The Malibu Sun #14
The Malibu Sun #14 (June 8, 1992) is the first comic to deliver a dedicated Savage Dragon preview feature to retail customers, landing on shelves weeks before the Savage Dragon three-issue miniseries launched with a July 1992 cover date. It marks the public debut — in print, to a paying readership — of Erik Larsen's green-skinned, fin-headed amnesiac who would go on to anchor one of the two original Image Comics titles still in continuous publication, and the only one ever written and drawn exclusively by its creator. The issue also catalogued other freshly minted Image properties in the same pages, making it a snapshot of the most consequential moment in early-1990s creator-ownership history. Because the associated characters — including the alter-ego Kurr, the alien tyrant whose memory-wiped identity would become the Dragon — are indexed here, this issue sits at the root of one of modern comics' deepest ongoing character mythologies.
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The Malibu Sun was a promotional magazine distributed by Malibu Comics to retailers and readers, used to spotlight its various imprints — Aircel, Eternity, Adventure — as well as the then-nascent Image imprint, which initially operated under Malibu's distribution umbrella before splitting off as a fully independent publisher in 1993. Issue #14 arrived at the exact moment that Erik Larsen and his fellow Image co-founders — including Todd McFarlane, Rob Liefeld, Jim Lee, Marc Silvestri, Whilce Portacio, and Jim Valentino — had just departed Marvel Comics over creator-ownership grievances and were preparing their debut titles. The issue's Savage Dragon content, drawn and presented by Larsen himself, gave retailers and early adopters their first substantial look at the character Larsen had been developing since childhood, a heavily redesigned version of a concept he had previously introduced in the self-published Graphic Fantasy (1982) and in Megaton Comics (1986).
Trivia · 8 facts
- Published June 8, 1992 by Malibu Comics; predates the Savage Dragon miniseries #1 (cover-dated July 1992) by several weeks.
- Contains a dedicated Savage Dragon preview feature with art by Erik Larsen, including black-and-white interior pages and a color cover — the issue's first substantial print showcase for the character ahead of his own series.
- Characters indexed in the issue include Savage Dragon (the amnesiac green-skinned hero), Kurr (the Dragon's true identity as an alien emperor, whose story was later elaborated in the Image 10th Anniversary hardcover), Alex Wilde, Frank Darling, Skullface, and David Gorelick.
- The Malibu Sun was a free or low-cost promotional magazine through which Malibu Comics spotlighted upcoming titles across its Aircel, Eternity, Adventure, and Image imprints.
- Erik Larsen is sole creator, writer, and cover artist for the Savage Dragon content; he co-founded Image Comics in 1992 alongside McFarlane, Liefeld, Lee, Silvestri, Portacio, and Valentino after leaving Marvel over work-for-hire disputes.
- The Savage Dragon character originated in Larsen's childhood homemade comics; the Image incarnation depicted a massively built, finned, green-skinned amnesiac discovered in a burning field in Chicago who joins the police department to fight 'superfreaks.'
- Savage Dragon's ongoing monthly series, launched June 1993, is recognized as the longest-running full-color comic book written and drawn entirely by a single creator in American comics history.
- The Dragon's true identity as Emperor Kurr — an evil alien tyrant whose scientists wiped his memory and sent him to Earth — was formally revealed in the Image Comics 10th Anniversary hardcover (released November 30, 2005), but Kurr is indexed as a character present in this early preview issue.
Cast · 3 characters
Full credits
Full plot ⚠ may contain spoilers
▸ Reveal full plot — may contain spoilers
The success of Ninja High School, especially the full-color Prom Formula (Malibu, 1991 series) mini-series, prompted Eternity to reprint classic Ninja High School stories in color.
Plot details indexed by the Grand Comics Database (CC BY-SA).