Erik Larson gets this right.

I’m not sure Erik Larson, creator of the Image title The Savage Dragon (and writer for most if not all of the series’s run) and I would see eye to eye. However, in the name of full disclosure I base this only on the fact that he works for Image and he seems to be an Obama supporter. (Yes, yes, our first black president is a big deal, but I look at his policies and to me skin color is no different than hair or eye color. I should really start promoting that “Sneeches” brand skin dye, and see if anyone gets the reference.)

However, in a recent interview with Newsarama, Erik says a few things that I’ve been saying for a while:

And for those who’ve never experienced Savage Dragon, Larsen says that his goal with the book has remained consistent throughout – make superhero comics the way he feels they should be.

“There is no status quo in Savage Dragon,” Larsen says. “It’s a book you can grow up with and grow old with. Savage Dragon ages in real time. There are characters who were born during the run of the book who are entering high school and there are kid sidekicks who have moved on to becoming heroes in their own right. He’s aged, the others have aged and there will be a lot of new blood in the mix. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard fans wish that heroes from other comics would grow up with them instead of being stuck in time, the characters forever young, going through the same paces. Savage Dragon is a different animal. The changes made in Savage Dragon are real and lasting. The ramifications are real and lasting. And dead is dead.

“This is what superhero comic books should be. Not the revolving door, baton-passing that goes on elsewhere, where successive creative teams contradict and undo stories from creators that preceded them but a book that makes sense from start to finish, where one event follows another and progresses the narrative in a logical way. A lot of superhero readers grow jaded over the years as heroes get bumped off and resurrected and years of continuity get tossed out the window on a whim. Savage Dragon is a different kind of book. It’s the comic book I always wanted to read.”

It almost makes me want to start reading, and maybe I should. I did enjoy the animated series. In fact, I didn’t know that Dragon wasn’t a cop anymore. (A psuedo-cameo in Spider-Man Team-up from around the Clone Saga still had him as a cop.) It seems he’s about to step back into uniform, something he’s wanted to do for years, but waited to do it right. (Hello, anti-MJ Marvel writers.) Dead is dead, and no WTH resurrections. Characters age, continuity matters, and presumably they evolve as things that happen affect their lives. (You know, like marriage and children, or some tragedy that isn’t fixed by aliens, magic, or universal upheaval.) Origins don’t have to be updated to place the characters in modern day, while perpetually stuck at a certain age like the Simpsons. Events mattering in a comics universe!

Heck, even comic strips like Funky Winkerbean and For Better or For Worse have the characters age, things happen that affect their lives, and grow along with you. It helps draw in into their world, makes you a part of their lives for at least a brief moment, and takes you out of your own to a place like yours, but hopefully better. To me, that’s what fiction is and what I want to do with the stories I’m planning to make.

I want my characters to grow. Instead of, say, killing off Blue Beetle so you can replace him, how about the character grows old, retires, and trains the next generation. (Batman Beyond was a great show, and you’ll never convince me otherwise. It even got a semi-spoof in an episode of Will Friedle’s other show, Kim Possible.) Or heroes of the past, like your father’s comics, coming out of retirement to tackle an old case. (We’ve seen those stories with new characters who are supposed to have fought crime in the “old days”. Marvel currently has two of those heroes, Sentry and Blue Marvel.) You can even have a new hero inspired by an old hero. (Read Hero By Night at Wowio sometime.) Want to do stories based on the old hero some more? How about flashbacks, or alternate universes like Ultimate Spider-Man, Marvel Adventures, or new media like cartoons, movies, live-action TV, and the like. That’s how you keep a character alive, give the next generation their own heroes, and keep the universe fresh. Maybe we wouldn’t need as many gimmick events.

Thank you, Erik Larson. It’s nice to know somebody in the industry has a clue.