Erik Larsen On The Heartbreaking Savage Dragon #218

Today sees the release of Savage Dragon #218, a stand-alone story telling "a day in the life of" Malcolm Dragon.

It's actually much more than that, though: it's a poignant and heartbreaking story about how even when you have what seems like a limitless amount of power, not everything can break your way.

The issue catches fans up with the realtime element of Savage Dragon that's been a little off kilter with so many recent cliffhanger-style endings that mean an issue continues moment to moment while the real world ages a month or more.

For most comics, that's not a problem -- but for something like Savage Dragon, time marches on for Malcolm the same way it does for the rest of us reading.

Along the way, the story touches on the Chicago Cubs winning the world series, Donald Trump winning the U.S. Presidential election, and more.

Writer/artist Erik Larsen joined ComicBook.com for a discussion of the issue, why it felt like time to slow down a little bit, and how the events of #218 might play out in the series going forward.

These commentary track-style interviews are spoiler-heavy, so if you haven't readly seen Savage Dragon #218, go buy a copy and read along with us.

What made you decide you needed a "day in the life" issue now? Did that come before or after the decision to do the cancer story?

The "day in the life" aspect definitely came first. I'd done a number of issues which spilled one into another. I knew the Spawn crossover would be two issues and I thought it'd be nice to just take a break from all that and catch up with the characters as people.

Initially I was thinking it'd be a lot more fragmented—but once I settled on the cancer story that really took over. I was thinking it'd be a good idea to show that characters in the book can die of natural causes as well. There have been a lot of sudden deaths in the book where something sudden happens and a character dies unexpectedly but there should also be a sense of normalcy. Things happen to real people.

And that story came right out of real life. My best friend, and best man, died of cancer less than a year after I got married and my wife's father died of cancer during the time she was pregnant with our first son and while her brother's wife was pregnant with twins. So, with three grandchildren on their way he found out he had cancer and died within a few months. That, and my own dad passed away a couple years back and those feelings are still very raw. I don't often tell stories based in part on actual events but it seemed a good fit.

Maxine's first reaction is "Malcolm can do it; he can do anything." Is that something we're going to see fallout from after this issue?

It's more of a gradual dawning on her part that Malcolm is not capable of doing everything. With all of his powers—there are still limitations. He can't save every life and do everything. At the same time, he sure did try to. He went the extra mile to try and make things work and that's got to count for something.

So: Craig loses an arm. At this point, I have to assume that some kind of longer-term childcare plan has to start being a priority?

Or more carefully selecting people to help out. It's a weeding out process.

There's a bit of catch-up with Dragon. Obviously it plays nicely into the plot, but was part of that as a welcome to potential new readers who come on for the one-and-done?

I really have no idea how many really notice or care that an issue is self-contained. I think it's a plus but I've gone quite a few issues like that over the years. It was more story-driven. He's there to throw out the first few breadcrumbs to follow.

Has Dragon actually been tried or convicted for killing Urass?

Not that we have seen. There's really not a lot to it. And at that point he's already on death row. Are there trials where there is no dispute over the facts and a guy is already scheduled to die? Likely there would be but we didn't see it so we can assume whatever we want, I suppose. Nothing at this point is really nailed down. I don't know that it matters as far as the readers are concerned.

Wow...She-Dragon feels like a long time ago at this point. Why bring Amy into the story here? Was it just covering all bases so that fans didn't fill the letter column with questions about her?

Again—scattering breadcrumbs. Plus, I wanted to reestablish that she's still alive and around. I haven't defined as many police officers as I had years ago and I thought it'd be a good idea to establish her as a participant here. And, story-wise, she's the next step and I wanted to show Malcolm going to great lengths to try and save Maxine's dad. I had planned to have a page toward the end where her parents really fought he on this—that they really didn't want him to be experimented on—but ultimately, I decided not to go that route.

We get a mention of Glum's trial here -- and solicitation text certainly teases where that might be going. Why let that cat out of the bag so early?

The trial is in the next issue. I thought I should at least mention it. Initially, I'd thought of doing a Glum page, but like a lot of things, that had to be left out. I usually have a few things that I didn't have room for. A page seemed like a needless distraction whereas a mention seemed appropriate and doable.

Will we be seeing PJ's story play out soon? It seems like his blood was for more than another stop on the "save Maxine's dad" tour.

There'll be follow up on that. I'd actually planned to do a PJ scene for a while but there never seemed to be the space.

We've got a lot of details in this issue about what Dragon blood can and cannot do. It feels a bit, though, like after blowing up Barry and then not using it to save Maxine's dad, as a major plot device this is kind of wrapping up. Is that a fair assessment?

Oh, I'm not done. It's part of the tapestry. It's one of the many cards I can play. But I'm trying to set a few limitations. I don't want it to become another quick fix for everything.

Obviously we had the Cubs winning the World Series, which is something that would play into Dragon. Was it important to get "caught up" ASAP and get the reaction out there while it was still timely?

When it happened—I knew I had to work it into the book. I'd mentioned the Cubs in the first issue of the first Savage Dragon miniseries and a couple other times along the way. This was huge for the city of Chicago and I didn't want to ignore its impact. I also like to use real events to firmly establish a fixed time and place. And I loved drawing the kids excitedly jumping up and down. They would, of course, have no idea what was going on—they just did ad little kids do and react to the energy in the room. They were excited because mom and dad were excited.

Same with the election. It seems you're the first to deal with the election of Donald Trump on the page. Is it safe to assume he will not play as significant a role in stories as Bush and Obama did years ago?

I'm in a "wait and see" mode on that. Definitely in the run up to the election there was some serious race baiting and tensions were super high. The guy has been on nearly every side of every issue, so it's really hard to know what to expect from him as a commander-in-chief. If he's the same toxic clown he seemed to be as a candidate that could easily lead to some terrible s--t. Already a lot of people have been exposed in the real world as super-racist and it's shown the real ugly side of America—if that doesn't change and things get super f---ed up, it's my duty to reflect that. If he becomes another useless, ineffective leader who can't get anything accomplished—there's little point in mentioning him. It all depends on what he turns out to be and that's a huge unknown since he's never been in public office and we don't really know where he stands on much of anything. He's backed off on a ton of things that he said he would do. What happens next? I don't really know. That page was the last to go out. I knew I was covering the election but I wasn't sure how it'd go. No matter who had won, the reaction would have been essentially the same—we're f---ed.

And that leads to another scene that ended up on the cutting room floor. I was going to have two time-traveling assassins show up—one from a future where Clinton took office and one from a reality where Trump did and in both realities things just went to hell. But logistically, it was problematic, and I simply didn't have the space.

One of the things I noted and liked growing up was the president showing up in The Incredible Hulk. It seemed like there was a presidential portrait of sorts with every new administration. I've made it a point to do that as well and I kind of wanted to just get it out of the way. But you never know. If Trump's presidency is at all significant I might touch on it again.

How much of what Maxine says about her father's death and the "better place" argument is informed by Maxine's actual philosophy versus how much is just grief talking?

I think it's both. It's kind of my reaction to hearing that as well. I could hear myself saying, "I know you're trying to make me feel better about my dad dying but it is totally not helping at all. I would be way happier if he was still around and I'm sure he'd be a lot happier if he was still around." People are remarkable ill-equipped to handle grief. Both personally, and with other people. I have a friend now who's going through a rough patch and his big beef is friends vanishing because they simply don't know what to say and how to deal with a friend going through some heavy s--t. Man up and be a goddamned friend, you know? But, yeah, Maxine is going through a lot there.

NEXT: Donald Trump to Appear in Savage Dragon / Fan-Made Animation Merges Spawn and Savage Dragon / Erik Larsen on Trump's Savage Dragon Appearance / The Ten Best Single-Issue Savage Dragon stories / Erik Larsen Reveals Savage Dragon Baby Names