SAVAGE DRAGON # 111

Erik Larsen's Savage Dragon is mostly a pastiche of other people's comics, in both conception and execution: Jack Kirby art, Golden Age Captain Marvel, and 1980's Marvel Comics. That's not necessarily a bad thing, nor is it really a good thing. As an original Image homeboy, Larsen might remember one of the initial credos was that Image was going to do new comics for a new generation. Read SD and one cannot miss Larsen's painfully obvious sentiment - this book should feel as if it belongs in the Marvel Universe that John Byrne, Walter Simonson, Roger Stern and others made for Marvel in the 80's.

This book is obviously a labor of love, and it reads like something meant for a child. It's not dumb, just purely escapist entertainment. Savage Dragon will totally appeal to readers nostalgic for old comics, especially those wedded like desperate brides to comics with strict and labyrinthine continuity.

There is a stale charm in this issue's story of Savage Dragon's wife and daughter battling in another dimension to find their big green, savage daddy. Larsen and cohorts tell concise short tales full of grandiose fistfights and soap opera drama. We can also at least thank him for producing comics that will tell 22-page stories in only 22-pages and not in 80 pages. Grade C+