Exclusive: Erik Larsen Talks Savage Dragon #195, FF Rumors, Invincible Crossover and More

It's been a while since readers caught up with Malcolm Dragon, newly-minted lead character in Savage Dragon, but today's issue #195 from creator Erik Larsen didn't miss a beat, jumping right into an action sequence and delivering about fifteen pages of fights, plenty of Vicious Circle leader Dart being a badass and, honest to God, more actual character work than most Big Two titles manage in an arc.

As ever, Larsen joined us to talk about the issue, what it means in the larger context of the series, and what to expect coming up from him in the near future.

Remember that these commentary tracks are spoiler-heavy. If you haven't already read Savage Dragon #195, buy it here and read along with us.

This seems like the clearest yet connection between the flashback material and the main storyline. Were you building to that, making them more obvious as they go on?

I wanted to establish the main players in his life. In the case of Malcolm's mom and dad--he's in jail and she's dead so it couldn't be quite as direct. I'd toyed with having Malcolm visit his mother's grave in #194 but it just didn't seem to fit. It wasn't his REAL mother--she died on an alternate Earth--and I don't see him making the effort for some other version that he didn't feel as connected to.

With Dart, it was another story. Here she was before--here she is now--BAM! Let's get into this. Plus, I wanted to establish her role early on.

You're also telling a continuing story in the flashbacks, even if it doesn't feel like that's a huge driving factor. Will what Malcolm saw last issue start to play a role going forward in the book?

If you mean the "death" of his mother--not a whole lot. The events early on did tend to make him very suspicious and paranoid but that doesn't seem to be playing a big part since coming out of Dimension-X and settling into a more normal life. I do think it's back there though.

Malcolm tends to be more suspicious. He's always looking over his shoulder and trying to look for ulterior motives--he's got trust issues.

Just for the sake of argument -- is the "replacement Rapture" just a Rapture from another reality a la the one DarkLord recruited, or something else? It seems potentially telling that the issue of Freak Force Alison is reading here deals a lot with clones.

At one point Rex was returning versions of both Raptures and Jennifer to their original earths--Darklord had tubes full of them--and there were some leftovers. There was nothing particular about that specific issue of Freak Force that I wanted in there--it just had a cover which reduced well.

That issue also features the Fantastical Force. Ever think there's never been a better time to put together a one-shot for them than when there are rumors Marvel will abandon FF?

That's not something I'd do even if they were alive--and they aren't. That FF was a one-shot parody. Making a book around them would be opening myself up to a potential lawsuit. And I don't put much stock in rumors.

With Sexy Beast, we've got the multiple-face thing again that we talked about last issue with recent characters like Tantrum and Torment. If these guys ever form a team, there would be way more mouths to feed than people to pay for the food.

Another pretty nifty design, I thought. I like the idea of the guy in his head having hands that look like ears and feet that look like horns. I probably should have spread these guys out a bit more so it wasn't so many in a row but I kind of put these guys to paper as they show up in my head.

Alison is very confident here -- and we've seen that she has reason to be, but the world of Savage Dragon is pretty brutal and I feel like anytime somebody gets too full of themselves they're gonna end up like Seghetti. Is that fair or am I projecting?

It's not unfair.

Is it fair to say that the parents' group here is kind of a twist on Bonnie Harris a little bit? The dialogue the first guy delivers felt very similar to when she first approached Dragon after Debbie was killed.

I wasn't thinking about it being a spin on that but it is natural--and it is something not a lot of people think about. There are victims all of the time in these stories. Every time the Hulk goes on a rampage people have got to be getting crushed and mangled--and there's never any follow up there. No irate survivors that lost an eye of loved one. It's as though it's all perfectly fine.

I like the idea that these things have repercussions. That these events have an impact and change other people's lives. We saw that with Bonnie Harris and we saw that with Brenda Funk.

Is there a balancing act here, as you're going back to ground zero with a new character, to giving Malcolm elements that help shape his backstory and possibly connect him to Dragon but at the same time not wanting to retread the same stories from Dragon's early days?

I never want to retread but inevitably there are bits that can seem that way. In a broad sense any fight can seem like a retread because there have been fights before. I'm certainly not looking at the early days for inspiration. But even so--there are characters that carry over--and characters have children--it's a generational book. Some things are inevitable.

Is Maxine the least safe character in the history of comics right now? I mean, she's got a superhero fetish (joked about in dialogue here), she's come back into Malcolm's life just as everyone else around him seems to be dying and Dart has her sights on him...and it's not as though there's a long history of Dragon's girlfriends doing particularly well.

It would seem that way but after all that's happened with so many characters it really would seem to be a bit redundant. Having every girlfriend buy the farm would be a bit much.

And I don't think of her as having a superhero fetish so much as she means to say that other guys don't measure up to Malcolm. If Malcolm died I don't see her chasing after some other character with superpowers.

What made Dart suddenly decide now's the time to go after Malcolm? Will that become clear or is it more in the vein of opportunity and timing?

It was really him crashing in on her that got that ball rolling. Once he was interfering directly with her plans it was a no-brainer. If Malcolm was taking care of maniacs like Tantrum and Torment--why should she care? They were destroying "her city" and she would welcome that. Once he's interfering with her own plans and taking down her own lackeys--that's another story. At that point he's in the way.

You say in the letter column this week that while you've got no plans for crossovers soon, Invincible is an option. Have you ever talked to Kirkman about that? Obviously he's a big Dragon fan and you dealt with the Omni-Man issue during your Supreme run.

We have talked but he has long range plans and needs to find a good spot. I'd like to do an actual crossover that spills from one book to the other. I haven't done that in a while.

Any updates on what we can expect from Dragon #200?

It'll be another 100-page issue. Several contributors doing short stories. Chris Burnham did a great one with Angel and Mr. Glum and there'll be others giving us a glimpse at other characters. Vanguard, Dragon, the SOS.

The main story with have Dragon and Malcolm in it. The bad guys come gunning for Dragon since he's easier to kill than Malcolm and he's in that Aunt May position of being close to a superhero and vulnerable. There's more to it than that of course.