Dreaming of the Man of Steel: Erik Larsen on Superman (But Only With Red Trunks)

Earlier today on Facebook, Savage Dragon creator and friend of the site Erik Larsen posted a message which, after about a hundred messages (many of which were pretty snarky or agitated), it seems is worth sharing, if for no other reason than to see how our readers would react as opposed to just Erik’s friends, fans and followers:

I woke up early this morning after having had a very vivid dream about taking over–and restoring–Superman. In my dream I was writing and pencilling the book, Terry Austin was the inker and Mike Carlin was the editor. The whole pitch was to do for Superman what Steve Ditko did for Spider-Man and Jack Kirby did for the Fantastic Four–give it such a solid foundation and full rogues gallery that all successive creators would have to do is play with those toys. My one stipulation: The red underpants must return. And a great time was had by all.

This led to a long discourse between Larsen and his followers about the Superman costume, with some fans advocating quite passionately for and against the red trunks and the requisite reference to Nazis that’s bound to happen in every conversation on the Internet.Lightening the mood a bit, longtime Superman Group Editor Mike Carlin, meanwhile, chimed in: “Trunks or no trunks… thanks for employing an old editor in yer dreams, Erik!”When some fans noted that Larsen was likely to be able to leverage his reputation and years on Savage Dragon (not to mention characters like Spider-Man and Aquaman) into an issue or arc on Adventures of Superman, the artist backed off, saying, “Not into that. I’ve drawn Superman before in a couple things so it’s not simply the opportunity to draw him once which excited me–it was creating a universe.”He has, too–the image at right is an actual cover to Superman & Savage Dragon: Chicago, which was drawn by Larsen before being painted over by Alex Ross.The artist added, “In any case–this wasn’t an appeal to get the gig by any means. Just telling you guys about a nutty dream that I had. Nothing more. I have my real dream book already.”