Donald Trump To Appear In Savage Dragon

Erik Larsen's long-running Image Comics series Savage Dragon has featured every U.S. President since Bill Clinton in its pages -- and even a few high-profile Presidential candidates. Larsen is prepared to add President-elect Donald Trump to that list.

Larsen -- who is not a supporter of Trump -- revealed the tidbit to Facebook the other day, provoking dozens of responses from fans.

"It's in a 'let's just get this out of the way' kind of way," said Larsen, who had previously told fans he didn't plan on depicting the 2016 election in the book. "We see him on TV giving his victory spiel while a supporter yells out 'Kill Obama,' just like in real life."

Back in 2004, Larsen had Dragon -- then the title character of the book, which now stars his son Malcolm -- run for President against George W. Bush and John Kerry. It was part of a storyline where President Bush had been kidnapped by terrorists and replaced with an impostor, rather than a serious political story meant to analyze the election.

Since the comic is set in Chicago, and Dragon was working as an officer of the Chicago Police Department at the time, U.S. President Barack Obama appeared in Savage Dragon around the time of his inauguration as well. Larsen was the first in what became a torrent of creators to announce that Obama would be appearing in comics around that time.

It seems as though Trump's appearance is largely procedural and will not have story implications beyond just "hey, this is the President-elect," although obviously there are four years for that to change.

While Savage Dragon is likely to be Trump's first post-election appearance in comics, it's hardly the first time the real estate mogul and reality star has been in one. Besides a pair of hastily-produced bio-comics, Trump has, at a minimum, had a cameo appearance in Dark Knight III: The Master Race since the start of the election. In that issue, Trump is one of a number of talking heads on TV, a device employed throughout Frank Miller's Dark Knight series.

While Larsen did not specify on Facebook, it seems likely Trump's appearance will take place in the next issue, Savage Dragon #218.

A self-contained issue, Savage Dragon #218 was billed as "a day in the life of Savage Dragon," and is therefore likely as good a place as any to insert a cameo without disrupting the flow of an action sequence or something that plays into a bigger plot point.

Savage Dragon #218 is due in stores on December 7. You can pre-order a digital copy here.