Exclusive: Erik Larsen On Savage Dragon #196, His Nick Cardy Homage Cover and His Best Splash Page Ever
As Comic Con International: San Diego gets underway it's easy to forget that there are still [...]
As Comic Con International: San Diego gets underway it's easy to forget that there are still actual comic books being published.
Savage Dragon #196 is out this week, featuring a Nick Cardy homage cover notable for having been created just before the veteran artist's passing. Larsen joined us for a conversation about the new issue and what's next on the road to Savage Dragon #200.
Note that this is a spoiler-filled interview. If you haven't read Savage Dragon #196 yet, go buy it and read along with us.
This cover, of course, is a favorite but was drawn prior to Nick Cardy's passing. It's rare that you get an homage cover in Dragon, so what brought it on?
I was struggling with a cover and I had it in my head that I wanted to do something like those great old Nick Cardy covers that were grounded in the real world. Where Malcolm would be slamming into their lives and bursting through their little world. After coming up with a few variations I came to the conclusion that none of them would be as effective as an actual Cardy homage. So, I bit the bullet and did it. This is not something I typically do. This is the first, actually. Although I did have Herb Trimpe do an homage alternate cover some years ago.
Was "Cardy" always hidden on that sign? I remember seeing "Nick" on the wall from the word go.
It was there. Strangely enough--this is my second Cardy homage cover. I did one on Supreme a while back.
That's a pretty crispy look for Malcolm. I guess he doesn't get any special dispensation from serious burns just becuase he has lightning powers that could be likely to cause them.
This was from an exploding robot and I imagine he looked a lot worse earlier on. This is how much he'd healed since the explosion.
Does Dart have designs on Malcolm's body, or is she just really eager to be sure he's dead?
The latter. Dart wants to be sure that Malcolm is actually dead.
Given the importance of the "nice Chinese boy," did you do anything in particular to make sure you stayed on-model so that Charlie looked Chinese rather than another Asian race (a common gaffe in comics)?
Not really. My wife is Chinese so I just tried to stay accurate to her family. It's not always that simple because there's actually a pretty big range. Some Chinese look Japanese or even Eskimo. I just did the best I could there.
Zelda and her friend are kind of a-holes, huh?
I don't think Zelda Frip is so bad. She's a bit mousy and pushed around by the others. Zelda's at least trying to be helpful. I find her somewhat sympathetic but Herringbone Seed is pretty militant. He's out for blood. He's had enough. He wants this over now. Zelda's caught in the middle. Too timid to defy her masters.
There's been a fair amount of collateral damage around Malcolm's fights lately. Is that something that will be problematic for him down the road? I mean...we're at 2 buildings down in two or three issues.
It's true. I don't expect this to all go away. Thing is--it can't necessarily be helped. It's the high cost of super-powered beings.
That's some pretty impressive fight choreography. I think Malcolm uses his chain (and rock) more effectively than any chain-wielding superhero like Ghost Rider or Lobo I've seen.
Thanks. I was pretty pleased with how that all came together. I was showing the pages to Josh Eichhörn and he thought that spread toward the end of the book was the best thing I've ever done (and he's seen them all). That was pretty nice to hear. 22 years into the run and I'm still finding a way to top myself.
Is this one of those cases where you kind of wish you could have not solicited the next cover, or are you okay with it since the transformation wasn't really the point, just the endpoint, of the issue.
Oh, no--I'm totally fine with that. Covers are spoilers by necessity. It's really hard to maintain any kind of suspense given the fact that those get out there and show people what's going on months ahead of time. The beauty of it though is that I've already fulfilled my cover obligation with #197. That's already taken place--so I can do whatever I want after that. And readers have no idea what will take place in that issue. So that's pretty great.
But covers have had a huge impact on comics in general. I think a lot of stories at other publishers have been drawn out a lot longer than they would have been if they didn't have to show covers months ahead of time. It's kind of a drag that readers can see that Malcolm's missing an arm on one issue and back to normal on the next. The tendency is to drag that out and have him missing an arm for six months so that it becomes the new status quo which can be undone later. I can think of a few stories at other companies where they made big "permanent changes" which dragged on and on for much longer than readers would have liked. I do long for the days when all readers had to go on was a next issue blurb. I can remember as a kid being baffled by those and asking myself, "'The Tower that Tore the Sky'?--what does that even mean?" Now you see three covers ahead at any one point and those are selling tools.
"Look--Frap-Man has been turned into a monkey! It'll be that way forever! Psych! He's normal again! We sure fooled you, eh?"
And the beat goes on.
Are you keyed into what fans say? Has it been interesting to read us speculating online about what happened to disfigure him?
I'm aware of it to some extent. I don't go everywhere and read everything. I have work to do, after all.
