Cal Ripken Jr. The TV series "Gunsmoke." Timex watches. Dependable, all.

Add to that list one Erik Larsen-writer, penciler and inker of The Savage Dragon. Larsen is prepping for June and the release of Savage Dragon #100, a milestone issue in more ways than one. Not only will Dragon hit the century mark in June, but so will Larsen. He will have done every issue of Savage Dragon himself, without benefit of a single fill-in writer or artist. Or even inker, for that matter.

The 100 issues will be a record-the current streak for one-man-band durability is held by Sheldon Mayer, who did 99 consecutive issues of DC Comics' Sugar and Spike. Larsen will shatter that record in June, the product of a work ethic and an obsession like you wouldn't believe. He'll do it despite illness, and despite having taken on projects in the past in addition to Dragon which haven't fared so well, titles such as Defenders and Aquaman. And then?

"Then when I get this over and done with, I'll start shooting for quadruple digits, I guess," Larsen says.

So what's the full-blown gonzo-whopper plan for Savage Dragon #100?

Dragon #100 is 100 pages of funnybook fun in the grand tradition of other funnybooks I've done in the past. Same old sh--, in other words [laughs]. All the backups will be drawn by me. There's pretty much a story on every damn character that's ever been in the book. It's "Hey, here's a little story of…whoever." I'm penciling them and farming them out to a number of inkers, some of whom I can't divulge and some of whom will probably crash and burn. We'll see.

In doing your soon-to-be 100 issues of Dragon, you've endured several hardships along the way?

What? Really? [laughs] Oh, my God! You mean like Defenders? That comes to mind. And that Aquaman thing…

Yeah, yeah. But on a health-related front, I guess you had pneumonia for a while. How long did that last?

I was basically flat on my ass for about six weeks. Two of those weeks I was completely…not…functional at all. For the last four weeks of that, I was actively reading all my back issues and drawing backup stories for #100.

You were working while you had pneumonia?

Well, I was at least laying the stories out. They weren't finished pencils, but I was figuring out the stories, seeing where I wanted to go and blah blah blah. Even sick and flat on my ass, I managed to do layouts for 66 pages [laughs]. So I wanna know what these other artist's sorry excuses are, huh? No video games were played while I was sick!

Now you lost the feeling in your hands for a while with the pneumonia…

Yes, sir.

Do you have all the feeling back yet?

I do not.

What's that like?

It's like…it's like your hand is asleep all the time. You think, "Oh, damn. I slept on my hand or something." Then you remember, "No, it's always like that now." It's just a slight tingling sensation now.

So you can still draw then?

Well, I have been. [laughs] There's always been some debate as to if I could draw in the first place.

Okay, you also overcame the dreaded Image "X Month" in your streak, where Image creators switched books for the month. You completely re-drew an issue of Dragon that Jim Lee had already done, #13.

Uh-huh. You know, he drew it and I was just thinking, "You know, I just gotta keep that streak going." In any case, even if someone wants to count that as breaking the streak, I'm gonna go to at least 113 issues, so I'm gonna go for the record one way or another.

So what are you? Obsessed?

My goal-and I'm gonna try my damndest to figure out a way to do this-is to draw Savage Dragon until the day I die. That is my actual, set-out-for-myself-but-how-am-I-going-to-manage-this goal. Dragon is not one of those things where I'm sitting there saying, "Boy, I can't wait until this run is over." No. It's "What can I do to keep this from ever ending?"

Another adversity along the way-at least as I see it-was the period of time you were drawing Spider-Man, Thor, and Savage Dragon all at the same time. What the hell were you thinking?

Well…uh…I have no idea what happened there. [laughs] I guess it just seemed like it was possible. Basically, what had happened was that Marvel had asked me to do a fill-in issue of Spider-Woman. I had a little time at that point, so I tried it. I managed to do a halfway decent job at it. So I said to myself, "Well. Whaddya know? I can do this." Then the Spider-Man editor called and needed someone to do some fill-ins on Spider-Man. Okay, I'm your man. I'll do that. Then the Thor editor called about the Thor stuff and…you know, Thor is a gas! I dig Thor. I did doing all that big-ass Jack Kirby stuff. So I did it. I can pencil about an issue a week. So there was no reason that it shouldn't be possible. Right?

Whatever. Any other crazy adversities you've had to live with?

Getting married and having kids, those are adversities to be overcome, aren't they? [laughs] And I'm still living with those! I guess it's a chronic, lingering thing.

So there is no point at which you want to lay this burden down. You wanna do this 'til the day you croak.

Yes. That's the goal.

Why? What's the why behind it?

I guess the why is that I really don't like doing other people's stuff, basically. I don't like sitting there drawing other people's stories, and I'm not real keen on other people drawing mine. I guess there's no point in the process at which I'm happy unless I'm doing it all. I must be some complete control freak. [laughs] Plus, I only got the one idea. So what the hell. Milk it for all it's worth.

-Jim McLauchlin

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