Erik Larsen was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota. As a child growing up in Bellingham, Washington and Albion, California, he created several comic books featuring versions of a character named "The Dragon", whom he has since described as a Batman-like character who drove a car copied from Speed Racer's Mach Five. The Dragon turned into a superhero using a magic word to trigger his powers like Captain Marvel. He and two friends produced a fanzine called Graphic Fantasy, which featured Savage Dragon.Follow him on Twitter @ErikJLarsen

 

Larsen's first paid work was for the anthology Megaton, co-creating and illustrating a feature called " Vanguard" with publisher Gary Carlson . A revised version of the Dragon debuted in issue #2 and appeared in the following two issues.

 

Erik's work at DC spans Teen Titans, The Outsiders, Doom Patrol and The Adventures of Superman.  He also did work with Ethan Van Sciver on Cyberfrog published by Harris Comics in the mid 90's.  While at Marvel Erik Larsen replaced Todd Mc Farlane on Amazing Spider Man where he created Whiplash, Tri-Sentinel and Cardiac.  On Spider Man he also added his own unique and creative flare to Venom (a never ending tongue and jaw, with an abundance of teeth and venom).  When Erik left Marvel he helped to establish Image Comics. His character Savage Dragon is very popular among fans.  At Image he has also created the superhero freak team Freak Force as well as  Superpatriot, Vanguard, Liberty and Justice (just to name a few). 

Erik Larsen