Savage Dragon #199 Cover Revealed, Plans For 200 Taking Shape

Earlier this week when Savage Dragon creator Erik Larsen revealed the cover for the book's 199th [...]

By Russ Burlingame

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Earlier this week when Savage Dragon creator Erik Larsen revealed the cover for the book's 199th issue on Facebook, fans immediately responded by inquiring what he was going to do for #200. So far, he doesn't have a cover actually finished for #200 yet -- but what he does have is a logo, complete with the revelation that the issue will clock in at 100 pages, and may retail for as much as $9.99. The 100-page special issues aren't entirely uncommon to Larsen, who writes, draws and inks the series monthly but who gets other contributors to help out filling the massive, oversized anniversary issues. Such mammoth issues have been more common for Savage Dragon than for most series, with #50, 100, 115, and 150 all weighing in at the century mark.

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With other artists coming on board for things, it could be that the series -- which had run on time for most of last year but has been off its monthly schedule for most of 2014 -- has been delayed becuase Larsen had to prioritize writing scripts for work-for-hire artists. In any event, there is no Savage Dragon solicited for June and the July issue -- #197 -- is still three issues out (#194 came out in April), so it seems the title has to get back on that monthly schedule to stand a chance of #200 being released in 2014. It's hard to imagine just what might happen in #200 that could shake the status quo again. The series, after all, has just experienced a fairly massive shift in the form of Officer Dragon being imprisoned and de-powered, and his son Malcolm taking over as the hero at the center of the series. Larsen had been building to that moment since Dragon's apparent death in Savage Dragon #150, and after a few false starts, he opted to just get it going rather than waiting for #200 do officially kick off the Malcolm era on a big, round number. Apparently, he's been working on #200 (or at least planning elements of it) for some time. Luckily, he seems to have anticipated the problem and is working to resolve it. "Probably about a year ago, I was talking with Gavin Higginbotham about plans for the upcoming Savage Dragon #200," Adam Pruett told ComicBook.com in our interview about the launch of the new funnies pages at the back of the series. "We discussed the kinds of things that were being done in the book around the time the last major milestone issue, #100, came out. I realized I kind of miss the era of the book where the backup material was this constantly-shifting jambalaya of fun stuff; not just stories, but pin-ups, gag ads, lengthy letters columns, and so forth. I love the extended backup stories, but there had been a lot of that in the book lately (most recently the 12-chapter Vanguard serial), and I wanted to mix it up a bit. So, I threw together a mockup comic strip section and sent it to Erik, and he gave me the green light to move forward." Back in December, Batman Incorporated and The Nameless artist Chris Burnham announced that he would be drawing a backup story for the issue.

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"Dragon is one of my favorite comics ever," Burnham told CBR. "It's maybe the only comic I own every single issue of, all 192 issues or whatever. I love it. I'm gonna get to draw Dimension X. … I really like that it is entirely [Larsen's] world and he has complete command and mastery of the main character all the way down to the stupid little supporting characters that only show up once every couple years, and he just does whatever he wants with them. The stakes are always super high in Savage Dragon. He killed people at the drop of a hat, so when they're going on a mission to fight the Doctor Doom guy, that Doctor Doom guy is probably gonna kill someone." Michel Fiffe of Copra and All-New Ultimates will reportedly also do a backup story in the issue. See note below. Larsen is at work on the cover to Savage Dragon #200 now, saying that he had to get it out of the way to clear his head to work on other stuff. The cover to #199, meanwhile (pictured above), has a story of its own. "Drawing a new "twice up" Savage Dragon cover based on an old unfinished standard-sized one, long abandoned," Larsen wrote to Facebook when he first shared an image of the upcoming cover, next to an image of the abandoned one with Malcolm's dad standing in the starring role. "You can tell it was an old cover because Dragon was still in his cop duds." Savage Dragon #200 is on track for a release in late 2014 or early 2015. Ed. Note: Fiffe's contribution to #200 is a rumor I heard and believed to be true. Fiffe said it's "the first I've heard of it," and offered that it may be a pin-up he did that's included, but he doesn't know. Thanks to DragonFan.net for asking where I heard it and getting the gears turning. They also note:

On the question of Fiffe, Pruett further clarified...

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