SAVAGE DRAGON #199

Writer and artist: Erik Larsen
Letterer: Rus Wooton
Colors: Nikos Koutis
Publisher: Image Comics

Yes, I’m 5 days late on this, sorry. Anyway, as per last issue, Malcolm had fallen underground where there lives a subterranean race of beings called Demonoids, which are kinda hard to describe. So here’s a non-spoilery (since there’s no dialog) look at the opening page:

sd199

Pretty cool, eh?

Malcolm is lucky in that the Society of Superheroes (the U.S. government-backed superhero team, which his father used to be a member of, and which currently includes Malcolm’s stepsister Angel) arrive to rescue him. And that’s pretty much the story right there. There’s not much more I can, it’s just all one big fight, with Malcolm, Angel, and the rest of the S.O.S. fighting Demonoids underground and trying to stop them from getting above ground and causing more mayhem. The unique part is that it’s all told in splash-pages. If you’re one of those Luddites who still buy your comics printed on dead trees, I believe you’ll see it as a series of double-page spreads. But on my iPad its presented as 10 splash pages. And each page is full of details. I found myself zooming in on each to make sure I catch all the dialog and action. Larsen clearly put a lot of effort into this, and the result is impressive.

In addition to that main story, also included is BROKEN HOME, the latest 6-page installment in the ongoing Vanguard saga, written by Gary Carlson and drawn by Frank Fosco. And it closes out with the page of comic-strips, MISERY LOVES SHERMAN by Chris Eliopoulos, AVERAGE DRAGON by Simon Mallette St. Pierre, and KNIGHT WATCHMAN by Mckenzie/Hansel/Carlson/Rodgers

I must say, this series always give you plenty of content in each issue for your money. It’s good stuff.

SAVAGE DRAGON #199

2 comments

Yep, each image is a double page splash. Ordinarily I cannot stand when artists fill their stories with these, because it mneans that it takes very little time to read the story. And yes, Savage Dragon #199 was a rather fast read. But Larsen did include quite bit of dialogue, as well as an insane amount of detail in his artwork. I think it was an interesting one-off experiment. I like that Larsen flexes his creative muscles. One of these days I half-expect him to do an issue where every single page contains twenty panels of talking heads 🙂

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