or not is inconsequential.
By the way, I chalk this up as a failure.
Anyhow, Savage Dragon. When Image Comics first started, Erik Larsen’s Savage Dragon quickly became my favorite out of the bunch. I had loved Larsen’s work on Spider-Man, and was eager to see his own creation. Not to bash the other Image founders, but you could tell that Larsen loved what he did, and loved Dragon far more than the other guys did for their own. I think the simple fact that, almost 20 years later, he’s still doing his own book, let alone one of the only ones even still actively making comics at all, speaks for that.
I stopped reading Savage Dragon about six, seven years ago. Something changed – either in myself or in Larsen’s creative approach – and found I simply wasn’t enjoying the book anymore. Despite that, I don’t think I can put into words just how much respect I hold for Erik Larsen as a creator and an artist, and how much of an influence he is on me. Obviously his influence is limited, otherwise I’d have motivated myself to produce actual work over the past decade.
But that’s my problem, not his.
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Man I love Savage Dragon. The last two years of Dragon has been some of the BEST the book has EVER been. Sounds like you dropped the book back during the ‘Dragon Family’ era that came about post issue 100. Which is fair, because the book certainly struggled back then (The book was chronically late when Erik became Image Publisher for a while, but that sorted itself out after he stepped down). I just did a reread of Savage Dragon from issue 101 to present (168) and that particular period wasn’t my favorite. But in retrospect it didn’t actually last as long as I remembered it did.
If you ever want to check Dragon out again, I recommend starting with the ‘Back in Blue’ TP reprinting issue #145-150. Which leads into Identity Crisis, then Dragon War, and Emperor Dragon.
Then there’s issue 169 which will be out the 23ed of Feb. Which launches the bold new direction of the book. Seriously, if you dropped the book 6/7 years ago, where the book is now will BLOW YOUR MIND.
“Six, seven years ago” ?
Do yourself a favor : check out what’s going on in Dragon now. It’s so the shit. The “let’s homage Kirby’s Kamandi in every issue and have a double splash of a giant animal on pages 2 and 3 all the time” vibe is dead and gone. The book is now a perfect mixture of what made it good back then, and the new stuff that makes it good right now. Also, in case you remember it was a mystery : the Dragon’s origin has been revealed, it kicks ass and it’s the basis for the latest arc, and it rocks the cock like nobody’s business.
The media is making all that fuss about the death of the Torch from the FF, but who gives a damn? Johnny Match Head will be back in no time when the next movie’s released. Shit that goes on in Savage Dragon is real.
Don’t take my word for it, check it out. Don’t just stand there, go grab the last ten issues, read them and weep. Larsen’s gotten much better than what you might remember. It might even motivate you to produce your ass off for the next decade.
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Wow, that is an angry, impassioned recommendation. I’ve certainly seen all the praise for issue 168, so yeah, I think I’ll check out the last year or so of S.D.
And yeah, Human Torch. Dies in issue 587. Book will be relaunched as FF # 1. I’m guessing that book will last for 10-12 issues as is, and when Fantastic Four is supposed to have reached #600, that book will return with the revival of Human Torch.
Love the coloring! 🙂