ERIK LARSEN
Erik Larsen Erik Larsen photo by Tom Mason at Image’s first formal meeting. ©2007 Tom Mason.
If there was ever a person born to be a comic book artist, Erik Jon Larsen would certainly fit that bill. As a teenager he started writing and drawing his own strips in his fanzine Graphic Fantasy. By 1983, the self-taught artist made his professional debut in Megaton #1 and worked his way through the independent circuit before finally getting a freelance offer from Jim Shooter, then editor-inchief of Marvel Comics. Soon other editors took notice of his talents that earned him strings on titles like Punisher, Doom Patrol, and The Outsiders. When Larsen was given the impossible job of following Todd McFarlane’s memorable work on Amazing Spider-Man, he successfully maintained the title’s highly acclaimed status and earned his own fan following with his overly enthusiastic renderings and storytelling. Upon the formation of Image Comics, Erik resurrected Savage Dragon, his boyhood creation, as the title that he would, and continues (for 130 issues-andcounting) to, write and illustrate. In 2004, Erik became the publisher of Image Central, as he hopes to usher in a new era of renaissance for the company that he helped co-found.
Savage Dragon and related characters are ©2007 Erik Larsen
I wanted to ask you something. Does it still bother you a little bit that they constantly misspell your name in comics press circles? It’s not the hardest name to spell. But it’s one of those names that you assume you know how to spell, that’s the thing about it, and in “Sienkiewicz” you go “I think I’d better look that up.” “Larsen” you’re like, “Pfft! I know how to spell Larsen. I don’t have to look that up.” But you think they would know better after 20 years in the biz? Oh, I know. Guys will get the e-mail from the end of my column and e-mail me, and my name is on the column. How are you getting that wrong? It’s spelled right in there. How are you getting it
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screwed up? How are you doing that? So your dad was a college professor? Uh, yeah. I’m going to stick with that. But you dropped out of high school somehow. Yeah, but my kids don’t know that. Okay. I’d just as soon to keep that out of the public record. That’s mentioned in a lot of your interviews. You can do that when you’re young and foolish, but when you get older and responsible and want your kids to finish school, you go, “Well, wait a minute. Maybe that’s not something I should necessarily be going out there and advertising.” Why’d you drop out? I was going to a school that I really liked down in Northern California, and we moved up to Bellingham, Washington; the new school was very cliqué-ish. If you had gone to school with those guys since kindergarten you could be part of their group. I was entering into their world in 11th grade and it was just like, man, you are not breaking into this group. So that whole time you were by yourself. That was part of the reason that made you leave? Yeah, it was just an unfriendly environment, and it’s school stuff I just don’t want to be doing. I’m just not happy here. And my dad at that point was teaching workshops in self-reliance, and he was like,