Savage Dragon

While many early offerings from Image Comics were deliberately designed to appeal to their popular artists’ existing fanbases, Erik Larsen took a different approach, reviving a character he created at his kitchen table while making homemade comics with his friends as a child. And 32 years later, Larsen still stands apart from his compatriots as the only Image founder still regularly writing and drawing his original creation: The Savage Dragon. In this episode, we talk about Larsen’s influences and early career, how the series marries Bronze Age-style soap-opera subplotting to a distinctly Iron Age attitude and self-awareness, and why sometimes over-the-top violence and superhero silliness can be as true an expression of an artist’s creative freedom as anything else you’ll find in the comic book medium.