Comic book artist and writer, born in 1962 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. As a child in California and Washington state, he enjoyed drawing and created a comic book character he called "Dragon". After publishing a fanzine, Larsen was able to get work drawing in Gary Carlson's "Megaton", where he later semi-officially introduced the Dragon, a big green-skinned guy with a fin on his head.

Larsen met Jim Shooter, the Editor-in-Chief of Marvel Comics at a comic convention. Shooter really liked Larsen's work and immediately agreed to co-plot a Hulk-vs.-Thor battle with him. The story wasn't published 'til much later, but Larsen was able to use it to get more professional comics work, including issues of "DNAgents", "Doom Patrol", "Punisher", and "Marvel Comics Presents".

Larsen's big break came when Todd McFarlane quit "Amazing Spider-Man". Larsen was picked to take up the reins and ended up being a fairly popular penciller (not as popular as McFarlane, but who is?). When McFarlane quit a second Spider-Man series, Larsen was chosen to draw that comic, too. About this time, Larsen's house burned to the ground, which he felt particularly distressed about because he lost all of the drawings and comics he'd had as a child.

Soon, Larsen was approached by other Marvel creators--McFarlane, Rob Liefeld, Jim Lee, Marc Silvestri, and Jim Valentino--who were planning on leaving Marvel and forming their own company, called "Image Comics". Larsen's contribution was an updated version of the Dragon, now dubbed "The Savage Dragon". Dragon was a Chicago police officer--a green, musclebound police officer with a fin on his head. He was not a detective, he was not (exactly) a superhero--he carried a badge and wore a cop's uniform and typed up reports and got hollered at by his lieutenant. Of course, he was also the only cop who could deal with the Vicious Circle, a criminal gang of superpowered freaks.

The Dragon quickly picked up a very loyal band of fans, including a lot of other professional creators. Larsen's art looked crude at first glance, with its colossally muscular heroes, equally-colossally busty heroines, vomit-inducing (sometimes literally) villains, and violent fight scenes, but on closer inspection, it revealed a great deal of subtlety, particularly in facial expressions. "Dragon" also demonstrated Larsen's skill as a writer as he created complex and engrossing storylines and characters that had truly interesting and distinctive personalities to complement their truly interesting physiques. Larsen's riotous sense of humor, crackling dialogue, and more mature sensibilities also helped win more fans--in one issue, God himself makes an appearance, gets kicked in the crotch by Satan, and angrily bellows at the Devil, "DON'T FUCK WITH GOD!"

As of early 2003, Larsen is the only Image founder who still writes and draws his own books regularly. He has branched out from Image to draw some books for Marvel and DC (most notably, "Wolverine" and "Aquaman"), but he has said on more than one occasion that his first priority will always be the Dragon.

Much research from www.savagedragon.com