Savage Dragon #23
☆ Be the first to review + Add to your collection — Join freeSavage Dragon #23 is the debut issue of BrainiApe — one of Erik Larsen's most audacious villain concepts: Adolf Hitler's surgically preserved brain mounted atop the body of a gorilla, joining the Vicious Circle as an amnesiac thug unaware of his own history. That single character invention, introduced here in October 1995, anchored a long-running subplot that would eventually intersect with Hellboy and reshape the book's mythology for years. The issue also introduces Captain Jose Mendosa as the Chicago P.D.'s new commanding officer, beginning a significant shift in the precinct's power structure, and features a Mike Allred centerfold pin-up pairing Dragon with Madman — a snapshot of the collegial indie crossover culture that defined mid-1990s Image Comics.
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We Buy Collections ▸History
Like every issue of the ongoing series, Savage Dragon #23 was written, pencilled, and inked entirely by Erik Larsen — a creative model he had maintained since the series launched in 1993 and which would eventually make the book the longest-running full-color comic drawn and written by a single creator. Colorists Reuben Rude and Antonia Kohl handled the color art, with Chris Eliopoulos on letters and Jannie Wong as editor, a production team consistent with the era's Image house style. The Allred pin-up was a natural fit: Larsen and Allred were fellow Image-sphere creators who had already collaborated on the 1993 Savage Dragon vs. Savage Megaton Man one-shot, and guest centerfolds by indie peers were a regular feature of the series.
Trivia · 8 facts
- First appearance of BrainiApe (real name: Adolf Hitler) — Hitler's brain, salvaged after a 1952 confrontation with Hellboy and transplanted into a gorilla's body by loyal Nazi scientists, debuts here as an amnesiac Vicious Circle enforcer.
- First appearance of Captain Jose Mendosa, the Chicago Police Department's new commanding officer, who addresses the force on Dragon's two-week disappearance.
- First appearances of Vicious Circle members DownLoad and Lagoombah, who debut alongside BrainiApe in the same issue.
- She-Dragon (Amy Belcher) sports a new Mohawk hairstyle in this issue and is turned away from the Chicago P.D.; she challenges Rapture to prove herself and is electrocuted unconscious.
- Mike Allred contributed a two-page pull-out centerfold pin-up featuring Dragon and his own character Madman (Frank Einstein) — one of several guest art pieces that ran in the series during this period.
- Don Simpson's Megaton Man cast — including Trent Phloog (Megaton Man), Gower Goose, and X-Ray Boy (Larry Barton) — are indexed as appearing in this issue, reflecting the cross-promotional indie comics community Larsen cultivated throughout the series.
- The entire issue was written, pencilled, and inked by Erik Larsen alone, consistent with his practice of sole authorship on the series — a run Wikipedia notes is the longest-running full-color comic to feature a single artist-writer.
- The issue was published in October 1995 (Diamond ID: SAVAGE023) and has since been collected in the Savage Dragon Archives and Ultimate Collection hardcover reprint lines.
Cast · 28 characters
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Reprints
Reprinted in Savage Dragon #8 (2025), Savage Dragon #6
Key issues in Savage Dragon
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