Featured Blogs >> Why YOU should be reading Savage Dragon
by Zack
2/8/2012
Why should you be reading Savage Dragon?
Are you a comic book fan that enjoys good stories? Are you a fan of action, drama, romance, humor and great characters? Do you wish that there was a comic that every issue you get would be a fun enjoyable read? You need to be reading Savage Dragon!
Let me start off by saying that this is an editorial and all it does is encompass my opinions on one of my favorite books. I do want to give a brief history of the character for people who may not know what I’m talking about. But after, I want to give my reasons on why more people should be reading this awesome comic. I do hope you keep an open mind and I hope this primer and the promotion at the store can help in spreading the love of the Dragon.
The Dragon was created by writer/artist Erik Larsen while he was still a child. From that moment on he honed his drawing
skills and wrote tons of comic stories with his character up until he began to work for Marvel and DC. In those early stories he began a rich mythos that still shines through to this day. The first comic to see the Dragon published was a 1980's fan comic called Graphic Fantasy. It was in it's #1 issue in which the Dragon made his debut.
The comic did not last many issues and the comic folded leaving Erik to find another place to showcase his talents. A new upstart comic called Megaton welcomed him and Dragon with open arms. After doing that magazine Erik Larsen was hired by DC and Marvel to draw their books, the most famously drawn Erik Larsen book being Amazing Spider-Man. Then the comic industry changed in 1991. In 1991 seven creators from the top selling books at Marvel left to form their own company which they called Image. Out of the gate all seven were going to create their own books and with ease Erik Larsen choose Savage Dragon to be the book he published. 178 issues later and the title is still going strong and one of only two original Image publications still being published (the other being Spawn). Another credit Savage Dragon has is ALL 178 issues have been written and drawn by Erik Larsen!
Savage Dragon first hit the scene in a three issue mini-series that evolved into an ongoing series book that continues to this day.
What makes Savage Dragon so fun? It has to be the love of comics that its creator Erik Larsen has shining through the page. Erik Larsen in interviews and through his comic has always enjoyed and advocated that comics are COMICS. That in comics you can have outlandish plot lines and characters. You can have over the top action, sexuality, humor and horror. Comics are a medium that has no boundaries except for the physical space of a page. That’s it. Since the beginning Savage Dragon has been a book that is adult in nature but fun in philosophy. I have never read an issue of Savage Dragon that was not fun, entertaining, imaginative, and well drawn. With every issue Erik Larsen puts himself and his creation out into the world. More often than not it’s great. Erik Larsen has created some of the coolest and fun characters for Dragon to interact with. In doing a creator owned b
ook he can do WHATEVER he wants with the characters and he does. Major characters die and are replaced with new ones. Characters have horrible and beautiful things happen to them. It is all fair game in Erik Larsen’s world. Another great thing about Savage Dragon is that if you are a fan of comics and its archetypes, Erik Larsen always uses those to pull a fast one on you. Many people who have read one issue of Savage Dragon say “I pickedit up and I’ve read that exact same story a million times! To which Savage Dragon fans always respond with “Did you finish the story? Because what you think happened, did NOT happen.” That happens all the time within Savage Dragon. A great thing about Savage Dragon is that there is tons of great jumping on points. In fact any issue is a good one to check out because the Savage Dragon book happens in real time. So in a sense you are following a life and not a series of plots. Savage Dragon began 20 years ago when the character was in his 30's and now he’s in his 50's. It’s an enjoyable take on how to handle an ongoing book.
In a fun example, when the comic book series first began Erik Larsen put out a call to kids to come up with and draw a villain that he would pick and put into Savage Dragon #10. The winning character was a pirate lobster named…Lobsterman.
That is what Savage Dragon is about everyone. It’s about a pure love of the art form. It’s about the fun of opening up a story between two covers. There’s a rich and fun world awaiting anyone who wants to dig into this fantastic character and comic. It’s why (in my opinion) YOU should be reading Savage Dragon.
