I've reviewed, interviewed, written commentary about the work and person of Erik Larsen. I obviously love his work, but what I also love about his work is that in the areas that are not purely his own, he offers homage to great artists, with great love. He has reached 30 years of comics with Savage Dragon, arriving in triple sized issue #267. I appreciate how hard it is to keep at a single intellectual property. (I am not good at that, being was told by my co-writer Michael May, you have to stop killing your main characters!) To keep a character's story, and living legacy alive for 360 months, it requires a love of the character. It requires a talent to evolve a story to tell. It requires craft and practice that most creatives do not themselves have.
An example of the hard work outlook, is that Dave Sim with Cerebus from his imprint Aardvark-Vanaheim was the first or one of the first to achieve such a number, with issue 300 of Cerebus. An independent comic book requires a sort of diligence and determination to achieve accomplishments like 30 years or 300 comics. It doesn't rely upon others to take the wheel and drive. It doesn't depend upon other talents to fill in the blanks, or aim at smaller stories to get to a number but with fewer pages. In fact, Larsen created more than one triple sized works within his runs.
His character may not be the highest selling character at IMAGE (frankly speaking I have no idea why or why not), but in my humble opinion, it isn't due to quality or taste. It is better than most of what is on the stands on a ongoing basis. Other comics utilize hot talents, big names, various gimmicks. The only thing I see as a gimmick is nonetheless original. His take on Savage Dragon using parody and satirical versions of comics and Sunday newspaper cartoons, was a gimmick, and I bought and gave away so many, that it ended up leaving me with no issue of SD 252. It was an amazing product, created with love and homage at heart, and it was well worth the cost. If I were a kid, I'd have read my issue to threads by now.
So look in previews or go to your retailer, and order it. You won't be disappointed, and the quality alone is the reason. My sentimental heart appreciates his blood, sweat and labors. But Savage Dragon goes well beyond the common product on the stands. It is consistent, intelligent, distinctly different and fun. How many comics can you really say that about?
Not many for me, frankly.
FINALLY... I can be found on Facebook, Twitter or through email Alexanderness63@gmail.com. I accept hard copies, so when you inquire at any of these places, I'll follow through by telling you my street address.If you send hard copies for review I will try to always review them, but if you prefer to send pdf or ebooks to my email, I will review these at my discretion. I don't share my pdf/ebooks, so you can avoid worry that I'd dispense them for free to others.
My Creative Blogs:
5k poem blog AlexNessPoetry.Blogspot.Com
Published works AlexNessPoetry.Blogspot.Com/2007/01/My-Work.html
is simply as fair use and no ownership rights asserted.
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