Erik, you've been pretty darned busy these days with your upcoming Marvel stuff, as well as keeping your 7 years and counting run on the Savage Dragon for Image Comics. Thanks for taking the time to speak to us.
 
No problem. Christ -- what time is it? Can somebody grab me a caffeinated beverage.
 
First of all, on behalf of all your legions of fans, thank you for your dedication and committment to producing entertaining funnybooks on a regular schedule.
 
Thanks for your support.
 
Regular schedule. Now there's an interesting concept in this day and age. It seems that many comic professionals have forgotten what deadlines are, many of which have been involved with Image and Wildstorm Comics. What do you think of these people, that seem to be ignoring the fans that made them the superstars they are today; the ones that are more interested in chasing movie and merchandise deals. What would you say to them as a comics reader?
 
Well, as a reader I'm as frustrated as the rest of you-- I want to see these comics and I can help but think that the entire medium would benefit if these coddled prima donnas would put down their damned video games and pound out a few funnybooks. Apparently these guys are feeling indestructible right now but honestly fellows -- Dale Keown was hotter than all hell and now he can't get arrested (okay, okay -- he CAN get arrested -- but his book has certainly fallen on hard times).

Aquaman. Sacked.
Wolverine. Sacked.
Nova. Book cancelled.
Even after all these rejections, you still pursue and accept work from Marvel. You've got three issues each of both Amazing Spider-Man and Thor coming up, as well as a Fantastic Four Project and various other fill-in jobs. Do you feel that there was some hard feelings on Marvel's part when you left to form Image almost 8 years ago? Is there any regular project you're hoping to get by helping Marvel with fill-in issues? What's the big plan Erik, what diabolical scheme are you cooking up? :)
 
My feeling is that like it or hate it -- Marvel is the industry leader and that if they fall -- we all do. I think it's in all of our best interest to have a healthy Marvel Comics and I'd like to do whatever I can to help make that a reality. Outside of my own characters, they're still my favorite toys to play with -- In a years time I'll have gotten to work on Nova, Wolverine, the Hulk, Amazing Spider-Man, Spider-Woman, Thor and the Fantastic Four. How cool is THAT? I'm hoping to land a regular gig that I can write and draw over at Mighty Marvel -- hopefully one that I'd actually enjoy working on. I think there's a very real chance of this happening.

The writing stuff was really hit and miss-- I had a couple very heavy-handed editors that made life pretty difficult and the work suffered. I was a bit taken back also to find out just how little control a pure writer really has. Writing captions to explain what artists neglected to draw wasn't the worst of it -- unfortunately. If I decide to jump back into writing for other people I'd really need to make sure I get hooked up with a good storyteller. There were a few jobs that I thought turned out great but more than a few clinkers. I can't wait for people to forget that I came anywhere near Aquaman-- I got to leave behind a few cool toys but otherwise it was pretty much an embarrassment for all concerned.

Tell us a bit about the Fantastic Four project, and how it's coming along.
 
Still working out a few kinks -- the story utilizes a lot of Marvel characters and continuity and I want it to fit in as well as possible. It seems every day some new artist or writer falls in my lap who's extremely talented -- I'm thinking strongly that this one's going to be pretty darned cool.
 
You've expressed your displeasure in the past of how the Spider-Man books were running... Do you think there's hope for the guy after third degree Byrnes? What do Marvel need to do to revive the character, in your opinion.
 
I think it needs some work. I understand what they want the book to be but the steps they're taking to get it these seem to be so pat that the readers can't help but feel shortchanged and unsatisfied. In my opinion -- if they really want Peter to be single again -- they should have him get a divorce. If they pitch in some lame technical reason for their marriage to be annulled or invalid it's just going to piss people off and the character will STILL refer to MJ as his ex-wife! Better to tackle it head on and end it in a straightforward, honest and real way than to take some silly way out. I don't think they really NEED to do anything about the marriage, frankly -- just tie up some of the less-interesting subplots and move forward. When Todd and I were working on the books fans LIKED MJ -- it wasn't so much that he was "married"-- she was simply Spidey's girl and happy to be there.  Turning MJ into a supermodel was a mistake -- it pushes it too far. Get things back to a more personal level -- make us care about these characters-- I don't think fans are clamoring for the two to break up-- I really think this whole matter needs to be thought through a bit more.
 
You seem to have embraced the Internet as a forum for speaking with your fans and getting your views across. Do you see comics one day evolving to be completely online interactive comics? Don Simpson has virtually left the printed page behind in this regard (apart from the backup feature in Savage Dragon). Do you see yourself exploring these avenues further in the future?
 
God, I hope not. I really do love print. I love having stuff printed -- of holding the books -- of being able to thumb through a stack. I'd be sad if it did go that way.
 
Savage Dragon Movie. Savage Dragon McFarlane Toys. Savage Dragon Coloring books. Ever going to happen?
 
I doubt it. Todd seems uninterested and after my experience with the Savage Dragon cartoon I'm not anxious to do anything more. Too many goddam cooks. I like comics -- more control over the final results.
 
There seems to be a consensus at the moment that Comics "need saving." Your thoughts?
 
I agree and I'm trying my damnedest to help. We all need to pull together now.
 
What books do you read at the moment? What was the best comic of 1999 in your eyes? Whose artwork excites you?
 
I graze. I'm not reading anything very regularly now besides back issues of the Fantastic Four. I tend to read whatever catches my eye. I couldn't tell you the best of 1999-- and I think THAT is a problem. When Dark Knight was coming out -- when Watchmen was coming out-- when Marvels was coming out -- there were these titles that ALL of us were reading and that we could use as a tool to hook others into reading comics. As far as I could tell -- there was no focal book in 1999. I liked Avengers Forever -- the story held together pretty well and the art was stunning but it was much too "geeky" for a casual reader to really get into -- it concerned itself too much with Avengers continuity and fixing it. I dunno. There are too many books that I didn't read for whatever reason for me to really evaluate what was the best stuff out there.

John Romita Jr.'s stuff excites me -- especially his stuff on Thor. I'm a bit bummed that he's leaving that to concentrate solely on Spider-Man. Carlos Pacheco gets me excited. Really, there any number of artists who get me worked up. Greg Capullo continues to impress on Spawn-- I think it tends to get overlooked but damn, the guy can really draw well.
 
And finally, what are your plans for the next few years. Savage Dragon #301 (just to spite Dave Sim :) ? The man who saved Spider-Man? Time will tell.
 
My guess is that it will be something that NONE of you will expect! Savage Dragon will keep on coming out month after month, that's true -- but I'm looking to land another ongoing gig and if the things I have in the pipeline get the thumbs up this will be another swell year. I'm still having fun after nearly 18 years of doing this!

Thanks for speaking with us Erik. It's great to see you trying your damnedest to make some kickass funnybooks. We look forward to seeing your upcoming projects, and of course, another 400+ issues of the highly underrated Savage Dragon.
 
Thank you!

Erik Larsen is the creator of Savage Dragon for the company he co-founded, Image Comics.
Darren Close is the creator of [Ozcomics.com]. So there.

OzComics caught up with Erik a few weeks ago, to see what he's up to and what he thinks of the industry and his little corner of it.
 
Erik, Thanks for your time. What are you working on at the moment?
 
I'm currently working on my last issue of Thor here, laying out the last 4 pages as we speak trying to get the rough part of it done….

I just wanna be finished! *laughs* Cause I've got half an issue left of Amazing Spiderman to do and I haven't even started Dragon #75 yet….. and that's kind of important *laughs* but I've written the plot for it…
 
How did you get started at Marvel?
 
My very first Marvel, was an issue of Thor and that was Jim Shooter had seen my samples that I'd been sending to him, and then I ran into him at a convention, and he asked me if I'd be interested in doing something for Marvel Fanfare and so it was like 'cool!' But I didn't know what that meant… I didn't know that that meant that it would be like an inventory story, I guess I wouldn't have been so excited If I knew that. It sat around there for a couple of years before it was printed…

My second job I did was an issue of ASM…
 
285 or something wasn't it?
 
287…. I'm a pretty serious geek when it comes to that… *laughs*

I should have tried to have gotten more Spidey stuff and actually Jim S was at the time was like "well, if you wanna do more Spiderman stuff, lemme know".. I should've said "YEAH, I wanna do it now!" cause I was certainly available..
 
Was Spiderman a book you wanted to do since you were young?
 
Not at all, no I had no interest in Spiderman. Spidey was one of the books that I liked reading, and as a kid I bought all the Marvel comics but it wasn't something that was like "Yeah, I wanna do this book."
 
And then you landed a 5 issue stint on the Punisher....
 
After I quit the Doom Patrol over at DC, my contract was up…. Punisher was offered to me. And that was probably the inappropriate book for me to do.
 
You had a very different style on that book…
 
Well I think that had more to do with the inking than anything, just cause Scott Williams had never inked my stuff before, and wasn't sure how to approach it, or even familiar with my stuff.
 
Did you get straight into Amazing Spiderman after that?
 
Punisher was very far ahead of time when it came to schedule (different editor)… and I quit that cause I had gotten approval to do a Nova story in Marvel Comics Presents… and I was like "Oh cool, I get to write and draw Nova" which is something that had been a personal goal. What ended up happening is that they used Nova instead in the New Warriors, so suddenly, they were saying "whoa, I know we've talked to you about doing this and you wrote the plots and started drawing it, but we can't use it. Um….So… do you wanna draw this other thing?" *laughs*

So I did an Excalibur serial that was in there, and umm… and that book was a little bit less ahead than Punisher was, but still fairly ahead in the game… So while I was wrapping up that, Jim S asked if I'd like to do a fill-in issue of ASM , and ASM at that point was 'to the wire'. So, at some point, I had Punisher, Marvel Comics Presents, AND Amazing Spiderman all coming out simultaneously, and it seemed like "wow, look at me, I'm the fastest guy in the world!" *laughs*

And then you followed Todd on ASM, a fairly unenviable task given the enormous popularity he had generated at that time…
 
Yeah… it's not enviable, but sometimes it's a good thing to follow somebody who's popular because people don't have high expectations… it's like, well we expect that the next guys is gonna suck, and sales are gonna go into the crapper, because this is the most popular artist in the world. So if you end up holding your own, then things are great, and if sales go into the crapper well, that's what we expected to happen anyway… and in the case of that book it was on such a roll, it wasn't as if Todd was immediately someplace else where they could buy it, that sales just kepty going up… and it was like "wow, this guys a miracle worker"

And then Todd came back and did his own book, and sold like a bazillion copies! *laughs*

The first one I did was strictly a fillin in the middle of todds run, and I wanted to keep it in that vein, of this is what Todd does, so I gotta do something in as close to the same style as I was able to pull off…. So if this is ever collected in a tpb you don't want this one chapter to seem completely out of place

 Buts as soon as I was not just doing fillins, I eased it into something more of what I wanted to do with it. 

And shortly after that you got to draw Venom, a character...

....that I've come to loathe. *laughs*

My biggest reason for not liking Venom is more story-driven than anything, I don't think hes a very well conceived character, his motivation is pretty much nonexistent… so that was kind of like my my reason for disliking him more than anything…
 
I picked up your first new issue of ASM, and I was quite happy with the characterization of Venom at one point… where Venom is holding up a car over his head about to squash Spidey with it, and they actually stop to have a rational conversation about personal losses… and then of course Venoms wife falls out of the Window, and Venom reverts to his tired "I'm gonna eat Spideys brains" and I thought, ah here we go again..
 
Yeah. *laughs* It ends up being the same old crap one way or another!
 
So what has it been like back on Spiderman again?
 
You know, you can't go home again, and I think that this is proof that you can't *laughs* It's not been wonderful… I've never really been that comfortable doing Spiderman, its always been something that is more of a struggle… whereas something like Thor just comes really naturally to me cos its that big kriby crap where there's crackle all over the place and people are kicking the living poop out of each other… "That's what I do, that's me!"

This other stuff it's like….. hmmm….. yeah… it's okay…. It's just not me, Im much more of a Kirby guy than anything else… give me the FF or the Hulk, the Avengers or something like that and I'll be a happy guy. Give me Spiderman… and im like … uggghhh… pain! *laughs* how do I do this, how do I layout a page? There's this expectation that every page is gonna be layed out in this bizarre fashion, that all the panel borders will be crazy and webbings gonna be everywhere…
 
The Legacy of Todd is still around…
 
The legacy of Todd endures. And I don't wanna disappoint people who are also coming in on the book or that have been around for the last 18 issues and John Byrne's been doing it.. and now finally it's gonna be the way that Spiderman supposed to be done… and for me to come in there and go "Im just gonna do something else entirely." Would be to them really disappointing, and I don't wanna do that

At the same time this has been a real struggle for me to do after all this time.
 
Have you been following Spidey over the last few years?
 
Yeah. John's stuff was horrible.. the Chapter One was kinda pointless I thought… the first story was certainly sacriligious… the ones that followed were I think pointless in that it was like "well, who cares that you're retelling a story from Strange Tales… it's not that interesting, no-one really remembers that story…. "Here's a tale from Tales to Astonish" … so? Who cares?
 
Your three issue stint is the first I've bought of Spiderman pretty much since Image started… I've kinda kept up with it over the years to some degree, but from what I've been able to see, aside from John Romita Jrs issues it's all been pretty much schlock.
 
I think hes a hell of an artist.. it'll be a little different for him to follow me on Amazing than it is for me to follow him… on Thor, I think it's a fairly natural transition from his work to mine, since we're both doing these big chunky figures in very straightforward kinda storytelling.

On ASM it goes from Byrne to me doing this wacky-ass Todd shit, that suddenly back to JrJr going "fuck it, this is a lot more straightforward than the way Erik was just approaching it" So it wont be quite as smooth a transition, but it'll be great.
 
I've always been amazed at John Romita Jrs output, he does like 3-4 books a month!…
 
Oh, he does TWO, come on! *laughs* He does Thor and he does Spiderman! John Byrne on the other hand, he does an amazing amount of ….. work!
 
I had a look at some of the more recent issues by Byrne, and they looked very very rushed and basic… It must be related to the 3-4 books he does all the time.
 
John goes through periods of kinda getting his philosophy of why he does things a certain way… and recently he sort of feels like "hey, I established a background once whats the point of drawing the same thing over and over again…you get the idea, you know where they're at… the point of doing a background is to establish where the characters are… do we really want the pages to be cluttered up with all this extra stuff if it doesn't add to the story?" - and the answer is YES, we do! We want those pages to be cluttered, we want to know where theyre at all the time… we actually do care, we wanna see that.
 
I suppose its better than Joe Madureira or people like him who can't manage three books in a year let alone 3 books a month.
 
Yeah, and there's no damn good reason for it. They can obviously draw, there's no reason that it has to take so long. I don't know. *laughs*

I think sometimes they get so hung up on "I only do two issues a year, so they've gotta be unbelievably great or else I'm gonna disappoint my fans.." Well they're gonna be more disappointed if you don't put out any books…. So that's what ends up happening… there's no reason… these guys draw well enough…. Most of the readers are not sophisticated enough to be able to differentiate between something that the artist is really happy with to something they're not quite as happy with.

Adam Hughes can sit down at his drawing board and can actually churn out some stuff relatively quickly.. He sits down at a convention and pumps out sketch after sketch… I think this guy can draw, he can get stuff done and get onto the next thing… why cant he do that on a comic book and he actually probably could but he wouldn't be 100% happy with it….
 
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