I read this comic back in 1991 or whatever when it first started... it was pretty cool, but I hadn't picked it up since the first issue of the ongoing series. But I bought a couple of issues yesterday, and it was really really cool. The story itself was good (SPOILER: The bad guy-turned good guy-turned bad guy, Mako had kidnapped this woman that he loved... Dragon was there to get her back... Mako got whacked somewhere, and the girl came over to help him. Mako stood up and, thinking she was Dragon, punched her in the face, and her head exploded. NICE).
I also liked the art. Larsen had an uphill battle to climb with me b/c McFarlane's art on the adjectiveless Spider-Man title was, imho, AWESOME. ("Why do I shoot so much webbing??") When Larsen came out, I was less than thrilled. But, he really is a good artist, and he's especially good on Dragon. It shows that he cares about his creation.
But enough of that... none of that is why I'm going to start buying this comic again. Not only was there a full-length Dragon story, but there was an 8-page backup story after that, AND a one-page humorous comic after that. I don't know if this is exactly what's going on, but, it seemed to me, that Erik is giving some lesser-known people some opportunities at the end of his books. So very cool. We get stories that, so far, have been pretty good, creators get a chance to show their stuff, and no one has to worry about a new book with a new creator bombing! perfect.
Even cooler tho... Dragon still has a letters page. Wait, sorry... TWO pages worth of letters. And it's always proceeded by a nice little Larsen blog about what's going on with him and the comic. It's nice, when you finish a comic, to get a word or two from the creator. Anything to make things a little more personal and to get some thoughts about the issue you just read. For example, in one of the ones I bought, Erik goes on about how he subconciously stole his page layouts from Jack Kirby's Tales of Suspense (I think) #95. Something I never would have picked up on but think is amazingly cool to know.
I doubt that anyone reading this has any idea what I'm talking about. All this is just me saying that Erik Larsen is the Man, and it's great to see that the ideas that Image started out promoting are still alive and well somewhere.
And, what kind of brought this on is that I mostly read Marvel stuff with some Vertigo thrown in. Marvel has long since abandoned the letters' pages to save money. Everything with them is so... industrial or something. Utilitarian. I still love the Marvel characters, but I really miss the feel of being part of what's going on. The best example I can think of at the moment is this: I was reading this new series called "Hawkeye." (he's an Avenger, and he shoots arrows) So far, the series was reading like a pretty good mystery. Just so happened that the detective was a badass archer. Really enjoying it. Issue 8 came out yesterday and, apparently due to slow sales, issue 8 is the END. Ignoring the fact that 8 issues does not come close to giving a title a fair chance... especially when two of the issues were LATE... I got to the end expecting some kind of announcement or farewell or something. Nothing. The final frame had the word "End" in it, but that was it. No letters, no word from the creators, NOTHING to let me know that this series is over. If I didn't have access to the internet, I would have no way of knowing this was over. And that pisses me off. Marvel is just like, "here's the story, now good bye." If Erik Larsen can take the time to give his readers a paragraph every month, I think that Marvel should at least be able to devote a page to creator's thoughts or SOMETHING when a series is ending. I mean, damn.
Savage Dragon.com
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