The upcoming 250th issue of Savage Dragon will feature a number of variant covers, with art from industry legends Walter Simonson, Rob Liefeld, and Frank Cho plus Marvel’s long-standing variant master, Skottie Young. The main cover for the series, from Savage Dragon creator Erik Larsen, will feature an homage to the first issue of Savage Dragon‘s 1992 miniseries, Larsen’s first work for Image Comics and the issue where his character of Dragon first got mainstream notice for hundreds of thousands of readers in the broader comics market (prior appearances by the character were limtied to low-print-run comics that were little more than zines).
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After 250 issues, all of which have been written and drawn by Larsen, Image is getting ready to promote the series as the next one to eclipse 300 issues. That was, before Spawn surpassed it recently, the record for longest ongoing run of an independent comic. Of course, there are some who have objected that Sim’s Cerebus was a different situation than Spawn, since Sim did the book all by himself, while Todd McFarlane has been using work for hire creators for almost all of Spawn‘s run.
The legitimacy of that argument can be made all day long, but it seems likely that if anybody is going to surpass Sim as a writer/artist who basically conjured an independent book out of thin air for 300 issues, it would be Larsen.
“He’s brilliant,” Grant Morrison recently told ComicBook.com during a conversation about The Green Lantern. “Erik’s a god; tell him for me. He’s like super-meta. He’s taken on all the changes in comic books. He’s like, f—ing done stories about it. He’s brilliant.”
Earlier today, Larsen shared an image from Savage Dragon #251, which sees protagonist Malcolm Dragon (he’s the son of the original Dragon, becuase the book unfolds in real time and Dragon is dead) beaten and bloodied. There’s not much information about that issue yet, but you can check out the primary cover for Savage Dragon #250 and the official solicitation text below.
ERIK LARSEN’S SAVAGE DRAGON HITS ISSUE 250! For 28 years, ERIK LARSEN has chronicled the lives and times of the Dragon and his extended family in one of comics’ only series set in real time. This monumental oversized milestone issue is a sweeping culmination that sets the stage for the next phase of comics’ most uncompromising series with its most shocking story yet! Forces have conspired against Malcolm Dragon and his family—but is this a turning point or…THE END?! Find out as SAVAGE DRAGON becomes the second original Image title to reach its 250th issue and begins the countdown to #300!
Savage Dragon #250 will be in stores on February 26, 2020.
