Erik Larsen On Savage Dragon #205, The Abortion and Ant-Man's Evil Twin

There wasn't a lot of superheroics in this week's issue of Savage Dragon, but that didn't stop [...]

By Russ Burlingame

There wasn't a lot of superheroics in this week's issue of Savage Dragon, but that didn't stop it from being pretty epic.

In the grand scheme of the series, there were at least two events that will have long-term ramifications for Malcolm, Angel and the rest of their circle...and by virtue of Malcolm's reaction to one piece of information, it's clear we've got a long-term story on our hands.

At least for, y'know. Nine months or so.

Erik Larsen joined ComicBook.com to talk about the issue.

This is a spoiler-heavy interview. If you haven't read Savage Dragon #205 yet, go buy a copy and read along with us.

Did anything in particular inspire the panel-structure experiment in this issue?

I'd seen Frank Miller do occasional pages like that in Daredevil and I thought it would be kind of a challenge to see if I could sustain something like that for most of an issue. It seemed too much to do that on every page--it would mean too broad of a focus if I hit on that many characters--and a bit too monotonous, perhaps but it seemed like an interesting challenge. I did a page-high vertical panel on the other pages to mix things up a bit. It was also a challenge to establish location given that many lead in panels were open.

Given the fact that pretty much every character had a full-body shot the height of the page, how much thought did you give to their wardrobe this issue?

Quite a bit. And there was a defunct T-shirt guy whose collection I raided for a few of them. And some fun sight gags in the mix. Giving Thunder-Head a Misfits shirt with its skull face was nice, I thought, especially with Glenn Danzig being a comic book fan.

The "big" moment of this issue is the Maxine pregnancy, of course, but we already knew about it from LEGACY. Do you wish you could have kept that to be a bigger surprise now or, given that Angel and Tierra found out/announced it first, do you figure using FCBD to get the "big" pregnancy out as the first one was the better plan?

I don't know that I'd say it was "big" -- it was the final shoe to drop as far as Malcolm was concerned. I tried to treat it as less of a big event. She just kind of threw it out there in a nonchalant way and it was, for her, something of a relief because suddenly Angel and Tierra didn't have anything over Malcolm that she didn't. have. It wasn't like Malcolm would feel more pressure to "do the right thing" with one of the others now.

Obviously we also know from LEGACY that she gets at least to the third trimester without major medical issues. Does that indicate that Maxine is fairly safe, or will we have to wait until labor to find out?

Nobody is ever safe in this book. That's how that works. All we can say for sure is that she'll make it as far as the issue where Legacy is worked into the mix.

That said, can we really trust that Tierra ISN'T pregnant now? Or is it possible she just decided she didn't want anything to do with that sleaze-bag?

We can only speculate. But regardless--at that point Tierra was in no mood to play ball with Willy.

I really like Carl here; he seems really grounded and to have a good handle on what it means to be, and be around, Malcolm. Will we see more of him, or will he be effectively out of the book once high school is over?

Part of the attempt in the issues after Malcolm officially took over the title was to establish some kind of supporting cast. Some characters will stick--others won't. Most of us have a friend or two that we've stayed in touch with post-high school and I would expect things to be no different with Malcolm.

You know, Barry/BattleDragon is probably a better fit for the whole "evil twin" thing. Will we see his story come into play anytime soon?

Yes. He's actually mentioned in the next issue and I expect that he'll be sought out.

Obviously, we HAVE seen Kevin on the cover of the upcoming wedding issue, so it seems likely he'll be playing a bigger role soon, right?

Yeah. But not necessarily a s anything other than a big brother role. I think of him as Malcolm's council at this point. Somebody to talk to and seek advice from.

One more of these: Larry Bradford has shown up a few times lately. Any chance we'll be hearing a bit more from that family soon?

Yeah. There'll be more of them--especially as their daughter grows into her role as the new Mighty Man.

Erik, you do such a good job of making "extras" and background characters distinct, that I find myself spending a lot of time wondering, "Do I know him?" I know you've talked a little about this on Facebook recently, but what makes that so important for you?

People are individuals and it's always a good idea to try and do that if for no other reason than having the characters look more interesting. It's uninteresting if everybody looks the same.

Angel gets an abortion here, and while we don't actually go into the procedure with her, we get every other part -- looking for the information/doctor, dealing with the boyfriend, and then the immediate reaction. How's this going to affect Angel going forward?

It affects people in different ways. Some people can walk if off and almost treat it like a form of birth control--with others it can really weigh on them, especially if they have trouble conceiving down the road. And I would think, with everybody to some extent that there's that lingering thought of "what if" and some guilt for having taken a potential life.

Will it impact Malcolm at all? Obviously he encouraged the abortion, and it isn't his body, but once he's dealing with a kid he DOES want, it seems like that has the potential to mess with his perspective a little.

I'll touch on that. When we're a bit further along. Angel's not shouting about it from the rooftops or anything. He'll eventually be informed about what went down there.

Frank did everything right this issue, but he was certainly taken aback by the revelation that Malcolm might be the father. Given that we know the pair will be working closely together in the not-too-distant future, will that be an issue for them?

I can't imagine that it wouldn't be at some point. I don't think Frank's going to confront him any time soon but it's simmering there.

It totally didn't occur to me at the time, but Maxine's force field looks and functions a lot like the one Emil Hamilton had in the early Adventures of Superman stories in the '80s. Since Rex Dexter is eccentric enough to remind me of Hamilton more than most other comics geniuses, I have to ask: Safe to say that's a coincidence?

Yeah. I don't remember that at all. I wasn't paying that much attention.

In spite of being the core of the superhero stuff, the Vicious Circle grunt's attack on the prom kind of seems like the least important element of the issue. Will we see some of the fallout from that later, or was that just to mix things up and keep the book from being too talky?

I always draw the covers well ahead of time and I felt it needed to be in there but yeah--agreed. It was the least important thing. This was much more of story about the supporting characters and their lives. Its only importance was emphasizing that Dart hasn't forgotten about her adversary.

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