The Savage Dragon #1
The Savage Dragon #1 (July 1992) is the opening chapter of one of the foundational titles launched during Image Comics' debut year — the single most significant shake-up in mainstream American comics publishing since the Bronze Age. Written, penciled, and inked entirely by Erik Larsen, it introduced Dragon, the amnesiac green-skinned supercop, along with a dense Chicago-set mythology that would sustain a continuous creator-owned run lasting decades. The issue is also the first publication under Larsen's Highbrow Entertainment imprint, and its commercial success was the direct catalyst for the ongoing monthly series launched the following year. Together with Spawn, it remains one of only two original 1992 Image titles still in print — and the only one that has been written and drawn by its creator for the entirety of its run, making the series the longest-running full-color American comic book produced by a single writer-artist.
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The Dragon character traces back to Larsen's childhood sketchbooks and self-published work: the character debuted in the small-press anthology Graphic Fantasy #1 (1982) and later appeared in Gary Carlson's Megaton #3 (1986). When Larsen left Marvel Comics in 1992 alongside six other artists to co-found Image Comics, he reworked the character substantially — stripping away earlier continuity and reimagining Dragon as a massively built green amnesiac who joins the Chicago Police Department — and launched the three-issue miniseries, with the first issue titling its lead story 'Baptism of Fire.' The creative team on the book consisted of Larsen on script, pencils, and inks; Chris Eliopoulos on lettering; Gregory Wright on colors; and Jannie Wong as editor. Larsen has since stated that starting a new #1 with the 1993 ongoing series is one of his few regrets about the book's publishing history, as it obscured the continuity of the miniseries.
Trivia · 9 facts
- First Image Comics appearance of the Savage Dragon (also known as Kurr), a fin-headed, green-skinned amnesiac with super-strength and an advanced healing factor, discovered by Lt. Frank Darling in a burning field in Chicago.
- First appearances of the entire core cast introduced in this issue: Lt. Frank Darling, Officer Alex Wilde, Mildred Darling, and Jon Day on the supporting side; and on the villain side, the Vicious Circle gang including Overlord (real name Antonio Seghetti), Cutthroat, GlowBug, Hardware, HellRazor, Mako (real name Lou Drumm), SkullFace (real name David Gorelick), and Basher.
- SuperPatriot (Johnny Armstrong) and Mighty Man both appear in this issue via television news footage — SuperPatriot shown horribly mauled by Vicious Circle members, and Mighty Man reported dead — establishing the dire state of Chicago's superhero community before Dragon joins the force.
- Star (Star II) also makes her first appearance in this issue as a vigilante who aids Dragon in rescuing a kidnapped woman.
- The issue was published in four cover variants, distinguished by the color of the logo on the cover (yellow, green, white, and a fourth variant); each variant contained a different two-page pull-out poster drawn entirely by Erik Larsen, inserted between pages 16 and 17.
- A limited Comics X-Press signed edition, autographed by Larsen and accompanied by a numbered certificate of authenticity, was produced in a print run of 3,000 copies.
- This issue is the first publication released under Erik Larsen's Highbrow Entertainment studio imprint at Image Comics.
- The miniseries' three issues were later collected in the trade paperback Savage Dragon: Baptism of Fire (2002, Image Comics), and the content was also included in The Erik Larsen CD-Rom Comic Book Anthology (1995, Think Multimedia Entertainment) alongside Graphic Fantasy #1–2 and Megaton #3.
- The series was adapted into an animated television show produced by Universal Cartoon Studios, which ran for 26 episodes on the USA Network from 1995 to 1996, featuring the Dragon (voiced by Jim Cummings), Overlord (voiced by Tony Jay), and other characters introduced in this debut issue.
Cast · 31 characters
Full credits
Full plot ⚠ may contain spoilers
▸ Reveal full plot — may contain spoilers
Dragon becomes a police officer to help bring law and order back to the city.
Plot details indexed by the Grand Comics Database (CC BY-SA).