Erik Larsen
What Are You Reading?
Daytripper
Welcome to What Are You Reading?, where we talk about what comics and other stuff we’ve been reading lately.
Today’s special guest is Joe Keatinge, writer and co-creator of the upcoming Image comic Brutal with Frank Cho. He’s also the writer of the final “Twisted Savage Dragon Funnies” installment in April’s Savage Dragon #171, drawn by Savage Dragon creator Erik Larsen, Billy Dogma’s Dean Haspiel, Nikolai Dante’s Simon Fraser, Parade (With Fireworks)’s Mike Cavallaro, The Transmigration of Ultra Lad’s Joe Infurnari, Fahrenheit 451: The Authorized Adaptation’s Tim Hamilton and Olympians’ George O’Connor. He’s also executive editor of the PopGun anthology, he’s got an ongoing series coming soon that he can’t say anything else about and with his fellow studio members at Tranquility Base, regularly beats up on 13 year olds at laser tag.
To see what Joe and the Robot 6 crew have been reading lately, click below.
- February 20, 2011 @ 12:10 PM by JK Parkin
Quote of the day | 2010′s bestsellers and half-full glasses
“Fun fact! NINE of the TOP TEN graphic novels in 2010 were creator-owned books! Walking Dead, Kick-Ass and Scott Pilgrim among them.”
–Savage Dragon cartoonist Erik Larsen, speaking the truth. Of course, the flip side of this is that NINE of the TOP TEN graphic novels in 2010 had major Hollywood properties to thank for much of their notoriety, Walking Dead, Kick-Ass, and Scott Pilgrim among them. (The tenth was a Superman book that got over with mass audiences largely on the strength of a fortuitous press comparison to Twilight.) I don’t mean to short-change the success of Robert Kirkman, Tony Moore, Charlie Adlard, Mark Millar, John Romita Jr., and Bryan Lee O’Malley, but proponents of creator ownership and creators’ rights probably ought not break out the MISSION ACCOMPLISHED banner just yet.
- January 10, 2011 @ 02:00 PM by Sean T. Collins
Industry reactions to Marvel’s Axe-cellent news
Axel Alonso, by Skottie Young
The news broke yesterday that Axel Alonso will take over as editor-in-chief of Marvel Entertainment, following Joe Quesada’s shift in focus to Marvel’s multimedia initiatives. Here’s a few reactions over the last couple days from various folks around the industry:
Tom Spurgeon: “I don’t know Alonso at all, not even a little bit, but he strikes me as a comics-first guy in a period in comics history where Marvel as a publishing company could use every bit of close attention that comes with having a savvy, comics-first guy in that position. That’s not in any way implied commentary on Joe Quesada, I swear. I’m comparing Alonso to other people that might hold that position in this day and age, not to his predecessor. Quesada’s run would have to be termed a big success. Moreover, he leaves that historical position I believe still generally well-liked and certainly widely admired, which is sort of astonishing given the decisions that job calls for over time.”
Tom Brevoort: “This is Axel’s moment. He shouldn’t have to share the spotlight. He well deserves it.”
Jason Aaron: “My bold prediction: the Axel Alonso era at Marvel will be just as exciting and groundbreaking as the Joe Q one, only with more cursing.”
- January 5, 2011 @ 04:00 PM by JK Parkin
Ruling in Gaiman vs. McFarlane case spawns a Twitter feud
Spawn: The Dark Ages #1
In the days following last week’s ruling in the long-running copyright dispute between Todd McFarlane and Neil Gaiman, we heard from Gaiman, countless fans on both sides, and an Image Comics founder. However, we didn’t get comment from McFarlane — that is, until last night.
“Neil Gaiman has the absolute right to defend his position,” he wrote on Twitter. “That’s one of the great privileges we all have in this country.”
That’s it; just two sentences. That’s in stark contrast to Erik Larsen, who has tweeted on the subject more than 50 times since early Monday. His flurry of comments, which were largely critical of Gaiman, drew a few replies from the writer.
“Waves. Hi Erik,” Gaiman tweeted last night. “When Todd comes out of bankruptcy you owe me $40,000. [...] Of course @erikjlarsen is grumpy over me winning again. He ran Image when the 1st round of the case gave me a $40,000 judgment against them. Last time @erikjlarsen blamed the loss not on Todd breaking the law, but on a female jury (& now on a female judge?) http://bit.ly/cbrs8i.”
This morning, Larsen fired back at Gaiman’s initial tweet with, “what did *I* ever do to you? Seriously. What was it that *I* personally did to you which would warrant such a thing?” Minutes later, he added: “How did you ever come up with Spawn on a horse, @neilhimself?”
When one Twitter follower, Brandon Fox, replied, “Dude, a judge, a jury, & the court of public opinion ALL believe @neilhimself deserves a portion of a characters he CO-created,” Larsen answered: “and a jury decided OJ Simpson didn’t kill his wife. What’s your point?”
- August 3, 2010 @ 10:00 AM by Kevin Melrose
Quote of the day | Erik Larsen, on the latest Gaiman vs. McFarlane ruling
Spawn: The Dark Ages #12
“The Neil Gaiman thing perplexes me because it seems so unfair. The characters he created were clearly derivative of the ones Todd created. How anybody can look at Medieval Spawn and side with Neil just shows their bias against Todd. It’s Spawn on a horse, for cryin’ out loud! Everything Neil created was derived from Todd’s creations and all of it was designed by Todd. Claiming ownership just seems really unfair. Now Todd is forced to have people sign work-for-hire contracts. It’s sad — but that’s the price we all have to pay.”
– Image Comics partner Erik Larsen, on last week’s ruling that Todd McFarlane
owes Neil Gaiman a share of profits from the derivative characters Dark Ages Spawn, Domina and Tiffany
- August 2, 2010 @ 07:30 AM by Kevin Melrose
Image goes indie with ‘Twisted Savage Dragon Funnies’
Twisted Savage Dragon Funnies
DC had Bizarro Comics, Marvel had Strange Tales, and now Erik Larsen’s Savage Dragon has secured an alternative comics-style tribute of his very own. Starting with May’s Issue 160, Savage Dragon will run a series of “Twisted Savage Dragon Funnies” back-up strips by an array of indie cartoonists. The project is spearheaded by Act-I-Vate‘s Michel Fiffe, and the full line-up for the first year or so — including Vito Delsante and Rachel Freire, Hyeondo Park, Andrew Dimitt and more — can be found on the blog of contributor Chris Sinderson.
Fiffe’s press release is below:
- March 15, 2010 @ 06:32 AM by Sean T. Collins
Straight for the art | A look at Image United #3, in progress
From "Image United" #3
On Twitter, Rob Liefeld showed off in-progress panels from Image United #3, featuring art by Erik Larsen, Jim Valentino and himself.
He also posted a panel from Deadpool Corps #1, which will be released by Marvel in April.
- January 18, 2010 @ 12:30 PM by Kevin Melrose
McSweeney’s San Francisco Panorama takes comics stars to the streets
James Stokoe's poster for the San Francisco Panorama
Wow, newspaper nostalgia is quite the hot ticket for comics these days, huh?
First there was Kramers Ergot 7, Sammy Harkham and Alvin Buenaventura’s avant-garde anthology, printed at a massive size meant to emulate Winsor McKay’s full-page Little Nemo in Slumberland newspaper strips. Then there was Wednesday Comics, DC’s 12-issue anthology title, published on fold-out newsprint. And now there’s the San Francisco Panorama, a one-time-only “21st-century newspaper prototype” that doubles as the 33rd issue of author/publisher Dave Eggers’ McSweeney’s Quarterly Concern.
Boasting 320 pages of original content, the broadsheet-format Panorama contains full-color comics from Art Spiegelman, Chris Ware, Dan Clowes, Seth, Jessica Abel, Adrian Tomine, Kim Deitch, Ivan Brunetti, Gene Yang, Alison Bechdel, Erik Larsen (still can’t get over that) and more. It also features prose contributions of varying stripes from such comics-relevant authors as Michael Chabon, Chip Kidd, Stephen King, Junot Díaz and Michelle Tea, and a poster of the 49ers’ Patrick Willis drawn by Wonton Soup‘s James Stokoe. And there’s all the other stuff you’d expect from a newspaper — journalism, sports, features, a magazine, a book section and more. Only, y’know, all fancy-pants.
The New York Times reports that the paper has already sold through the limited run made available for sale on the San Francisco streets yesterday at the low price of $5, but it’s still available (or will be soon, that is) at the full $16 pricetag at bookstores and at the McSweeney’s site. Click here for an extensive preview.
(Times link via Pop Candy.)
- December 9, 2009 @ 08:30 AM by Sean T. Collins
SDCC ’09 | Image Comics hosts Image United signing event, more
Image United #1
Image Comics will be out in full force at the con, with several panels and a huge list of folks who will be signing all weekend — everyone from Mike Allred to Christopher Yost.
The biggest event on their schedule is a special signing event with everyone involved in their upcoming Image United book: Robert Kirkman, Erik Larsen, Rob Liefeld, Todd McFarlane, Marc Silvestri, Whilce Portacio and Jim Valentino.
Find their full press release and schedules after the jump
- July 19, 2009 @ 08:06 AM by JK Parkin
Larsen fires back at Wacker in Spider-Man dustup
Savage Dragon #137
The back and forth continues about the appearance of Barack Obama in this week’s Amazing Spider-Man #583, which sports an alternate cover featuring the president-elect.
But this particular thread involves Savage Dragon creator Erik Larsen and Amazing Spider-Man editor Steve Wacker.
It began last week when Larsen posted on a message board that he feels “very betrayed” by Marvel because, in his eyes, the publisher duplicated elements from Savage Dragon #137 — namely, the incentive cover and the use of the “terrorist fist jab” — and used as a story element a shape-shifting villain masquerading as the president, which he’d done previously in an issue of his long-running series.
Then yesterday, Wacker responded with an email to Robot 6 countering Larsen’s assertions: “The idea that this was off-limits because the President-Elect had appeared on another comic cover (or that we wouldn’t have had this idea without Erik Larsen) is beyond preposterous.”
And now Larsen has fired back:
- January 16, 2009 @ 01:43 PM by Kevin Melrose
Steve Wacker responds to Larsen’s Spider-Man comments
Amazing Spider-Man #583 (Obama variant cover)
Earlier this week I blogged about Erik Larsen’s comments on Amazing Spider-Man #583 and Savage Dragon #137 that appeared on the ComiCon.com message boards. If you haven’t seen those comments, go read them first before you read this post, as it’ll make more sense that way.
Everybody up to speed? Good. Here’s Spider-Man editor Steve Wacker, who sent us an email responding to Larsen:
- January 15, 2009 @ 10:44 PM by JK Parkin
Larsen feels “very betrayed” by Amazing Spider-Man #583
Savage Dragon #137
Most comic fans probably remember that President-Elect Barack Obama’s first comic book appearance didn’t come in this week’s Amazing Spider-Man #583. Last year IDW published their biography of Obama in October, and he appeared in Savage Dragon #137 last August.
It’s that second one that’s causing a stir over on the Comicon.com message boards, in a thread titled “The house of stolen ideas.” “Bendrix,” who started the thread, says that Marvel promotion ripped off The Savage Dragon’s “publicity stunt.”
A few pages in, creator Erik Larsen shows up in the thread to say he feels betrayed by Marvel:
As far as Marvel goes– I can’t help but feel very betrayed. They duplicated the incentive cover–and preempted my upcoming one–and even used the “terrorist fist jab.” Clearly those in the “house of ideas” looked at what I did and found inspiration.
I hear that they’re even doing a story similar to the one I did four years back, where an image-altering villain disguises himself as the President (in my story the Impostor replaced President Bush and took his place for a speech–in theirs the Chameleon, the shape-shifting villain, is going to spoil a speech being given by President-Elect Obama). The whole mess just feels really underhanded. I feel betrayed and, frankly, ripped off and in the real world–the one outside our funnybook bubble–Marvel will spin themselves as these great innovators who came up with this terrific publicity stunt–instead of the thieves they are.
And I know what they’re saying when they’re called on it–”Presidents have appeared in comics before” and “Erik didn’t create Barack Obama” and blah, blah, blah.
The thing that Marvel is attempting to do is to frame the argument. To say “we’ve featured presidents in the past–this is what we do–it’s part of a pattern.” But that’s a false argument. The “stunt” was an alternate cover featuring Obama– which was something no publisher had done with any president in the past and one that received a lot of press when I did it. If Marvel had done alternate covers with Bush and Clinton or any of the others– they could legitimately claim that they were following a pattern and doing what they’ve done in the past– but that wasn’t the case. And theirs is not simply the appearance of a president in a comic book but one on an alternate cover– and one concocted to try and get some of the same attention that got. I did not create Obama– I did, however, have a character endorse him, long before he was elected while Marvel played footsie with Stephen Colbert– a joke candidate.
- January 14, 2009 @ 10:10 PM by JK Parkin