When you work in comics and you're the master of your own destiny, there are a lot of choices to be made.  One of them is how to deal with the passage of time.  One can ignore it and keep their character young forever, one can have time pass normally and deal with the necessary changes that will be thrust upon the characters, or one can age the characters at anything in between or set stories in different time periods and solve problems that way.  With the Savage Dragon, I've chosen to place it in a modern setting.  I've also opted to have characters age normally (at least for now) and certain problems have already cropped up.

 It's fun to play around with a character who just got his powers and have them go through that awkward learning period.  Trouble is, in reality that period may only last a month or two--after that, flying may be second nature and they may well have a handle on how to handle their strength.  But that would mean that character would be going through their growing pains in three issues tops!  Subplots become difficult, it gets ridiculous dragging them out.  Villains become incredible procrastinators, scheming for months on end, and heroes just can't get up the nerve to ask that cute girl out for an eternity.  It gets preposterous!  The problem is--even at a monthly pace--time moves too fast!  22 pages isn't enough space to cover 28 to 31 days.  And besides that, you can't count on other creators playing by your rules.  And in a shared universe, like the Image universe, problems can arise.

 For instance--WildStar met the Dragon in issue three of WildStar's first mini-series.  At the end of issue four, the WildStar from the future gives his powers to a younger version of himself in the present (It's really a lot more confusing than it sounds).  The Dragon's next appearance was in the first issue of the ongoing Savage Dragon book.  WildStar appeared next in the first issue of a new WildStar series that picked up things shortly after the original mini-series.  Meanwhile, the Dragon's had all kinds of adventures in the interim and his life has progressed at his normal pace.  Savage Dragon supporting character Frank Darling's wife got pregnant, had the child, and the child aged almost two years!  WildStar's life progressed a month while the Dragon's life progressed nearly three years!

 In the comic strip Blondie, there was a similar continuity gaff.  Blondie started out as a cute flapper in the '20s.  She was the daughter of a millionaire who basically disowned her and vanished from the strip when she married Dagwood Bumstead.  Quickly, the strip fell into a routine which included Dagwood being pestered by an irritating neighbor kid named Elmo.  Eventually, the Bumsteads had a kid of their own and Elmo would come by the house to see the baby.  As time went by, they had another one and the kids aged.  At one point Elmo and the Bumstead boy were the same age.  Now the two Bumstead children are teenagers and Elmo is still a little kid!

 One solution is to stick to a certain period of time.  I think it would be cool if the Fantastic Four were stuck in the '60s and Superman was in the late '30s.  They fit so well in those time periods that it's a shame they ever had to leave.

 They could even do both--the Fantastic Four comic could progess in normal time but then a creator who wanted to do a classic Fantastic Four story with their original members could set it in the '60s.  That would mean that those working on the comics would either have the book remain in a fixed time period or deal with age and time.  Problems would arise.  It's hard to do a story about a character and feel as though there's a chance that character could die when we all know that the character grew up to be old.  If the creators kept the Fantastic Four in the '60s but didn't set new books in that time period, then the question of what happened to them would crop up.  Still, Untold Tales of Spider-Man seems to work out okay, and all of those stories take place in Spidey's early days.  It could work.

 Seeing an aged Superman again in the pages of Kingdom Come really felt right.  But then, I always liked the Justice Society in the pages of All-Star Comics better than the younger Justice League.

 Killing Marv in Sin City was, I thought, a dumb move on Frank's part, but as the book progressed and Marv appeared again, he took on an indestructible juggernaut quality because, we, the readers, knew his fate.  This, as it turned out, was not a bad thing.

 Another solution is to never age the characters and try not to do stories that date the characters, such as refer to present presidents, current events etc.  This has worked for Archie comics over the years and for most, this seems like the way to go.  but it's odd when forty Christmases go by and everybody still looks the same.  This kind of thinking anticipates and expects readers to move on and new ones to come along.  I like the idea of a reader growing old with the characters better.

 The thing is, unless everybody can agree on the rules, then it's going to be chaos.  All I can do is keep my own corner of the Image universe consistent, not dwell on where my stories diverge from everybody else's and ignore whatever things I don't like that other people do with my character.

 The reason for wanting to use regular time on my part is to force change on my characters.  I can't retain the status quo perpetually when characters are aging.  Kid sidekicks can't remain kid sidekicks for long.  As time goes by, various cast members can pair off and settle down or otherwise get on with their lives.  It forces me to be creative when age becomes a factor.  As for the Dragon himself--well, he's already bald and an adult, so it will be quite a while before there's any real effect on his continuing physical appearance.

 I welcome change.  It's worked out well in my life--Why not for my characters?

 Erik Larsen is the creator and writer of The Savage Dragon for Image Comics.