Savage Dragon #96

[drsevarius.insanejournal.com]

Comments

[thanekos.insanejournal.com]

SUBTLETY!

[cyberghostface.insanejournal.com]

By Larsen standards, this *is* subtle.

[foxhack.insanejournal.com]

Could you please remove that preview image? Or compress it into JPEG?

Because that thing is two megs, and it took ages to finish downloading on my ancient connection -_-;;

[halloweenjack.insanejournal.com]

This reads suspiciously like Millar's first Authority arc.

[timgueguen.insanejournal.com]

So, who is Modok Jr. supposed to be? Liefeld? The beard makes me think Alan Moore.

[arbre_rieur.insanejournal.com]

As far as I know, he's not meant to be any specific one individual.

[ulf_boehnke.insanejournal.com]

The first time he appeared (as Johnny Redbeard) he was supposed to be John Byrne.

[arbre_rieur.insanejournal.com]

According to Larsen, once Johnny Redbeard became the Creator, he was no longer meant to represent Byrne specifically. However, the fans kept reading the character as a Byrne parody no matter what. Larsen said that he eventually got rid of the character because of the very fact that he couldn't halt this perception on his readers' part.

[cyberghostface.insanejournal.com]

At the time, some people thought Larsen was attacking Bill Jemas.

[shanejayell.insanejournal.com]

I think he's a fusion of Byrne,Gaiman and Moore probably.

[thandrak.insanejournal.com]

So, a more conventional looking knockoff of Dragon. Could be interesting.

[okkult3000.insanejournal.com]

It's funny when the Savage Dragon calls someone else a cheap knockoff.

[demonprawn.insanejournal.com]

Who's he a knock-off of?

[drsevarius.insanejournal.com]

The Hulk.

Uh, no.

[une_croix.insanejournal.com]

Because he's green?

So, is the Abomination? Martian Manhunter? The Titans' Changeling?

Dragon doesn't transform. Doesn't have an alter-ego or secret identity. Isn't a scientist. Isn't massive. Is an alien. Worked as a police officer initially (and is back doing the same now).

He's super-strong and has a healing factor. Like countless other heroes.

If he weren't green you wouldn't be making this call, so the shared skin colour is all it comes down to.

Re: Uh, no.

[drsevarius.insanejournal.com]

He looks like the Hulk with a Mohawk. You can't say that for your other examples.

Re: Uh, no.

[une_croix.insanejournal.com]

And if he were blue, that wouldn't be the case. So it's just the skin colour that it comes down to.

He's bald headed (with a fin) and hairy bodied, with a top heavy frame - (the Hulk'd tower over him).

Again, apart from both being green, they don't look alike, and that's before you get to the completely different origins, settings and characterisation.

Far too many people dismiss the character and the book (one of the best on the stands any given month, and the work of a creator who actually, genuinely cares about his creation and comics as a medium) based on superficial judgements.

Re: Uh, no.

[drsevarius.insanejournal.com]

I've read several issues; it's not horrible, but it's not the greatest either.

Larsen also sounds full of himself when he says stuff like "My target audience is older Marvel readers who are about ready to throw in the towel on comics altogether. It's the missing link between Marvel and Vertigo. More mature than Marvel--less pretentious than Vertigo."

[strannik01.insanejournal.com]

Actually, according to Larsen himself, the Dragon started out a Batman knock-off he came up with when he was a kid. Obviously, the character changed quite a bit since then.

[(Anonymous)]

No, the face-palm/headdeskiness isn't that Savage Dragon is calling others cheap knock-offs.

It's that Eric Larsen is making bad commentary about better writers' "cheap knock-offs" by using bad cheap knock-offs, completely missing the point of those he's targeting, especially in the case of the Ultimate Universe.