SAVAGE DRAGON 202 is out today, and it’s pretty great. This issue features THE END of VANGUARD! Gary Carlson and Frank Fosco are one of my favorite writer/artist teams to work for, and the story they’re concluding here wraps up threads that have been developing for years—from the early days of Megaton through the Vanguard series (including the original series, the Strange Visitors mini, the Ethereal Warriors one-shot), Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and the 2009 Ethrian and 2011 Vanguard backup serials. Crazy!
This issue also features a special FUNNIES page — featuring just one strip: MARS: SPACE BARBARIAN! Mars is a super-awesome webcomic by Jim Gibbons, Andrew MacLean, and Ryan Hill, and I’m super stoked to see its print debut in the pages of FUNNIES. Jim is an editor at Dark Horse, a writer (he recently released a comic called Birch Squatch with Caleb Goellner), and a swell all-around dude. Andrew has been making a real name for himself with his self-published HEAD LOPPER books, as well as a bunch of independent titles (such as Jamie Gambell’s DEPARTMENT O), and he’s about to release his debut graphic novel APOCALYPTIGIRL, which looks breathtaking. Ryan Hill is one of the best colorists in the biz, and can frequently be seen making Ulises Farinas’s work even more beautiful, if such a concept makes sense. Ryan’s recent & upcoming work includes STUMPTOWN, EFFIGY, and JUDGE DREDD.
The regular Funnies page (featuring Average Dragon, Knight Watchman, and others) will return in Savage Dragon 203. Woo!