Exclusive: Erik Larsen On Savage Dragon Legacy and Free Comic Book Day's Game-Changer

Warning: Spoilers ahead for Savage Dragon Legacy.It's the mid-afternoon here on the East Coast, [...]

By Russ Burlingame - May 2, 2015 05:15 pm EDT

Warning: Spoilers ahead for Savage Dragon Legacy.

It's the mid-afternoon here on the East Coast, so Free Comic Book Day audiences have almost certainly already picked up their books and are starting to work their way through them.

Erik Larsen brings Image's offering to the table this year in the form of Savage Dragon Legacy, a celebration of a creator-owned series with over 200 issues in the can and a new status quo every dozen or so that keeps its fan base as engaged as nearly any in mainstream comics.

Today's issue gives readers an insight into the next big status quo change in the form of Malcolm Dragon, the series lead, going home to his very-pregnant girlfriend Maxine. Savage Dragon Legacy, as fans will know, is set sometime in the near future and at this point in the comic -- which unfurls in real time, more than 20 years having passed in-story since its first issue -- Maxine isn't pregnant at all.

Larsen joined ComicBook.com to talk about today's issue, the surprising revelations about the coming year or so of the series and Malcolm's transition from high school student to police officer and father.

First off -- are the SFX in that opening battle scripted? For some reason they really stuck out more than usual (in a good way).

It was really no different than in any other issue. As time goes on I think I'm getting a bit more in sync with Chris and vice versa.

This might be just my bad memory since it's been a while since the last issue but...weren't Malcolm's lightning powers gone?

There are a few spoilers in this yarn. Needless to say, by the time this appears in the ongoing book things will be different. Those powers will be back in place. there are a few other things in the issue as well that haven't been seen in the book just yet and that's the downside of having books come out out of sequence.

Obviously the sequence of issues has been juggled a little. Can you talk about why this story was the one you wanted to present for FCBD even though if people pick up #203 after this it will be a different flavor for a while?

I wanted it to be a starting point and that meant a beginning of sorts and since Malcolm was going to become a police officer down the line it seemed like an ideal place to set things.

With an issue like this, are you hoping that the fabled "new readers" for FCBD are people who have no background with the character at all, or maybe that they're people who remember the title from the '90s but haven't read it? Did you write with a particular audience in mind?

Sure. The point was to catch lapsed readers up to speed, give current readers a tantalizing glimpse into the future and to provide a basic foundation for readers completely in the dark. I really anguished over a lot of this and kind of kick myself for including as much information as I did. I'd cut it down considerably.

Initially I'd planned to have flashbacks to a lot of events and I decided it was all too much. ideally every issue should have enough backstory to make it comprehensible on its own but not so much that you're left with too many questions. I may have gone a bit overboard on the info dumping.

When he's in uniform, do you feel like you lose some of the "teenager" shorthand in his wardrobe and things that helps to distinguish Malcolm from his old man?

It's inevitable. Malcolm is growing up. He's a young adult. We'll still see him in civvies at times and see friends who are clearly young but as the book goes on, Malcolm gets older. It's the nature of having a book set in real time.

Will Malcolm go to college? I mean, he's got a job right out of high school that's likely to keep him pretty busy.

We'll see. He feels a big responsibility to use his powers for the benefit of the citizens of Chicago. He's had that whole responsibility thing drummed into his head. It really comes down to his motivation and goals. Is he working toward something or is being a police officer the end goal. If he's achieved what he set out to do--why go to college? For the social aspect? For the sake of learning? At this point he's taking some time off from school but time will tell.

We get a pretty solid primer on Dragon's backstory in the dialogue here. Was that just for the purposes of establishing it for new readers, or will we be seeing more of Dragon coming up soon?

A bit of both. He's still part of the book to some extent--or at least his legacy is a part of it.

I do love the fact that the guy's name is actually Peckerwood. Subtlety, thy name is Erik Larsen.

I have my moments.

This isn't the first time recently that somebody's made a comment about Glum and Angel's relationship -- and not a happy one. Is it safe to assume that the recently-released 208 cover will play into some kind of rescue mission or direct follow-up to the events of #200 and the FCBD issue?

There's likely to be some slight dialogue tweaks when this story sees print in the pages of Savage Dragon. Initially I was thinking of having this issue take place immediately after Malcolm graduated from high school but more recently I thought it'd be a good idea to shove in a few non-cop related stories before this ran. It would hardly make sense for Malcolm to run off to Dimension-X while he's an active police officer, after all, and I didn't want to put off that confrontation forever.

So after those issues appear dialogue in this story might need a few tweaks. Readers can compare the two and see what I mean.

I'm intrigued by Dragon's comment that he always thought the two would end up together (Malcolm and Angel). Was that something you really considered as a long-term possibility?

It was on the table.

Obviously the brother/sister thing has been played up by certain elements of the trade press. Apparently that didn't really faze Dragon?

It's a weird issue. Dragon raised Angel for a few years but he didn't actually know that Malcolm was alive. So the two weren't raised as brother and sister. By the time they were sharing the same household Angel's mom was dead so the there wasn't a family unit there. It's not really as icky a thought when you consider how and where these characters actually were.

How far did Malcolm throw a pair of newborns? Jeez!

Malcolm has that same kind of aim that his dad had. The two had lost all momentum when they landed and they hit quite softly.

Babies are quite the recurring motif in the last few pages, eh? Will we see an explanation for Fountainhead trying to get the Krylan babies? I mean...do they think that there could be a new chosen one in the mix?

We'll find out what the story is down the road. At this point any chosen ones will have to come from Malcolm as his old man is incapable of producing another.

Did you know when you created her that Maxine would be the one to have Malcolm's child?

No. I didn't even know they'd end up together. Sometimes I'm the master architect here and sometimes I'm just a father hoping for the best with my children.

This certainly gives us a little bit of a sense for how far in the future the book is set, right? Since she's presumably either not pregnant or in the first trimester now.

We'll see as things unfold. There's only so much I can say.

Was the decision to make her pregnant now part of the reason Malcolm laid down the no-dudes rule during their sexual experimentations? So you don't have conspiracy theorists between now and when li'l Finhead is born?

That wasn't part of it, no. That was just Malcolm's own deal. I really think more about character than plot when I do these stories. What are the characters' preferences, needs or desires? What are their tastes and concerns? Their fears and wishes?

When plot comes first inevitably there comes a time when characters are forced to act out of character in order to service the plot. I prefer to let the characters decide and to map out a number of possible directions based on the consequences of their decisions. It's more work to do things that way but ultimately events ring more true because of it.

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