Erik Larsen

Erik J. Larsen (born December 8, 1962) is an American comic book artist, writer, and publisher. He currently acts as the chief financial officer of Image Comics.[1] He gained attention in the early 1990s with his art on Spider-Man series for Marvel Comics. In 1992 he was one of several artists who stopped working for Marvel to found Image Comics, where he launched his superhero series Savage Dragon – one of the longest running creator-owned superhero comics series – and served for several years as the company's publisher.

For other people named Erik Larsen, see Erik Larsen (disambiguation).
Erik Larsen
Larsen at the 2011 New York Comic Con
BornErik J. Larsen
(1962-12-08) December 8, 1962
Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA
NationalityAmerican
Area(s)Writer, Penciller, Inker, Publisher
Notable works
The Amazing Spider-Man
Doom Patrol
Savage Dragon
Spawn
Spider-man
Supreme

Early life

Larsen was born on December 8, 1962,[2] in Minneapolis, Minnesota.[3] As a child growing up in Bellingham, Washington, and Albion, California, he created several comic books featuring versions of a character named "The Dragon", whom he has since described as a Batman-like character who drove a car copied from Speed Racer's Mach Five. The Dragon turned into a superhero using a magic word to trigger his powers like Captain Marvel. Larsen and two friends produced a fanzine called Graphic Fantasy, which featured this character.

Career

Early career

Larsen's first paid work was for the anthology Megaton, co-creating and illustrating a feature called "Vanguard" with publisher Gary Carlson. A revised version of the Dragon debuted in issue #2 and appeared in the following two issues. The original Dragon, inspired by elements from Captain Marvel, Batman, Speed Racer and later The Incredible Hulk, differs greatly from the modern incarnation.

Savage Dragon was first featured in two issues of Graphic Fantasy, a self-published title with a small print run, published by Larsen and two friends. In this incarnation, the Dragon was a widower and a retired member of a government-sponsored superhero team. Subsequently, the Dragon made another appearance in the third issue of Gary Carlson's Megaton anthology in its Vanguard strip, which Larsen had been drawing. In these appearances, the character of the Dragon remained basically the same as it had been in Graphic Fantasy, with a few details modified (such as the inclusion of his wife, who was dead in his previous incarnation). Both the Graphic Fantasy and Megaton issues featuring the Dragon have since been reprinted in high-quality editions.

Larsen went on to work for AC Comics on Sentinels of Justice and The DNAgents for Eclipse Comics.

DC Comics

Larsen did work at DC on The Outsiders, Teen Titans, Adventures of Superman and Doom Patrol. His art on Doom Patrol was negatively received by readers at first, something Larsen thought was due to his style being such a drastic departure from that of his predecessor on the series, Steve Lightle. He remarked, "Years later, I learned from the experience and made more of an effort to ease the transition."[4] In the late 1990s, he wrote the series Aquaman for a year.

Marvel Comics

His first work for Marvel Comics was a fill-in on Thor that was inked by Vince Colletta.[5] He later did a fill-in issue of The Amazing Spider-Man and five issues of Punisher for Marvel. A Nova story for Marvel Comics Presents was greenlit but cancelled because it did not fit with an upcoming New Warriors series that would feature the character.

In 1990 Erik Larsen replaced Todd McFarlane on The Amazing Spider-Man with issue #329, having previously penciled issues 287, 324 and 327. With writer David Michelinie, Larsen illustrated stories such as "The Cosmic Spider-Man", "The Return of the Sinister Six" (#334–339) and "The Powerless Spider-Man" (#341–343). He left the title with #350, was succeeded by Mark Bagley with #351. Larsen again succeeded McFarlane on Spider-Man, where he wrote and drew the six-issue story arc "Revenge of the Sinister Six" (#18–23). Larsen also gained critical acclaim for his work with the character Venom during his time on Amazing Spider-Man. His design of Venom was highlighted during the story "Venom Returns" (#330–#333, #344–347, Annual #25), which introduced signature visual elements to the character such as giving Venom a long reptilian tongue dripping slime.[6][7] Though his work with Venom was widely lauded and sales were strong, Larsen has gone on record saying he did not enjoy drawing the character and that he found the origin story of both Eddie Brock and the Venom symbiote to be unlikable.[6]

Larsen stopped working for Marvel in 1992 (see below) but has occasionally returned to write and illustrate, on titles such as Fantastic Four, The Defenders, Wolverine and Nova. In 2000, he returned to pencil The Amazing Spider-Man vol. 2, issues #19–21 with writer Howard Mackie. In 2019, he penciled and wrote Amazing Spider-man: Going Big, a one-shot for Marvel's 80th anniversary, along with Mark Bagley and Gerry Conway.[8]

Image Comics

In 1992, seeking greater control and profit over the work they created, Larsen and six other illustrators left Marvel to form Image Comics, where Larsen launched a series featuring a reworked version of Savage Dragon. This version was a massively muscled green amnesiac, who joined the Chicago police department after being discovered in a burning field. Initially debuting in a three-issue miniseries, the series met with enough success to justify a monthly series, launched in 1993. Larsen continued to write and illustrate the series entirely by himself, usually maintaining a roughly monthly schedule except during times when it was not in production. Larsen has occasionally produced ancillary mini-series, and sometimes allowed other creators to produce stories featuring the Dragon or other characters from the series.

As an Image partner, he formed the studio Highbrow Entertainment, which publishes through Image.

Savage Dragon is one of two original Image Comics titles still published (the other being Spawn) and the only one still written and drawn by its creator.[9] The character was also adapted into a short-lived (26 episodes) USA Network animated series that started in 1995.

Erik Larsen in Artists Alley at New York Comic Con 2015

In 2004, Larsen replaced Jim Valentino as publisher of Image Comics, taking responsibility for all comics produced by creators other than the Image partners and their studios.[10] Larsen stepped down as publisher in July 2008 and executive director Eric Stephenson was promoted to the position.

Fans wanted more Savage Dragon and I wanted to do more Savage Dragon—but it was not possible to be both a fulltime publisher and a fulltime cartoonist efficiently. Something had to give, and given the fact that Image was in a good place—going in the right direction—and Eric Stephenson was completely up to speed and ready to go—it seemed that the timing was right.[11]

In 2012–2013, Larsen had a run as writer and artist on a short-lived revival of Rob Liefeld's Supreme, illustrating writer Alan Moore's final unpublished script with issue #63 and writing new stories from issues #64–68.

Personal life

Larsen and his wife Jannie live in San Francisco, California, with their two sons, Christopher and Joseph.[3]

Awards

Larsen was nominated for the 2016 Inkwell Awards All-in-One Award, for "Favorite artist known for inking his/ her own pencil work in award year interior, cover-dated, American comic book material."[12] In 2017, he was again nominated and received the 2017 All-in-One Award for his work on Savage Dragon.[13][14]

Bibliography

DC

Art

Script

  • Aquaman #50–62
  • Aquaman Secret Files #1

Marvel

Art

Script

Image

Art

Script

  • Deadly Duo v1 #1–3
  • Freak Force v2 #1–3
  • Negative Burn Anthology
  • Savage Dragon v1 #1–3 v2 #1–present
  • Savage Dragon vs Savage Megaton Man
  • Savage Dragon: Sex & Violence #1–2
  • Spawn #259–266
  • Supreme #64–68
  • SuperPatriot #1–4
  • WildC.A.T.s v1 #14

Editor

  • Deadly Duo v2 #1–4
  • Freak Force v1 #1–18
  • Savage Dragon: Red Horizon #1–3
  • Savage Dragon/Destroyer Duck
  • Star #1–4
  • SuperPatriot: Liberty & Justice #1–4
  • Vanguard #1–6
  • Vanguard: Strange Visitors #1–4

Publisher
  • Dart (1996)
  • Deadly Duo (1994–1995)
    • Deadly Duo vol. 2 (1995)
  • Freak Force (1993–1995)
    • Freak Force vol. 2 (1997)
  • Dragon: Blood & Guts (1995)
  • Savage Dragon (1992)
    • Savage Dragon vol. 2 (1993 – ongoing)
  • Savage Dragon/Marshal Law (1997)
  • Savage Dragon: Red Horizon (1997)
  • Savage Dragon: Sex and Violence (1997)
  • Savage Dragon: God War (2004–2005)
  • Star (1995)
  • SuperPatriot (1993)
    • SuperPatriot: Liberty & Justice (1995)
    • SuperPatriot: America's Fighting Force (2002)
    • SuperPatriot: War on Terror (2004–2005)
  • The Dragon (1996)
  • Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1996–1999)
  • Vanguard (1993–1994)
    • Vanguard: Strange Visitors (1996–1997)

References
  1. "Image Comics Erik Larsen Profile".
  2. "Today’s Comics Guide: November 24, 2011: Birthdays 2 Weeks from Now". CBGXtra. November 24, 2011
  3. "Erik Larsen – Biography & Bibliography" Archived 2011-05-26 at the Wayback Machine. Savage Dragon.com. Retrieved November 4, 2012.
  4. Browning, Michael (July 2013). "The Doom Patrol Interviews: Erik Larsen". Back Issue!. Raleigh, North Carolina: TwoMorrows Publishing (65): 52–54.
  5. Larsen, Erik (May 9, 2008). "One Fan's Opinion". Comic Book Resources.
  6. Wizard #23 (July 1993) Wizard Entertainment.
  7. "Marvel Artist Explains the Origin of Venom's Weirdly Long Tongue". ScreenRant. 2018-05-01. Retrieved 2020-10-03.
  8. "This September, Erik Larsen Returns to 'Amazing Spider-Man'". Marvel Entertainment.
  9. David, Peter. "Giving Credit Where Credit is Due, Part 1". peterdavid.net. August 23, 2010. Reprinted from Comics Buyer's Guide #1033. September 3, 1993
  10. Brady, Matt (8 July 2008). "Eric Stephenson: Talking to the New Image Publisher". Newsarama.
  11. Piccione, Sebastian (August 12, 2008). "ERIK LARSEN Interview". Project Fanboy. Archived from the original on Feb 10, 2012.
  12. "2016 Winners". Inkwell Awards. 30 June 2016.
  13. "2017 Winners". Inkwell Awards. 3 July 2017.
  14. "2017 INKWELL AWARD Winners". Newsarama. 19 June 2017.
Preceded by
Todd McFarlane		 The Amazing Spider-Man artist
1990–1991		 Succeeded by
Mark Bagley
Preceded by
Todd McFarlane		 Spider-Man writer-artist
1991–1992		 Succeeded by
Howard Mackie (writer)
Larry Alexander (artist)
Preceded by
Todd DeZago		 Wolverine writer
1999–2000		 Succeeded by
Steve Skroce
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