Savage Dragon Archives, Vol. 1

Savage Dragon Archives #1

by Erik Larsen

The earliest adventures of fandom's favorite fin-head are collected for the first time in one volume as Savage Dragon defends Chicago from Overlord and the Vicious Circle! Considered by many to be the definitive Savage Dragon saga, this is the complete Overlord epic from start to finish, culminating in a battle that can only end one way! Guest-starring the WildC.A.T.S and the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Superheroes, Crime, Comic Book, Ebooks, Graphic Novels Comics

616 pages, Paperback

First published January 11, 2006

About the author

As a child growing up in Bellingham, Washington and Albion, California, Erik Larsen created seveal comic books featuring versions of a character named 'Dragon.' He eventually published a fanzine, which led to his doing professional work on a comic book called Megaton for creator Gary Carlson. It was here that he introduced the Dragon, a super powered superhero, to the comic-reading masses.
After a multitude of mailings, showing his work, Erik became aquainted with Jim Shooter, who was, at that point, Marvel's Editor-in-Chief. Erik eventually met Jim at a convention in Chicago and Jim was impressed enough with Erik's work that he consented to co-plot a story with him on the spot. That story was a battle between Marvel Comics characters Hulk & Thor. Although it wasn't actually published until years later, it did impress a variety of Editors enough to get Larsen some more high-profile work in the funnybook field.

Erik jumped around various books in this part of his career. He did an Amazing Spider-Man fill-in story at Marvel, a few issues of DNAgents for Eclipse, and he eventually took over the art chores on DC's Doom Patrol. Soon afterwards, he left DC and moved on to the Punisher for Marvel. Five issues of that book was about as much pain as that poor Minnesota boy could stand. Erik wanted to write and when a Nova serial was given the thumbs up to run in Marvel Comics Presents with Erik as the writer/artist, he gladly left the Punisher. But it was not to be! The powers that be had other plans for Nova and Erik's yarn didn't fit in with the impending New Warriors series. Editor Terry Kavanaugh gave Larsen an Excalibur serial to draw for Marvel Comics Presents while the poor bastard waited for his big break.

When ever-popular artist Todd McFarlane left his artistic duties on Amazing Spider-Man, Larsen was chosen to be his successor. That run was astoundingly well-recieved, and included popular stories like 'The Return of the Sinister Six', 'The Cosmic Spider-Man', and 'The Powerless Spider-Man'. Although he was comfortable with his position as Amazing Spider-Man penciller, he was frustrated drawing other people's stories. Larsen found that his ravenous desire to write had only gotten stronger. He left Amazing Spider-Man, quite pooped.

By this time, the New Warriors was going full tilt and Erik tossed together a proposal for a Nova ongoing series. While he waited for it to get the nod, Todd McFarlane left the new Spider-Man title that he had launched. Erik was called upon once again picked up the torch - and he ran with it. Larsen created a memorable albeit brief run on that title, despite a traumatic event in his personal life - his house burned to the ground, destroying all of his childhood drawings and comic books.

After this period, creator Rob Liefeld invited Larsen to help found a new comic book imprint called 'Image' at Malibu comics, alongside notorious creators Todd McFarlane, Rob Liefeld, Jim Lee, Marc Silvestri, and Jim Valentino. Erik's flagship comic book at Image (which soon left Malibu and became the third lagest comic book publisher in the United States) was an updated version of his childhood creation -- 'The Savage Dragon.' Larsen has been succeeding with his ideas ever since, through his creations Freak Force, Star, SuperPatriot and the Deadly Duo as well as the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles which he helped revitalize and bring to Image.

As of 2004, Erik Larsen became the Publisher of Image Comics and shows no sign of slowing down.

Reviews

[Baba · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read the comic books Savage Dragon #1-24; and Jason Pearson's mini series - Blood & Guts #1-3. Larsen's written, drawn and inked(!) world of low numbers of meta-humans, focussed around Chicago police officer Savage Dragon (of unknown origin), mainly fighting the force of the Overlord and his Vicious Circle crime syndicate; this volume also sees the creation of Freak Force and the return of Mighty Man! 7 out of 12, Three Star read.

2017 read; 2013 read

[Sean Gibson · Rating 3 out of 5]

If there was a unifying theme amongst the set of books launched by Image’s founders in the early 1990s, it was a wanton disregard for the particulars of gross anatomy. Larsen isn’t quite Rob Liefeld-bad when it comes to depicting the human form (he does, by and large, at least believe that feet are a prerequisite for locomotion), but it appears that he modeled his female figures using a celery stalk, a couple of grapefruits, and a head of garlic.

Despite being an obsessive comic reader at the time of Image’s launch, I somehow managed to avoid reading pretty much every Image book on the stands. This was due in large part to my being a Marvel zombie and my ill-informed perception that support of those renegade artists was verboten if I wanted to remain loyal to the House that Stan (and Many Others, Whether Credited or Not) built. I’ve never systematically remedied this gap in my comic library, in large part because I haven’t been particularly impressed with the early Image books that I have read.

Overcome by a burst of nostalgia, however, and dissatisfied with the current output from the House of Stan, I decided to crack open the cover on a massive collection of Savage Dragon. Putting aside the horrifically and overtly sexual representation of women, the non-female part of Larsen’s art somehow manages to look really cool despite the inattention to the practical realities of biological infrastructure, which was sufficient to hold my interest (for the most part) despite the storytelling lacking much in the way of depth. Larsen’s a big fan of stringing together splash-page money shots with intermittent bursts of dialogue; it’s a bit like watching a greatest hits porn collection intercut with dialogue scenes from a Van Damme movie.

Entertaining, despite its shortcomings (and no, that’s not a porn joke)? Sure, though I think this volume is sufficient to satisfy my Savage Dragon curiosity (though I confess that I’m exceedingly impressed by Larsen’s longevity on the book—that’s an astonishing feat of creative endurance). I’m not sure I can recommend it unless you’re into all-action, gritty superhero books with vague origin stories, drawn out story arcs that all end in lots of punching (though some of those look quite good), horrific female characterization, and intermittent moments of humor and pathos.

We’ll call it 2.5 stars.

[Chad · Rating 3 out of 5]

There's a lot to like about this book. Dragon's character design is fantastic. I especially liked that Larsen puts Dragon in a standard issue police uniform instead of a costume. It's obvious that most of his villain designs are from his childhood. They are goofy as hell and look like something straight out of a child's mind. His sexualized treatment of women, however, yikes! I don't even know how these girls stand up. The book is in black and white when it was originally in color. Some areas of the book do suffer from this as they are missing shading that you would have if the book was intended to be in B&W. It makes the busier panels hard to read. The book is also missing the covers which is a shame. If you're in the mood for lots of pages of super-heroes punching each other, you could do worse.

[Dan · Rating 4 out of 5]

An armored crime boss named Overlord has Chicago in an iron grip and super powered freaks are bleeding the town dry. A finheaded man is found in a burning field and joins the Chicago Police Department as... The Savage Dragon! Can the Dragon end Overlord's reign of terror?

Savage Dragon Archives volume 1 contains issues 1-3 of the Savage Dragon miniseries and issues 1-21 of the regular series.

Like a lot of guys my age, I was all over the Image books when they launched and Savage Dragon #1 was one of the first ones I picked up. It was a fun book but I was soon out of comics in favor of Dungeons and Dragons. Now, years later, I've decided to read the series in its entirety in these inexpensive archive editions.

Erik Larsen came to prominence on Amazing Spider-Man, tasked with filling Todd McFarlane's shoes. When the Big Seven left Marvel to form Image, Larsen was one of them. The Dragon is a big brute of a super hero, green, strong, and with a big fin on his head. I've seen some people dismiss him as a Hulk ripoff but he's much more like Ben Grimm, personality wise.

Anyway, Dragon's a cop that beats the shit out of a lot of super powered criminals. That doesn't sound particularly innovative but the series happens in real time, more or less. The Dragon experiences his share of ass kickings and deaths, starting with his girlfriend getting shot in the head while answering the door.

The book is basically a two year arc of Dragon trying to take down Overloard, suffering lots of setbacks along the way. Dragon is like Ben Grimm as a beat cop in the worst city on earth. Larsen introduces character after character, killing off a fair percentage of them. Larsen has a great sense of pace and really knows how to put a page together. The art is prime 1990s, complete with cross hatching all over the place. Some people might be put off by the b&w artwork but I think taking away the color lets Larsen's skill and sense of design shine through.

Make no mistake about it, this isn't Alan Moore's Swamp Thing. There aren't any big concepts or flowery prose. Savage Dragon is a pure distillation of "beat the shit out of the bad guys" super hero comics. Four out of five stars.

[Gavin · Rating 4 out of 5]

***I read Savage Dragon #1 and #0 free on Comixology***



This was a fun couple issues, the origin in zero was actually the more interesting. The creator only ever wrote it 10 yrs after Image Comics launched, and shows who Savage Dragon was before he became Savage Dragon...the first issue seems to be similar to Spawn, but it's of the same era and for Todd MacFarlane's company so it makes sense...I am interested enough to want to keep going, as there is a TMNT crossover on the way!

[Quentin Wallace · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 Stars

As a general rule, the first wave of Image comics weren't the best. The art was usually good, but the stories were lacking. I had only read a few of these issues before, but when I read the complete volume I found that these stories hold up better than I would have thought. Erik Larsen did seem to have a story in mind and he seemed to stick with his story rather than get sidetracked. He fleshed his characters out, and although there still was a larger cast than I think was needed, it still worked for the most part. Overall I found this to be an enjoyable read and I'll be continuing with the series.

I will say that with the early Image comics, the coloring played a big part in the art. These stories don't seem to work quite as well in black and white as Marvel and DC titles, but it was still a decent way to read the series.

Out of all of the original Image creators, Erik Larsen is really the one guy that did exactly what he said he would. He had a character and a series that he loved, and he wanted to tell that character's stories. He's the only Image creator that is still writing and drawing his title thirty years later. When Image was founded, I was thinking of Dave Sim, the creator of Cerebus. He had true love for his character and wanted to tell the character's story. I thought that was what the Image creators would be doing, but even before the original series were finished, many of the Image creators had multiple series being published using other creators as work for hire. And honestly, most of the titles and characters were mediocre at best, and outright sucked in other cases. Erik Larsen, however, stuck with his character and did just what he said he was going to do. I know he did a few spin offs, but to stay on a comic for 3o years with both writing and art chores is something to be commended. I'm not even a huge Larsen fan, but I do believe in credit where credit is due.

[David Dalton · Rating 3 out of 5]

3 stars for the black & white art. Something like 21+ issues full of Dragon action. At times the stories were hard to follow. For me is was because of the black & white art, and no cover pages to separate the issues. Erik likes to jump around with characters and plot. Still, lots of mindless action and not too much deep thinking. Ah, the fun 90's. Still, thanks to Comixology Unlimited, I have access to 3 volumes of Savage Dragon Archives. I should be Dragoned out when I am done.

[Little Timmy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Really nice collection of the beginning issues of this character. fun reads. Recommended

[The Wintermute System · Rating 4 out of 5]

So, man, I love this series. I was also so confused the first time I saw it in color: I hadn't known about it until the Humble Bundle, which I bought for other series, and got hooked. But they gave us the black and white archives. I don't mind. The art, I think, stands up well in black and white, and I actually read so much of it in such a short time, I got used to the black and white aesthetic and ended up not liking the colored versions as much, in fact.

Dragon is a green-skinned man with a fin on his head and a type of amnesia where he remembers facts about the world - who's the president, who won sports events - but nothing about how he is at all. When he's found by a police officer, Frank Darling, Dragon shows extraordinary abilities: his strength, his healing factor, his ability to withstand almost any damage caused by explosions, fights, and whatever firepower villains bring to the fight. Darling tries to recruit Dragon to the police force, and eventually manages to do so, a necessity given the super freaks - often simply called freaks - who have overrun Chicago and mostly turned into lawbreakers as they find they can take what they want.

Along the way, Dragon finds allies, on the police force, in the hospital where he often ends up after a particularly brutal fight, and other freaks who also want to fight on the side of the police force. He makes enemies as well, including Overlord, the ruler of the Vicious Circle, which is really the mafia morphed as freaks joined the ranks of organized crime. Not all the people in Chicago are charmed by Dragon either; as much as he helps against the super powered organized crime, he also attracts those he wants to fight - Bedrock to test him for Younblood membership, villains who want to prove their strength by defeating Dragon - and his fights tend to end up with casualties - including civilians and fellow police officers - and damage to the city.

I'm rereading this, so a lot wasn't a huge shock to me like it was the first time around. On the other hand, I'm really enjoying this as a re-read. Especially the detailed backgrounds of a lot of the characters. I wasn't going to knock down one star, but Larsen has an... issue writing women. Oddly enough, it gets worse at some point - I picked up current issues during grad school, and it got so sexual to the point that the character development and plot were sacrificed. I ended up buying an issue on a whim later on, and it seemed to have leveled out, but I wasn't super invested so I never picked it up regularly.

I'll probably stick with these six volumes I own via a Humble Bundle, then see if I can pick up later volumes on sale, or better yet, via my library, to be honest. I also don't tend to complain about sexualization as much as some do in comics (between the visual medium and the history and the fact that sex sells comics, I realize it's going to be part of the industry for the foreseeable future and I actually enjoy the pretty people in the comics) but this gets super weird at some point in the future. Looking back, I should have realized it would go this way: there were a couple signs that I waved off as anomalies/Larsen trying to use hyper sexualization of women to sell comics, but it showed.

Weird isn't necessarily bad: some people may enjoy it, it got too weird for me. It also highlights that despite the characters being distinct instead of carbon copies of each other, the weakness in that level of writing is that women tend to throw themselves at Dragon, making them too same-sy when it happens again and again. It has a couple flaws, but overall, Larsen gets comics and superheroes and the tropes that go along with it: he plays with them enough to make this a lot of fun.

ETA: reread 1/14/2023

[Keith Davis · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is some real 90's style comic book action fun. Savage Dragon borrows heavily from action film tropes as well as classic Marvel superhero stories. The character starts out as a cross between the Incredible Hulk and the Terminator, but gradually evolves into a unique character. Unlike your typical vigilante superhero, Dragon is actually a Chicago police officer, not as a secret identity but as a public identity of a super powered cop.

This archive edition is a black and white reprint of the first 24 issues of Savage Dragon. In black and white Larsen's debt to Frank Miller and Jack Kirby becomes very obvious. Larsen is the last of the Image Comics founders who is still writing and drawing the same title he started with almost 30 years ago. The Image founders are better known for their highly stylized, and often parodied, art but out of the group I would say Larsen had the firmest grasp of visual storytelling. Many of his villains are knockoffs of Marvel villains, and his writing is full of action film clichés, but if you are looking for some comic book action then Savage Dragon does not fail to entertain.

[Robert Noll · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'll give it 2.5 stars. Officer Dragon ultimately defeats Overlord. Chicago is in ruins. Dragon's love life is teetering towards collapse.

I still think the storytelling's movement is jerky and the character development is minimalist. This volume contains 24 individual Funnybooks, and the series starts to improve towards the end.

[Zack! Empire · Rating 3 out of 5]

Really fun superhero stuff. It's pretty fast paced and doesn't shy away from pushing the envelope. It's kind of weak as far as character motivation, but it's more about the fun of comics than the story, I think.
Probably get more of these Archives.

[Ángel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Muchas refes a Sin City. El dibujo muy guapo.

[Fizzgig76 · Rating 3 out of 5]

Reprints Savage Dragon (Limited Series) #1-3 and Savage Dragon #1-22 (July 1992-September 1995). Meet the Dragon…a “freak” found without memory but possessing incredible strength and regeneration abilities. Fortunately, the Dragon is on our side and working for the Chicago Police Department in an attempt to stop the rising amount of freaks in the area. With as many naysayers as supporters, the Dragon has a tough road ahead of him as he battles enemies as a member of the force like the kingpin Overlord and on a person level like the Fiend…and the Dragon doesn’t back down!

Written and illustrated by Erik Larson, Savage Dragon Archives—Volume 1 collects the first three issue limited series of Savage Dragon and the first twenty-one issues of the long running series. The reprints are black-and-white but originally collected in color in Savage Dragon 1: Baptism by Fire, Savage Dragon 2: A Force to Be Reckoned With, Savage Dragon 3: The Fallen, Savage Dragon 4: Possessed, and Savage Dragon 5: Revenge.

Savage Dragon was part of Image Comics’ launch titles. Along with Spawn, the series has been one of Image Comics’ longest running comics. The Dragon originally appeared in Graphic Fantasy #2 (January 1982) then later appeared in Megaton #2-3 (October 1985-February 1986). Larsen reintroduced the character for the Image Universe.

Savage Dragon was a slightly reflexive comic. The storylines often mimicked stories from Marvel Comics and DC Comics, but also mocked them at the same time. Unlike some of Grant Morrison or Alan Moore’s out-and-out riffs on the super-hero genre, Larsen seemed to be out to provide a super-hero comic with some deeper exploration. Plus, he really liked to insert commentary on things he liked and disliked (like the Dragon wearing an Aimee Mann t-shirt and a lengthily discussion on whether Forrest Gump is any good).

The art and story somewhat falls into the Image trap however. Image Comics’ really banked on popular artists at the time of its launch and the stories didn’t always hold up. The females are really bad stereotypes (with even She-Dragon addressing the “camera” on her shapely body). The action was very kinetic and not always easy to follow with issues sometimes just being a big fight…made even more difficulty by the black-and-white format of the Archives model that follows in the line of DC’s Showcase and Marvel’s Essentials (but at least Savage Dragon was released on a slightly more regular schedule than most of the Image titles).

I always found Savage Dragon one of the more interesting Image Comics’ when he appeared. The comic was a bit of an action film combined with a skewering of the comic book genre with allusions to mainstream comics like Spider-Man and Superman. Rereading the early Savage Dragon has shown that in some ways, Savage Dragon showed maturity (especially in comparison to other Image Comics), but also fell into the Image Comic trap. This volume is good, but leaves you looking forward to a deeper, less art heavy exploration of the character and ideas.

[Nico Meyering · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was one of the best series of the 1990s. In an era full of musclebound antiheroes, big guns, and scantily-clad heroines, this series had it all, and did it all correctly. Larsen is to be commended.

[Sean Newgent · Rating 4 out of 5]

Savage Dragon reminds me a lot of Cerebus; a comic that is trying to find itself in the initial run and flip-flops between a meditative seriousness and a ridiculous level of comedy. Savage Dragon seems to partially be a spoof of the superhero genre and likes to introduce heroes meant to caricature those of Marvel and DC as well as villains so ridiculous they wouldn't make it past a third graders artbook; and partially be a meditation on the role of superheroes and mutants in a more realistic setting. Reading through this graphic novel gave me hints of the current run of DC films or Captain America: Civil War, where there's a decidedly civilian element to the destruction and violence.

But it takes a while to get there. The early portion of the graphic novel is a lot of jumping around and a very unfocused case-by-case story of Dragon, a mysterious mutant who has come to Earth without any memories and winds up working for the Chicago police. There are a lot of character introductions that are necessary for enjoyment of future issues but the series itself has a hard time finding itself initially. Erik Larsen, who pretty much does everything for the book himself, spends a lot of time putting feelers out toward what will make his story really work. Once you get to the middle of this twenty-five issue compendium, you see things smooth out a bit more as Dragon takes on the Vicious Circle (a superpowered crime squad) and a focus on his relationships with other officers and his girlfriend. The comedy becomes more sparing and while it still jumps around quite a bit, that focus makes it much smoother reading.

Reading Savage Dragon as an omnibus edition is tough as the series takes place in real time, meaning if there is a month between issues, a month passed within Savage Dragon's world. Thus when marathoning you have to take that into consideration. This isn't helped by the book's lack of dividers between issues, meaning that one issue leads into the next without you knowing. You can make assumptions, but there should have been more clarity on the part of the publishers.

The schlockiness and silliness of the book is a lot of fun and the intensity of the human element of the plot is surprising and enjoyable. It reads like a macho comic fan fantasy so don't expect there to be a lot of well-defined female roles; but the women that are there are fine and have a wonderful sense of campiness.

The ending of the Vicious Circle storyline is anticlimactic and could have been better which is one reason I can't give this book a five star rating. I also wasn't impressed by the slog that was the early issues. But as I said, once Savage Dragon gets rolling it's a nice distraction from my more serious reading.

Savage Dragon will not be for everyone. It's not a feel good comic nor is it trying to be anything more than campy fun. It's the kind of comic that fans of independent publishing and the experimental nature of that field will enjoy immensely.

[Shannon Appelcline · Rating 3 out of 5]

First up, this collection itself suffers from all the deficits of '00s era collection. It's black-and-white to try and offer a low price point and it smushes all the issues together without covers or even issue dividers, robbing you of the natural story beats built into the individual issues. This is all particularly ridiculous now that one of the main publication venues for the collection is via online means.

As for the comics themselves: it's a real pleasure to see this early era Image material, written by one of their more skilled writers, who was really wanting to recreate the joy of the comics of his youth. Thankfully, the dark-and-gritty of the '90s is also downplayed a bit. Oh, there's shocking death, and lots of skeleton-creating death rays, but Dragon himself is somewhat cheery, without the angst of the era.

Generally, the characters are the fun heart of this story, with questions about Dragon's origins, lots of interesting characters in the police department, and a number of other heroes of note. The only real problem is the women, who are almost universally drawn super-buxom, super-falling-out-of-their-tops, and super-obsessed-with-Dragon.

The 21-issue storyline is about a super-mob that's taken over the city, and it certainly has some good points, though the various sudden escalations and the resolution are all a bit abrupt.. Still, it's fun to read.

The only other deficit of note for this comic is its interrelation with other Image comics. If something feels like it came out of nowhere or doesn't make a lot of sense, it's because an event occurred elsewhere in the Image universe. Fortunately, by halfway through Larsen gets better about actually cross-referencing those events.

Overall, this is what you'd expect from of the better Image hero comics of the '90s, albeit let somewhat done by the poor quality of the collection. 3.5 stars.

[Jared · Rating 3 out of 5]

This of all the sort of original 90s Image era heroes has one of the more interesting hooks -- what if someone with the power level of a Superman became a cop instead of a superhero? It's big, boisterous, over the top, has more cameos than is even remotely necessary (I mean, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles show up for an issue -- the Teenage freaking Mutant freaking Ninja Turtles). And yet...somehow is still worked for me. The characters inside aren't the most complex ever, but they're all compelling enough, I especially liked the story of Dragon's friendship with the first person he meets, Frank, which had a lot of meaty twists and turns.

If I had to give a criticism, it's not so much about the stories but rather the edition I read it from. This edition I read off of Comixology Unlimited had the first miniseries of three issues, and the first twenty-one issues of the ongoing series, and I guess to keep it at a reasonable price, they printed the issues without color. Most of the time it works fine -- in fact, some moments looked spectacular in harsh black and white -- but sometimes it kind of looked like big blotches of black ink and took a few seconds to figure out what was happening.

Overall, I enjoyed it for what it is.

[Justin Nelson · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was a bit of a mess. Image in the 90s sure was a thing!
This isn't all terrible. There were some funny lines, and some of the splash pages were great, over-the-top 90s excellence. But, there were also way too many "macho" moments that were too cringey. To say that characters ere undeveloped would be a compliment, because most are stereotypical caricatures at best. The smuttiness is way too overdone and nothing but fanboy fantasy drooling work.
Also, the storytelling is very choppy. It was hard to follow what was happening all the time. It's obvious that, at the time, you had to be following other titles in order to know what was happening completely. As a collection, there wasn't a sense of trajectory or plot, really.
The fact that issues/chapters aren't clearly divided in this volume doesn't help, either. You're never quite sure when a part is ending and this sense of "uncompletion" is distractingly jarring.
I'm glad to have checked out what is one of the longest-running, creator-owned series still on the market, and a cornerstone of the 90s Image boom...but I need not read anymore.

[Joel · Rating 3 out of 5]

Big, stupid, 90's fun. Seriously, just a bunch of 90's all over the place. Of the Images books...this one has probably aged the best--only because it was full on taking the piss of the comics industry. Erik Larsen is a trickster and just a wee bit too wry for his own good. Is it high art? No, but it doesn't have the airs of that appeal anyway. The book and it's creator know exactly what it is and pulls it off decently.

As for the low rating...it won't stay with me. Like the best empty calorie reading--feels great at the time, but it won't linger for me. Still nice to revisit every so often.

[Seth · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a great action-packed riff on superheroes. A lot of the tried and true is present, but there are some fun quirks, for example, the main character fights crime as a cop, not a vigilante.

Its still very much about settling problems with fists, but the comic is great, and Larsen's art is excellent.

If you've never checked out Savage Dragon, but like supers, this is probably one that should be on your radar.

[Brian Lakes]

Not as good as remembered

I saw this on comixology u limited and couldn't wait to read it. Unfortunately, my t3enage tastes mustve been waaaaaydifferent than my adult tastes. I think whati was most disappointed in was how disjointed the story seems and how long it took to get anywhere. About halfway through it was just more of the same after the same. I really enjoyed the artwork. But for me, story is king and its just not there. Better left in my memory.

[Justin Drown · Rating 3 out of 5]

I understand what this comic represents. The author seems like a good person. But this comic isn't for me. Savage Dragon is praised for it's slow burn storytelling. I think that's not the full picture. The storytelling is slow paced because action sequences take up 80 percent of each issues. I understand that this is what a lot of people would like. I don't personally feel that this high octane action gels with the tone the drama is trying to set.

[Charles Mitchell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Nostalgic fun

The original run of Savage Dragon is just as good as I remembered. I have always loved Erik Larssen's art and it stands the test of time on the pages, in black and white no less, giving it an urgency.
There's some social awkwardness by today's standards, but it's minor. Some of the action sequences were tricky to follow without the aid of color.

[DAMON C · Rating 4 out of 5]

I hate black and white!

As I was saying I hate black and white comics but the story was very engaging And the artwork was exceptional I never really read much about savage dragon But I like Eric Eric Larson And I like his stuff I like the female roles in the They are created just rightcomics!

[Nicholas · Rating 2 out of 5]

I actually read the first 3 volumes, just to see if it would get better as it got crazier.
Started out decent, but quickly devolved into "Massive Muscles, Magic Penis: A Wish Fulfillment Story".

The art is very. . . swingy, in that it goes from very solid to very poor over the span of an issue.

[Terry Murphy · Rating 1 out of 5]

I tried.

I have been trying to read this first volume for weeks.

It is abysmal. The storytelling is juvenile at the best at times, and downright insulting at its worse.

This has aged terribly, if it even ever was decent.

Avoid this.

[Katie Oswald · Rating 2 out of 5]

While the 90s fun is wonderful I find the women characters problematic.

[Jeffrey Greek · Rating 3 out of 5]

The first half of this collection spends so much time setting up spinoffs and crossovers that it's almost incomprehensible. Luckily the second half settles down quite a bit.

[Rocco Ricca · Rating 4 out of 5]

SO much fun!!!