Re: A Public Apology to Erik Larsen
posted July 26 2003, 10:39 AM by John Byrne

If you think about it, Larsen is easy enough to understand. He is at best a third rate artist who built much of his "reputation" riding the coat tails of others. He made such a shameless attempt to imitate the more successful Todd McFarlane, during his tenure with Spider-Man, that the Toddler himself even commented on it, in his Bullpen Bulletins profile, saying his "hobbies" included "learning to draw like Erik Larsen".

Larsen then became one of the founding fathers of Image, and began at that point what appears to be a concentrated and conscious effort to convince the world (and himself?) that he was worth the millions of dollars he was making. This is part of why he has played himself as a kind of "Working Class Hero", referencing as often as possible how he kept Savage Dragon going even after it became unprofitable to do so, and even suggesting that I "abandoned" Next Men at a time when my book was selling better than his!

The Image bubble has burst, taking much of the industry with it, but Larsen continues to operate as if no one has yet noticed the Emperor has no clothes. That is the only possible way to explain something as grotesque as his not only speaking ill of the work of George Perez -- and artist who, at his worst is a thousand times better than Larsen at his best -- but having the audacity to provide point by point criticism of the work, as if he, Larsen, has anything even remotely of value to offer in a discussion of the merits of the work of an artist.

Please note I most pointedly and deliberately do not say another artist.