Malcolm and Maxine Dragon’s move to Toronto continues this week as Savage Dragon takes a huge turn for the NSFW in Savage Dragon #228.
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The gradual move toward a sexier, more X-rated Savage Dragon has been on for about two years now, but this month is a leap forward, and one that seems to have been foreshadowed by some of Larsen’s recent comments online.
Aside from that, and arguably more surprising to long-time readers, is the appearance of The Seeker, a villain who (as Malcolm correctly points out in-dialogue) has not appeared for more than 100 issues.
The Seeker first showed up in Savage Dragon #87, when Dragon paid his first visit to God Town, and attempted to eliminate him. It was assumed that he was an agent of CyberFace or a bounty hunter after the reward that had been put up for Dragon’s capture or death, although this was never specifically spelled out and later events would throw it into question. The Seeker’s glider got destroyed in this initial encounter when Dragon threw Thor’s enchanted hammer at it.
A couple of years later, CyberFace was long gone, but the Seeker continued his vendetta against Dragon. The hero had been given the task of delivering gifts to children in the place of a kidnapped Santa Claus (yeah, this was a pretty strange issue even by Savage Dragon standards). The Seeker injured Dragon to the point that he could no longer perform this task, but the Seeker himself once again lost his glider and was stranded in the Danger Zone of Chicago.
[Start Gallery Call-to-Action Key=7005]Larsen joined ComicBook.com to discuss the issue, its XXX content, and the “secrets of The Seeker.”
Spoilers ahead. If you have not yet read Savage Dragon #228 and want to be surprised, why not go buy a digital copy and read along with us…?
You had said you didn’t want to become a Toronto travelogue, but obviously as the family discovers new places, so are the readers. Can you tell us about the process of drawing landmarks like the one seen on the first page?
It depends on the page and the location. Often I’m referencing a photo but sometimes I’m tracing a photo while other times I’m printing a photo out in non-photo blue and inking it as though it was a drawing. Ideally nothing looks too out of place but it certainly can look somewhat weird at times. If my own made up buildings on other pages look too different it can be somewhat jarring seeing a real building. In cases like this—where the real building is very distinct it’s hard to just fake it. Though, I suppose, the argument could be made that this sort of thing is pandering to the .001% of the audience which is familiar with the actual location. Still—it’s nice to occasionally ground things in some semblance of reality.
In Dimension-X we have an interesting give and take going on. Does Alex actually WANT to stay?
Alex wants to bring back Dragon, however that’s accomplished. And she’s frustrated with how things are going back on Earth. If it was clear to her that Dragon could not be brought back—I don’t think she would opt to stay in Dimension-X.
It is weird to think of Alex as being old enough to make those “kids these days…” remarks.
25 years have passed for her too. She’s in her mid-40s. That’s one of the realities of a book and world set in real time.
Given the healing factor element, how can Malcolm have confidence that a vasectomy would take?
It depends on the kind of procedure you get but his would involve cutting, tying, clamping and blocking off the tubes. Since the tubes can’t untie themselves it can’t reverse itself. If a villain shot him full of holes and it all grew back—that’s a different story. Then things could grow back as they were prior to the operation.
Not long ago, you took to Facebook to ask just what it would “take” for hardcore fans to drop out. Was that inspired by how, err, hardcore the book is now getting?
Just asking. I recall Cerebus going through a long arc set in a bar, with nothing but conversation and another long period called “Reads” where is essentially became illustrated chapters in a book and I was curious if readers would be willing to sit through something as extreme as that. A short sequence in a single issue seems relatively harmless over the long haul. And with the Internet—please—I’m not doing anything that crazy. I just thought it was a funny visual that would be something of a shock to stumble across. It’s not as though it’s a bold, new direction or anything. .
Is Malcolm’s encouragement of the Kevin/Angel thing in part because Maxine continues to be so vocal about her attraction to Kevin?
Not really. He knows Maxine is just saying things to get a rise out of him. He knows she’s not serious. She says things to make Kevin feel better about himself and to make things awkward, which she finds hilarious. Maxine is good humored and Malcolm gets that. At the same time Malcolm can act a bit grumpy to counteract that but he’s not serious as well. They have a very playful relationship.
We see Guy and Duder on TV again — any chance of that series getting a reboot, since it’s now like a generation and a half removed from when it first showed up in the comics?
Nah. It’s an evergreen in this world like Itchy and Scratchy on the Simpsons. And I don’t really use it enough for a reboot seem all that different from what we’ve seen already. Guy and Duder is a concept I created as a kid with my friend Chris Vito, by the way. It dates back to 5th grade.
Now that you’re in Canada, any chance of seeing them meet up with Terence & Philip from South Park?
Zero. That kind of thing really only works when everybody is in on the gag. I can’t count on my entire audience being familiar with Terence & Philip or even South Park. It all needs to spring directly from the book itself. Ideally, any inside joke would be inside this book and its world.
I think “he showed up in issue #106” is my favorite line in the comic. Was that just a clever way of avoiding exposition, since in-universe the comic is a thing?
It is a weird line—but it was also established in the comic that there exists a licensed Savage Dragon comic—so it makes internal sense. Malcolm never met the Seeker or came into contact with him so his only familiarity would be through the comic book. He would recognize him from the Savage Dragon book, which would have been drawn from his father’s description of the events which transpired.
Was that panel right after Malcolm got shot in the head an intentional homage to The Walking Dead? It feels similar.
It wasn’t, no. Directly after I’d drawn it the thought did cross my mind but I didn’t look it up and see if it was on the same side of his face or anything. It was just a passing thought.
Do the Seeker’s secrets die with him, or will we ever figure out what his deal is?
There are no secrets to be had! He wasn’t anybody in particular — he was just a bounty hunter or assassin sent by CyberFace to take in Dragon and he never got the memo that CyberFace was overthrown and killed and that Dragon was dead. I’d considered shoehorning in some other nonsense but anything I came up with would have just been after the fact. There wouldn’t have been some nice trail of breadcrumbs that readers could have looked at. Readers assumed there was more to him than met the eye but there really wasn’t anything more there.
So, Kevin’s new relationship. Is that going to cause some trouble in Chez Dragon?
Yeah. Life takes a funny turn now and then. You never know where things are going to go. That’s part of the joy of life—and of this book. I’m constantly surprising myself along the way.
