'Savage Dragon' #236 Features a 'Calvin & Hobbes' Homage

Savage Dragon #236, which hits the stands at the end of July, will feature an homage to Bill Watterson's classic comic strip Calvin & Hobbes, series creator Erik Larsen has revealed.

The issue, which features Malcolm and Maxine Dragon's three toddlers on the cover, now features a subtitle by Ferran Delgado featuring a Calvin & Hobbes-inspired "Savage Little Dragons" logo.

Because of the multicultural makeup of the Dragon family (each of the three kids is actually from a different mother, and each mother is of a different ethnicity, which Larsen admits is more evident than it probably should be, in order to keep the green-skinned, fin-headed toddlers straight in the minds of readers), Larsen also took to Facebook to take note of the fact that Watterson apparently never (or at least never that he could find) drew people of color into Calvin & Hobbes.

You can see Larsen's Facebook post, in which he discussed the issue and the lack of diversity in the beloved newspaper strip, below. At bottom, you can check out the cover to Savage Dragon #236.

(And yes, one of the Dragon kids actually is wearing a shirt that looks suspiciously like Calvin's.)

The decision to feature Malcom and Maxine's kids -- named Jackson, Tyrone, and Amy -- is a landmark, since this is their first "solo" cover. Larsen writes and draws Savage Dragon in real time; Malcolm took over the series from his father a few years ago (after being born in the pages of the comic and growing up with the readers).

At this point, to simply say that Larsen has passed another milestone in Savage Dragon is kind of old hat. The writer/artist has been with the same characters for a quarter century and has reached the point where about half of anything he does is "something nobody has reached before."

Still, seeing these characters -- who were conceived during the controversial group sex scene in Savage Dragon #200 -- not only old enough to be toddling around and walking, but to be featured as quasi-independent entities on the cover of the comic book is, as Larsen pointed out when he first shared the cover, "a trip."

Savage Dragon #236 will be on the stands on July 25.