Back to a narrative of the 1970s, more worse than the best

This volume does not result Savage Dragon Volume 11: Resurrection (episodes 53-58, color), but rather to Savage Dragon Archives Volume 3 (episodes 51-75 black and white). It contains episodes 76-81 (in color), originally published in 2000, written, drawn and inked by Erik Larsen, with a color setting of Reuben Rude.

Savage Dragon killed Damien Darklord, before he could travel in time, which created a temporal paradox of great magnitude. Dragon regains consciousness in a place in flames (a specialty) and discovers a post apocalyptic world in ruins Chicago, big not beautiful monsters everywhere eager for fresh flesh, and rare few surviving humans rather harm than good. Struggling regularly to avoid serving meals, he finally heading to the place where he lived with Jennifer Murphy (his wife) and Angel (their adopted daughter). Instead, he found a huge crater, resumed his wanderings on earth devastated.

In the introduction to 2 pages, Erik Larsen explains that these episodes correspond to the beginning of a new period in the series. He had made a conscious choice to score a strong break with the first 75 episodes. These six episodes are designed as a tribute to the series Kamandi, the last boy on earth by Jack Kirby. With this reference in mind, the reader immediately identifies the boy to flight time preview of a page (page 5 Episode 76) in blue shorts, with a beautiful blonde hair (yes, that's Kamandi ). The reader who has read "Kamandi" immediately recognizes the situation of Savage Dragon, as the last "man" on Earth, moving in a civilization in ruins, with big monsters at every street corner, and humans have lost their place top of the ladder of evolution.

From this point of view, the homage to Erik Larsen is successful. He had already shown in previous volumes it speaks with ease and fluidity Kirby, able both to use his graphic vocabulary (same types of postures of the characters, same sense of cosmic disproportion) and grammar (sequencing boxes). As usual, Larsen knows honor, while maintaining a modicum of creativity, and its specific narrative. Savage Dragon does not become naive, he does not lose his personality. The monsters drawn by Larsen inherit their appearance from those of Kirby, without being a copy. Dragon's adventures evoke those Kamandi without being a true copy.

Stranger, Larsen decided to adopt the narrative of Kirby on "Kamandi" episodes originally published between 1972 and 1976. Larsen explains in the introduction that he chose to restore bubbles thoughts, explanatory text cells , remove subplots, and ensure that Savage Dragon to appear in all the boxes without exception. For a regular reader of the series, the shock is tough. While Larsen had used to a dense and fluid narration, it must grow here in the middle of clumsy and heavy texts to find any information that is not already available in the drawings. Larsen says that this form of narrative return back divided readership. Readers of the first hour there saw a decline, a form of degeneration making it laborious reading, and the plot too linear. New readers have found a narrative immediately comprehensible, accessible and explanatory.

On the one hand, Larsen gives fantastic see a great show, even taking the start of the episodes designed by Kirby: a full-page drawing for the first page, followed by a drawing on a double page for pages 2 and 3. It's a great show providing immediate gratification, with no need for investment in concentration from the player. On the other, reading each text is tedious, biting irony and Dragon disappeared, and the linearity of the adventures (great flight forward) leaves an older reader unsatisfied.

Not until the sixth and final episode to recover caustic verve Larsen, who finally forget those text cells and dividing by 5 the volume of thoughts bubbles. Finally, he returned to a form of sarcastic caricature, as a prince of the seas not very smart, and revenge Mako (a man-shark) in an underwater adventure that task.

After 75 episodes, the reader can understand Erik Larsen feels the need to change the narrative register. He demonstrated an unwavering inventiveness for 7 years, marrying unrestrained violence, humor under several comic books, friendly and lovable characters, stupid criminals, grotesque, dangerous and sometimes stupid and nasty, disheveled intrigue, suspense cut knife, tribute to the great superhero comics creators, intelligent and funny parodies. It therefore operates a radical change for a tribute to the first degree "Kamandi" Jack Kirby. The radicalism of this new direction has allowed the series to attract new readers, the consideration being that the long drives there will likely find their account.

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- For the record, Erik Larsen had decided to stop the reissue collection (and color) after the number 11 "Resurection" that is why there are no collections of 12, 13 and 14 . Subsequently, he took over the cheap model Essentials Marvel or DC Showcase is to say compilations of 25 episodes in black & white in the Archives collection.