Erik Larsen Talks Savage Dragon #207, The Coming Showdown With Glum and THAT Resurrection

09/30/2015 07:21 pm EDT

Today's game-changing issue of Savage Dragon is a treat for long-time readers.

We not only get the first part of what's reportedly the "final battle" pitting Malcolm Dragon and Angel Murphy against Mister Glum and Angel Dragon, but we get a clue as to what's going on with Damien Darklord.

These two are long-dangling subplots, the resolution of which has been anticipated by finheads for a while now.

What's arguably more surprising is that we get the re-emergence of Jennifer Murphy, also known as the superhero Smasher and the mother of Angel, who lived with Dragon and Malcolm following Jennifer's death.

...Wait, what? Isn't she dead?

Larsen joined ComicBook.com to discuss the issue.

Note: These interviews are spoiler-heavy. If you haven't already read Savage Dragon #207, go get a copy at your local comic shop or buy one online and read along with us.

You know — I think "double-page splash of people having sex on top of a mountain of corpses" is probably something you can check off your bucket list now. Well done!

That one was a pretty fun one. Not the kind of thing I could draw in a public place. As always, tastefully done -- no naughty bits -- but it's pretty clear what's going on.

I was just at a show where a couple fans were telling me stories about their parents losing their shit when they opened an issue of Savage Dragon back in the day and there was something like that going on. It's not a book for kids--or rather, it totally is, just not a book to show your parents.

I'd also never really thought about it, but I guess when you spend enough time in deep space and basically EVERYTHING is a different species than you, you end up with a different view on what some people could call cannibalism, huh?

Yeah--none of it's people to Angel and that's just the way the others roll. Note that Angel doesn't say that she'll be chowing down on it so it's not explicitly clear where she fits into the food chain but she's clearly okay with feeding the corpses of their fallen foes and teammates to the others.

The balance of "weak enough to be defeated but strong enough to beat the next group" is kind of a flaw in the super villain business model when you think of things like Warworld and the like. That Glum and Evil Angel are so matter-of-fact about the workings of their empire makes for entertaining dialogue. Was all of this something you've always wanted to do with Glum, or was it kind of just the way to bring the battle with Malcolm and Angel into line as a more or less 2-on-2 affair?

Originally I was going to do something else entirely and have a pile of the SOS guys come spilling into Dimension-X but those kinds of fights generally suck because everybody ends up getting a panel in the spotlight and everybody else gets the short end of the stick.

Originally it was going to be a big brawl spanning two issues and at the last minute I decided to spend an issue entirely in Dimension-X and really get to see just how Angel Dragon and Mr. Glum spent their time. See what they did. I really haven't done many stories like this where I turned the focus over to the "bad guys" and let them shine.

Structurally, it made more sense to just have it all go to shit and then have the good guys show up. And it makes the follow up a stronger story as well because it's not an unwieldy mob scene. I've done a few too many of those lately and I'm never that happy with them. This feels more up close and personal.

There's obviously been a lot of talk about the sex in the book recently, but it's nothing new. Do you think that's just a matter of people looking to be offended, or do you think part of it is that it's been a few years since sex was a prevalent theme in the book until recently?

Honestly--I don't care if people who don't buy the book and have never bought the book air their grievances and continue not to buy the book. People just bitch because it's fun to bitch. It makes them feel alive. We're hip-deep in the age of outrage where everything is a cause for outrage and I'm sorry--but I don't care. I just don't. Go create something worthwhile yourselves, people--go make your safe, inoffensive, generic comic and the rest of us can collectively yawn and go back to looking at books with an actual point of view that tell a compelling story. The characters are all adults and that's what adults do if they're lucky.

I know a lot of fans have speculated that we could see Evil Angel turn out to be key to defeating Glum, but I don't know. She seems pretty bloodthirsty here, not only in battle but also killing Toady after establishing that she had a pretty decent relationship with him earlier. Is she kind of the wild card here?

Toady is unconscious, not dead. Angel Dragon is a mess, sure, but Earth is not a welcoming place for her at this point. Deep down she knows that she doesn't have a lot of alternatives. After her speech it's clear she's not entirely happy with how things have gone down but even so--it's hard to imagine her handing over Glum and going along peacefully.

When you have things like the 15-panel grid, is that easier to swing now that you're working twice up?

It absolutely is. Incidentally--this issue really does read better in print than as digital. Those pages are drawn to sit next to each other. Just aesthetically, I mean. As a stand alone page that one which precedes that 15-panel page looks a bit odd. Stack next to the 15-panel page it just looks better. There are a couple places like that in here.

It's been a while since we saw the Awesome Eater, and it's one of my favorite and most insane Dragon designs. Again, I have to ask: Has his role here always been planned or did it just kind of fit in nicely with what you were trying to accomplish?

He was introduced more than a hundred issues ago! If I'd planned this bit that far ahead it would have been insane. I have very bare bones long term plans and those can change in a heartbeat. I look at the characters like I do real people. We all have long term goals--things we're working toward--but nobody knows for sure what anybody's going to do or say. Plans can get messed up in a heartbeat. Grandpa drops dead in his oatmeal and the whole family reunion can be turned into a wake. So, no--his role was not always planned.

At the end of the battle, Glum sounds like he's blaming Angel. Would you say he's being unfair or just kind of telling it like it is: All-in was her idea and sometimes, unfortunately, that means losing big?

They're both shitty, flawed people to some extent. They'll hurt each other and then make up and then go and do it all over again. That's a part of how their relationship works. The issue starts with the aftermath of Glum screwing up--he went into battle with too few guys and they lost their lives--and then they went all-in and that proved to be a bad idea as well. Had the Awesome Eater not showed up--it would have been brilliant. Shock and awe. Battle ended with little loss of life--but then they had an uninvited guest and it all went bad.

Certainly during their big argument, she feels a little more innocent and naive than she has in a while. Do you think there's an element of this Angel not having actually "grown up?"

She's 21 years old. At that age you're really not grown up. Not really. This reflects that. And it happens all the time when you're young--you make stupid mistakes and blame others. I have a kid that age. He doesn't take responsibility for anything. Nothing is his fault.

We've all been waiting for the Darklord story AND the Glum story to resolve themselves, and now it seems the two are very tied in. What can you tell us about how that will play out?

I can't tell you much other than Darklord does not show up in this story. The Glum thing needed to be dealt with. He'd taken over the world at one point and it didn't make much sense that the government would just be cool with that.

So, wait…is Dragon technically married?

Dragon never married this Jennifer Murphy. He married evil Angel's mother not the other Angel's mother--so--no.

Jennifer's return was a total surprise to me. Is it safe to say I probably should have been clued in by the way Darklord "killed" Dragon at the end of the Emperor Dragon story?

Yes and no. Every other time we've seen Darklord kill somebody--be it Dragon or Rapture--we've seen them be torn to bits. With Jennifer Murphy--we never saw that effect. She looked to be in perfect condition when she was blasted so it was fair to say that her situation was different. She was teleported.

The Glum/Angel stuff was so compelling that I honestly didn't think about the fact that we got all the way to the last page without seeing Malcolm until it happened. Are we going to get a sense later for what he was doing during all of this, or is that just kind of the boring, nuts-and-bolts "looking for bad guys" stuff?

No. We skip all that setup. It would eat up too much room. It can be hinted at in dialogue. We don't need to see Malcolm tying his shoes and whatnot to know that he has shoes on. We get it. Angel and Mr. Glum gave us all we need to know. They talked about what they did and who might come after them. It did feel a bit weird focusing on Angel Dragon for an issue instead of Malcolm Dragon but he's had his share of time in the spotlight and I thought it made for a good story. Ultimately, that's what I'm concerned with.

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