November 3, 2017

Oh Canada! A New Beginning

Posted by Stefan Kalscheid in Reviews – no comments

Savage Dragon #227 came out a little over 2 weeks ago. Let’s take a minute to take a look at the current issue.

Captain Stewart to the rescue!

Panel from Savage Dragon #227
We knew from the solicits that Malcolm and family were eventually going to end up in Canada but it wasn’t clear yet how things would go down and if they’d have to fight their way to freedom. As it turns out Malcolm’s former boss Captain Stewart stands up for his fellow policeman and smuggled the Dragon family over the border – regardless of the consequences for himself.

Back in the states Jennifer, Angel and Alex are in Dimension-X looking for DarkLords technology to bring back the deceased Dragon only to have their way home cut off due to President Trump’s new law against aliens.

So while Dragon, Maxine and the kids have to come to grips with their new surroundings in Toronto – Jennifer, Angel and Alex have to deal with the reality of Dimension-X.

Change in perspective

The book keeps switching from one scenery to the other and puts the different kinds of ‘threats’ into perspective.

The soft horror of a filled cloth diaper on one side vs. the hard reality of fighting giant rock monsters on the other. Meeting new people vs. meeting new monsters. Trying to make yourself a new home vs. trying to find a way back home. In the end, the reader realizes that moving to Canada isn’t all that bad and that things could have been worse.

Panel by Panel

In case you hadn’t noticed, Erik pulled one of his “let’s-try-his-crazy-thing” things again with Savage Dragon #227. A while back he posted a little scribble on Twitter and teased:

This is what it looks like when a crazy person plans out their comic book. A which point did that become me?

He explains what he did in the letter pages:

…I tried this crazy thing with this issue – every page has panels of uniform size but no two pages are the same…

Erik figured out panel configurations that would work, calculated the panel dimensions and drew all panel borders before he started working on the issue. That’s not his usual work progress but, as he put it, “every so often I get a wild hair to try some strange challenge”. Loyal readers will remember that he has done stuff like that in the past. Stay tuned for a post dedicated to all of Erik’s experimental issues in the future…

Reviews of Savage Dragon #227

The book is a great jumping on point for new readers. It’s not only a change in a new direction but Erik also did a great job of catching people up to speed with this issue. If you want to (re)join the Savage Dragon bandwagon – this might be a perfect time.

Naturally, Savage Dragon #227 didn’t receive as much attention as last issue with its controversial Trump cover but we have gathered the reviews we could find so far for your further reading convenience.

That’s it for now. We’ll be back soon with a preview for #228. Until then
Enjoy
Stef
PS: BTW, Did you guys realize that Erik actually drew a dog this issue… ?

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October 5, 2017

The Torment and the Tyrant

Posted by Stefan Kalscheid in Reviews – one comment

Cover of Savage Dragon #226

A little over a month ago Savage Dragon #226 hit the stands. Since we still have to wait a couple of days for the next issue, let’s take a look at the book and how people reacted to it.

As most of you probably know by now, the cover pays homage to Gil Kane’s classic cover of Daredevil #96 that came out way back in 1973.

When Savage Dragon #226 was solicited in April 2017 the book got a mixed reception – obviously based on the depiction of President Trump and the solicitation text which reads:

“TRUMPED” When a tyrannical madman assumes command of the United States, aliens are deemed a threat to national security and targeted for elimination — and that includes Malcolm Dragon and his family! With a country turned against him, Malcolm Dragon fights as he’s never fought before.

To those who follow Erik’s posts on the social networks, his opinion about Trump most likely doesn’t come as much of a surprise. Readers of Savage Dragon also know Erik doesn’t shy away from making politics a part of his book and while Savage Dragon isn’t about politics most of the time Erik has addressed political issues in the past and he has depicted other presidents over the years.

In this post at Comicbook.com about the latest issue, Erik is quoted saying he always enjoyed seeing the President show up in The Incredible Hulk.

“It seemed like there was a presidential portrait of sorts with every new administration. I’ve made it a point to do that as well and I kind of wanted to just get it out of the way.”

Take a look at these previous covers featuring presidents in the spotlight:

Presidents on the Covers of Savage Dragon George Bush Jr. got ’bushwhacked‘ in #119. He had been replaced by the villain “The Impostor” back then.

Erik had been the first to solicit a book with Obama on the cover for his variant edition of Savage Dragon #137 but Marvel beat Erik at the printers and released an issue of Spider-man featuring the presidential candidate a bit earlier which lead to some heated debate. Erik’s cover was a huge hit nonetheless and saw three (!) reprints.

A couple of months later #145 got two variants — one featuring President Obama giving a fistbump to Dragon and the other serving a knuckle sandwich to none other than Osama Bin Laden.

Now the current issue features Trump and it’s pretty obvious Malcolm and he won’t become friendly with each other. In the aftermath of the three-issue epic “The Merging of Multiple Earths” President Trump issues an executive order that outlaws all extraterrestrials in the United States. That includes Malcolm Dragon and his three children and the issue ends with Malcolm being put under arrest…

If you’ve read the solicitations for the upcoming issues, you know the Dragon family is moving north, but we’ll have to wait a wee bit longer to find out if Dragon actually flees from the law or if he is deported.

The self-contained issue got some good reviews all over the net but the cover also attracted a couple of people who don’t usually read the book to voice their criticism.

What other had to say about Savage Dragon #226

Here’s a collection of articles, interviews and reviews on #226.

Enjoy
Stef

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