Posted by Stefan Kalscheid in News | Previews – no comments
Erik posted the cover for Savage Dragon #236 on Facebook today. It’s the first cover that puts the kids on the centre stage so it’s gonna be interesting what or whom they are up against. Judging from the latest issue, it might well be on of their own siblings.
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Posted by Stefan Kalscheid in News – one comment
As most of you guys know, Erik received an Inkwell Award last year. Part of the 2017 Inkwell Award was the “Sinnott Inking Challenge Spotlight on Erik Larsen”. 30 professionals were invited to ink a pencilled page by Erik himself. I posted about this before.
Now the first wave of those artboards are auctioned off on ebay featuring contributions from Alex Saviuk, Richard Clark, Andy Owens, Andy Smith, Mark McKenna, Rudy Nebres, Criss Madd, Dee Fish, Geof Isherwood, Idan Knafo Kerbis, John Floyd, Joe Prado and Rodney Ramos! Check out these amazing pieces and get your hands on some great Savage Dragon art!
Here’s the link to the ebay auctions
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Posted by Stefan Kalscheid in News – no comments
That’s right kids, the latest issue hits the stands today. You know what you need to do…
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Posted by Stefan Kalscheid in News – one comment
Erik posted the cover for issue #235 on Facebook. It seems we keep getting new characters now that Malcolm left his old foes and friends behind in Chicago. Fun times! 
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Posted by Stefan Kalscheid in News – 2 comments
That’s right, issue #231 of Savage Dragon came out yesterday. So get in gear and pick up your copy over at Image Comics and Comixology. And then head right over to the Savage Fincast and listen to to the guys chatting about the latest issue with non other than Erik himself!
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Posted by Stefan Kalscheid in News – no comments
Erik just released the amazing cover for Savage Dragon #234. Guess who’s back?
Also, tomorrow, 24th of January, is the release date for the 9th Archives collection!
SAVAGE DRAGON COLLECTED IN STUNNING BLACK AND WHITE! The notorious threesome! Mr. Glum’s story! Into Dimension-X! Malcolm graduates high school! The showdown with Dart! Malcolm and Maxine tie the knot! Ant! Spawn! Malcolm joins the Chicago Police Dept.! Malcolm and Maxine become proud parents! The Merging of Multiple Earths! Death! Birth! Everything you loved and more in the generation-spanning saga from Inkwell Award-winning creator ERIK LARSEN! Featuring the awe-inspiring epic 225th issue! All collected in one massive volume! Collects SAVAGE DRAGON #201-225
Aaand we have the official solicitation text for Savage Dragon #233
“CHASING THE DRAGONS”
The reality show starring Malcolm Dragon’s ever-growing family debuts, and impending doom is just around the corner! Another outstanding achievement from award-winning writer/artist ERIK LARSEN.
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Posted by Stefan Kalscheid in News | Reviews – one comment
Sooo, December gave us two issues of Savage Dragon which is great for us fans. But — it’s hard to keep up with Erik’s schedule so this review is a bit later than usual. Let’s dive right in…
If you are keeping up with Erik’s work you might know that he likes to experiment. He likes to challenge himself and he’s always looking for ways to improve his art and to keep it fresh — for himself and the readers.
For a while now Erik had been working on twice-up art boards that are considerably larger than the industries standard. Last issue though, he used some artboards that were barely half the size of the standard paper. It helped draw the book quicker — Erik wanted to get it out in time for christmas – and it also made the drawings a bit more cartoony. With Savage Dragon #230 he tries something new…
“With #229 I drew an entire issue quite small. With #230, I’m going freestyle, drawing pages at a random size. Trying to take advantage of the strengths of each option.”
Here’s a look at all the art boards for Savage Dragon #230. Erik has blurred and retouched the image to avoid spoilers — but you get the idea…
Erik went into detail on the different sizes: “Depicted here, the smallest Image art boards are 7.75 x 11.75. The interior box is 6 11/16 x 10. The other is a twice up page (full bleed is 14.5 x 22, the interior box is 12.5 x 18.75). I also used standard art boards (10.25 x 15 3/8, interior box 8 7/8 x 13.5) and in between 11 3/8 x 17 3/8 interior box 9 13/16 x 15 1/8. Added to that is a double page spread at 22 3/4 x 17 7/16 and a single non-bleed page (10.25 x 15 3/8) which I added a bleed to in Photoshop.”
So — most pages are standard-sized or bigger but there are a few of the small boards in the mix. The small boards seem ideal for full page closeups or figures or simple action with limited backgrounds.”
Eventually all pages were scanned and re-sized in photoshop so that Chris Eliopoulos didn’t have to deal with different font-sizes during lettering. The panels were also given a consistent border thickness.
As we have reported before, Savage Dragon #230 is Cris Eliopoulos’ last work on the book as letterer. Chris is concentrating on his own writing and cartooning and we wish him all the best in his future endeavours. New letterer will be Ferran Delgado who already had a couple of stints on backstories in the book.
The guys from the Savage Fincast tried something new this month and held a live Podcast on Youtube. The edited recording hasn’t been posted yet but you can listen to the live recorded version on their Youtube channel. They have also started to implement games into their show, which actually is pretty funny. So check it out and let them know their hard work is appreciated!
Enjoy
Stef
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Posted by Stefan Kalscheid in News – 2 comments
As Erik has announced on Facebook and Twitter a few days ago, Chris Eliopoulos — long-time letterer of Savage Dragon — is leaving the book… once again.
Chris initially started working on Savage Dragon with the original mini-series and stayed onboard ’til issue #106. Up to that point, he had hand-lettered everything onto the original art-boards — from speech bubbles to thought balloons and even all those amazing sound effects.
Erik had always preferred to have the letters on the original artwork, the way it used to be in comics for the longest time. But digital lettering had long since become the standard and eventually it became too time-consuming for Chris to keep working the old way. (Below is an excerpt of the letters page from Savage Dragon #106.)
Following Chris’ departure, Erik worked with John Workman, who took over from Chris and later Tom Orzechowski. At one point Erik even lettered the book himself, but it took up too much of his time and the results weren’t what Erik was aiming for.
Eventually, Erik decided that hand lettering just took up too much time. He had to mail the original art to the letterer and then wait for them to do their thing and mail the pages back. So, reluctantly, after 21 years of hand-lettering, he agreed to turn to digital lettering.
On the plus side, that meant that Erik could work with Chris again! Chris came back with Savage Dragon #186 and worked his magic using a font based on his own hand-lettering.
Lettering isn’t Chris’ only profession. He’s a talented cartoonist and writer himself and has made a name for himself over the years. He is known for his work on books such as Marvels “Franklin Richards – Son of a genius”, his web comic “Misery Loves Sherman” and the comic strip “Desperate Times” which ran as a backup feature in Savage Dragon and was later released at Image Comics.
In 2014 Dial Books published “I am Amelia Earhart” and “I am Abraham Lincoln”, the first two books in writer Brad Meltzer’s “Ordinary People Change the World” series of picture book biographies for children, which are illustrated by Eliopoulos. The books were a tremendous success and more books were and are being released.
And that’s keeping Chris busy. It’s understandable that he wants to concentrate on his illustrating and writing career — but unfortunately it means he has less time for other things. His last issue as letterer is Savage Dragon #230.
I think I speak for us all when I wish Chris all the best for his future projects (fingers crossed for some more Desperate Times) and who knows — maybe he’ll be back one day… once again.
Stef
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Posted by Stefan Kalscheid in Interviews | Videos – one comment
The guys from SYFY WIRE recently did an Interview with Erik and released the video on Youtube.
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Posted by Stefan Kalscheid in News | Podcasts – no comments
The latest Savage Fincast Mei is Bae is online. The poor guys lost the original recording of their show and had to take the time to re-record the whole thing. It’s fun nonetheless. Listen to them discussing Savage Dragon #229, the pros and cons of working on small artboards and other shenanigans.
We also added the link to the review of the issue
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