Savage Dragon - An Interview w/ Erik Larsen

The legendary Erik Larsen is a man that requires no introduction (but I’m going to give him one anyway). From his phenomenal work on The Amazing Spider-Man, to a notable run on Doom Patrol, to co-founding Image Comics in 1992, to his long running title Savage Dragon, Larsen has stayed busy over the course of his career as a writer, artist, and publisher, and has worked on nearly every character you can think of in some capacity. Simply put, he’s one of the most prolific and well respected names in the business, and I recently had a chance to sit down and discuss his creative inspirations.

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MAD: Mr. Larsen, thanks so much for spending a little time with us at HORROR TO CULTURE today! I've been a huge fan of your work for over 30 years, and have tremendous respect for your creative work ethic and artistic integrity. I even had the good fortune of interviewing you a little over 15 years ago, so it's awesome to be able to catch up with everything that's going on with you these days. Firstly, I know this is a generic question that you've probably answered a hundred times before, but how did you first gain interest as an illustrator, and in particular working in the medium of comic books?

ERIK: I have no way of knowing. I can’t recall a time when I wasn’t drawing. I would imagine that I was encouraged by friends and family who saw that I had an aptitude for that. I grew up around comic books. My dad had collected when he was a kid, so the four of us kids just had them around and available to peruse. My older brother and I read them quite a bit early on. My sisters didn’t have much interest in them. He was a kid in the ‘40s and early ‘50s, so it was all Golden Age material. He had a particular affinity for Captain Marvel Adventures and the EC line of books. But he had hundreds of books ranging from funny animals (Pogo, Uncle Scrooge, etc.) to pinup girls (Mopsy) to humor (Archie, Mad, Powerhouse Pepper), and everything in between. Somehow I got it in my head early on that I could make my own comic books and so I did. I’d take 8½ x 11 paper, fold it in half and staple it up the side and just go for it.

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MAD: Who were some of your artistic inspirations starting out, both in the field of comic books, as well as other creative influences that helped to spark your fire and passion?

ERIK: The artists I loved from my dad’s old comics were C.C. Beck (Captain Marvel), Chester Gould (Dick Tracy), Wallace Wood (Weird Science, Shock Suspense Stories, etc.), Ham Fisher (Joe Palooka), Basil Wolverton (Powerhouse Pepper), Jack Kirby (Boy Commandos), and a few others. When I started buying my own comics, Herb Trimpe was on The Incredible Hulk and he was a big influence. But there were a bunch. Jack Kirby was at DC on Kamandi and Mister Miracle, Walter Simonson was drawing Manhunter in Detective Comics, Gil Kane was active, Gene Colan and John Buscema too. Loved Redondo on Swamp Thing and Rima, the Jungle Girl. Alex Niño Dre a backup in Rima that floored me and I spent years chasing down any and everything I could find of his work. Ditto Alex Toth. Guys like Neal Adams, Jim Steranko, Bernie Wrightson and Barry Windsor-Smith had all but vanished but occasionally I’d see reprints of their stuff and that was huge. The new wave of young upstarts in the ‘70s like John Byrne, Frank Miller and Howard Chaykin. I loved Mort Meskin and Steve Ditko when I could find it. Wallace Wood was inking a number of jobs at DC around that time and that was all terrific stuff. I followed All-Star Comics, Hercules, Stalker and anything else he touched. I was a sponge. I absorbed everything.

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MAD: This year marks the 33rd anniversary of the founding of IMAGE COMICS, of which yourself, Jim Lee, Rob Liefeld, Todd McFarlane and others launched in 1992, and pretty much changed the face of comic books forever, as well as gave a greater voice of empowerment towards creators and their characters. I know it's been three decades, but can you give us an idea of the excitement (and stress) that must have come with co-creating your own publishing house and brand new comic book universe?

ERIK: We were all excited about our own work, I think, and there was a lot of sharing back and forth. We were faxing things back and forth and the audience was incredibly enthusiastic. But remember, we all worked in different locations, so we weren’t looking over each other’s shoulders. We’d see each other at meetings and at conventions but it wasn’t as though we all shared a huge workspace. It was certainly an exciting time to be making comics and a lot of people wanted to work with us. Toy companies and trading card companies and agents were all over the place. There were a lot of meetings.

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MAD: Your original and iconic character, SAVAGE DRAGON, first appeared all the way back in 1982 with Graphic Fantasy #1 (in a very different iteration, then just known as DRAGON), and over forty years later is still going strong. Unbelievably, you are inching towards issue #300 of the title, of which you have written, illustrated, inked, and colored since its foundation. You actually created DRAGON when you were in elementary school. What has it been like creating a sort of instantly recognizable "cultural icon" that has been with you for your entire life? What does SAVAGE DRAGON mean to you these days?

ERIK: I don’t color the book (though I have at times). I’m not sure why this stuck. I guess I liked the idea of playing out the lives of characters in real time and seeing them grow. I like the real time aspect a lot. I guess because I created him as a kid that I’ve felt close to me. The character started off as a Batman knockoff but shortly took on a life of his own. I did make a few changes over the years. The two Graphic Fantasy Dragon stories were essentially the end of the Dragon story I had going as a kid and my goal at Image was to get to that same point with the character but get there from another direction. The comics I drew as a kid were pretty nonsensical—so I couldn’t really go that same route. It’s a bit like what Jeff Smith did with Bone or what Walter Simonson had done on Thor. We’d all done earlier versions that told a story that we revised and updated. Once I got to that point I just kept going. And that’s where I am now.

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MAD: Some people might not know, but the popular character INVINCIBLE (which is one of AMAZON PRIME'S top rated shows), first made his appearance in the pages of SAVAGE DRAGON #102. Created by Robert Kirkman, how did INVINCIBLE's first appearance come about in the pages of your title, and is there any possibility that SAVAGE DRAGON might make a cameo on the TV series at any point in the future?

ERIK: Kirkman had done SuperPatriot with me prior to launching Invincible, so it was only natural that he’d approach me about previewing Invincible in Savage Dragon. The two characters appeared in each other’s book off and on. But doing that in a TV show takes more than a handshake and the network would want a piece of Savage Dragon, so that’s not likely to happen.

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MAD: Arguably, Kirkman's THE WALKING DEAD has been one of the hottest titles that's ever come out of IMAGE. Did the popularity and success of THE WALKING DEAD bring forth any major changes for the company and the visibility of some of the other characters and properties?

ERIK: A lot of companies have come knocking on our doors. But Image itself doesn’t own any properties, so Image just points them in the right direction and lets it go at that. Certainly Hollywood is paying attention to what we’re up to.

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MAD: Do you keep up on any of the comic book related movies coming out these days from the "Big 2", or do you pretty much ignore it all? Likewise, is there any chance of IMAGE titles or characters (such as SAVAGE DRAGON) making their way to the big screen anytime soon? It would be really freakin' awesome to have a connected world of IMAGE films.

ERIK: I watch the movies for the most part. I haven’t seen everything. I’m certainly pleased that folks have had some success doing this. But it’s a ton of work to get these things to happen. If somebody was interested in doing something more with my characters that would be great but I’m not going to put my book on hold to pursue that dream. I wouldn’t stand in the way and I would love to see it but my dream was making comics. I’m living the dream.

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MAD: What is the state of the industry right now in terms of comic book sales themselves? How has digital changed the landscape in recent years? Are comic books here to stay, or should fans be a little anxious about the decline of physical print in general?

ERIK: As far as I know things are fine. Books were in bad shape some years back but they’ve bounced back.

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MAD: Are there any other characters out there that you've never had a chance to work on, that you'd love to take a stab at some day? Also, are there any other characters you think it would be cool for SAVAGE DRAGON to team up with, that he's never met before?

ERIK: I love all of it. I could imagine doing a run on Captain Marvel or the Incredible Hulk or the Fantastic Four, Superman, Wonder Woman or the Dingbats of Danger Street. I’ve always taken the position that if you’re not working on your favorite book—you’re doing it wrong. You should be able to make anything you’re handed into a great book and make anything work.

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MAD: At nearly 300 issues, SAVAGE DRAGON has had A LOT of things happen over the course of the title. Is there any way you could give us a brief summary of some of the major events which have changed the face of the title in recent years, and what might fans and readers expect from the title as we approach issue #300?

ERIK: That’s a lot. The Savage Dragon book started off when a superpower amnesiac was found naked in a burning field and enlisted by the Chicago Police to help them fight against the forces of evil. And 33 years later the Dragon’s son has taken center stage while his kids wait in the wings for their turn at the title. It’s been an amazing thing to have unfold. Characters grow, change and die. Characters fall in love, get married and have kids. I’ve created this whole world. A multi-generational story.

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MAD: Do you have any advice for aspiring artists and writers out there who are struggling to get their original ideas and creations off the ground?

ERIK: My biggest advice is to just do it. Everybody talks about making art but the secret is to actually produce the work. You’re not going to get anywhere if you don’t do the work. So, get going. Make comics and show people what you made and then make some more. If you keep producing work you can’t help but improve.

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MAD: HORROR TO CULTURE is a horror themed website, so I have to ask, do you have any favorite horror films or books, or any guilty pleasures in this genre?

ERIK: I don’t. Not really. I find jump scares tiring and manipulative. Some can be insightful character studies or damning satire and I’m more drawn to things like that but gore for the sake of gore doesn’t do much for me. I prefer smaller doses of that, like, say, RoboCop or something from a Quintin Tarantino where the gore isn’t the main attraction. I find movies like Get Out a lot more chilling than the more traditional slasher or horror films.

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MAD: Erik, it has been a pleasure speaking with you today, and thanks so much for being so cool and personable with fans all of these years. You are, without a doubt, one of the absolute best in the business, and one of the few who is keeping the joy and adventures of comic books alive in the 21st Century! In close is there anything you'd like to leave the readers with today, or upcoming projects to check out? 

ERIK: Savage Dragon seems to be the obvious choice.

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Michael A. Dyer is the host of the HORROR TO CULTURE podcast, vidcast, and website.