The "Ask Erik" Thread

Benny Hasa · **Posted:** Mon Oct 24, 2011 8:49 pm

Marvel makes it seem like they are throwing a birthday party when announcing the death of a character. They have been on a role doing that for the past few months. I still read a few marvel title, mainly due to the art or in a few cases the writing, but it doesn't change the fact as to how annoying some of their trends have been.

DC isn't as bad with the gimmicks, but they are still there. Thank god for companies like Image. The comic world would be a sad state without comics like Savage Dragon, Walking Dead, Invincible...

Bendrix · **Posted:** Mon Oct 24, 2011 11:55 pm

Quest Mar-Vell wrote:

Jim Purcell wrote:

.

Then there are Trademark Squatting Resurrections. This is when a character is killed by a creative team in the course of telling a story. But it leads to critical and commercial success and sticks for a number of years. Eventually that character's likeness or name runs the risk of losing its protected Trademark with the corporation (its a use it or lose it, legal situation). So in order to preserve the ownership of the trademarks the owners shit out some kind of mini-series, or restore the original (generally shoving the new replacement to the sidelines). This is probably the worst offense because it is a vicious ongoing cycle that will never end, and it is entirely driven by the corporation's needs and not the story's needs.

In order to keep the rights... couidnt they put out miniseries not based in bringing him back... but in the past? Or even just have him be used in the new replacements book in memories? Do they have to bring him back to life in order to keep the rights, or do they just have to use the character?

Not to keep the rights. But they don't want to loose money on those books, but earn some. And, weird comic book reader habits here, fanboys want stories to "matter" as in: happen in continuity. Stuff in the past does not matter.

Jim Purcell · **Joined:** Thu Jul 21, 2011 10:24 am **Posts:** 1344

Oh hey there object lesson in Character Resurrection...

I'm rather conflicted on this one. On one hand, 616 Blink's Death was pretty tragic and the Phalanx Covenant wasn't that bad of a story (example of a Planned Death). But we got a nice shiny Alternate reality Blink out of Age of Apocalypse, and she went on to kick all sorts of ass in Exiles, one of the more excellent comics of the 2000s.

But now, they've resurrected 616 Blink (making her more like her popularized AoA version in the process), entirely because they (the Marvel/X-Men editors) know Blink is a character with a fanbase that they want brought to bear for a sales boost.

Now, I'm conflicted because A)Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning are a pair I trust as writers, and B)I really really like Blink as a character (granted its the AoA/Exiles Blink I like), but C)I'm not a fan of X-Men as a franchise and D)These sorts of resurrections are cheap ploys.

So... here we've got a classic case of a resurrection for popularity sake that is only happening because regurgitating old characters as new characters is the order of the day to protect against lapsing trademarks. You know in case Blink: The Movie ever needs to get off the ground.

Hanzo the Razor · **Joined:** Tue Jul 26, 2011 3:19 pm **Posts:** 1139

I have some other Savage Dragon questions and rather than start an all-new thread, I thought we might turn this into a general "Ask Erik" thread for general questions for Erik. That cool? If not, let me know and I'll change the title back.

Anyway --

Erik, I'm up to #65 in my re-reading of the series and have another questions -- what was your motivation for re-creating issues and scenes from Graphic Fantasy? I mean, #63 and #65 are complete recreations of the stories you did, only with characters and situations slightly updated. Why did you want to do that? I understand wanting to tell those stories in Image's Dragon continuity, but why picture-for-picture, word-for-word recreations?

Darin Wagner · **Posted:** Tue Oct 25, 2011 11:54 am

I have a rather odd question for Erik...

... without condoning or condemning...

... Why do you take pictures of all the chicken sandwiches you eat?

Erik Larsen · **Joined:** Thu Jul 21, 2011 9:39 am **Posts:** 1096

Hanzo the Razor wrote:

I have some other Savage Dragon questions and rather than start an all-new thread, I thought we might turn this into a general "Ask Erik" thread for general questions for Erik. That cool? If not, let me know and I'll change the title back.

Anyway --

Erik, I'm up to #65 in my re-reading of the series and have another questions -- what was your motivation for re-creating issues and scenes from Graphic Fantasy? I mean, #63 and #65 are complete recreations of the stories you did, only with characters and situations slightly updated. Why did you want to do that? I understand wanting to tell those stories in Image's Dragon continuity, but why picture-for-picture, word-for-word recreations?

That was the goal. When I was a kid I had drawn Dragon adventures and those two stories were as far as I made it--that was the end. When I started Savage Dragon at Image my thought was--why not start in a different place yet get to that same point and then take off from there? So the thought--from day one--was to work toward those two stories.

I rewrote and redrew what needed it. Nothing was line-for-line although most panels had similar compositions. The writing was tweaked to work. I'm curious how many people noticed and if those two issues stuck out in any way.

Erik Larsen · **Joined:** Thu Jul 21, 2011 9:39 am **Posts:** 1096

Darin Wagner wrote:

Why do you take pictures of all the chicken sandwiches you eat?

Chris Giarrusso used to be on staff at Image and he was fond of Fred's chicken sandwiches. We used to go there at least once a week if not more. At some point Chris moved back east and I thought it would be fun to take pictures and torment him--remind him of what he was missing. Initially it was in private emails but it eventually spread to Myspace and later Facebook.

Hanzo the Razor · **Joined:** Tue Jul 26, 2011 3:19 pm **Posts:** 1139

Erik Larsen wrote:

The writing was tweaked to work. I'm curious how many people noticed and if those two issues stuck out in any way.

I noticed right off because I bought Savage Dragon archives.

But yeah, they do stick out. Your storytelling and composition for those issues "feels" pretty different than your current work at the time. There were poses and other little things I noticed that didn't feel in sync with what your sensibilities were as an artist... I look at your really old stuff like that issue of Thor you did with Stan Lee and your DNAgents and it seems like a different guy.

Just as noticeable were the sudden use of captions... they were jam-packed with exposition and recaps, something you really never did much in the book at that point, much less to this degree. The dialogue also read pretty poorly compared to your modern stuff as well.

One of the things you do pretty well is dialogue and witty banter; a lot of it feels natural and pretty damn funny at times. Dragon's banter with villains, especially Simon Kane, was really corny... a lot of it just felt off the mark. If anything, the issues were a showcase of how much your writing has improved.

I really enjoyed them, but mostly just to compare them side-by-side with the originals. They're not the issues I'd hand someone to try to get them into the book.

straw man · **Joined:** Thu Jul 21, 2011 9:13 am **Posts:** 97

I freaked out when I found out these were updated takes on the old issues. From a "creator" point of view it was really satisfying being able to see Erik go back to those old issues.

Erik can you talk about how it felt to be an outsider and slowly working your way into the industry? When did you know you had "made" it?

Erik Larsen · **Joined:** Thu Jul 21, 2011 9:39 am **Posts:** 1096

straw man wrote:

I freaked out when I found out these were updated takes on the old issues. From a "creator" point of view it was really satisfying being able to see Erik go back to those old issues.

Erik can you talk about how it felt to be an outsider and slowly working your way into the industry? When did you know you had "made" it?

Everybody starts off as an outsider. Being able to pay my own rent was a first step toward feeling I'd made it. Getting a contract at DC and moving down to San Francisco--away from my family. I dunno that there was really a moment. Plotting a story with Jim Shooter at a con was a big step. And it provided me with samples which landed me some decent assignments. I don't know that there was ever a moment where I realized--hey, I'm going to be a guy that makes this his life's work--I'm not going to be leaving to do something else.

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