Erik Larsen will parody comic strips in issue #252 of his Savage Dragon comic book.
On Twitter Erik announced the comic strips he would be highlighting:
Finally nailed down the 11 comic strip parodies that’ll appear in Savage Dragon #252.
They are:
Family Circus
Peanuts
Cathy
Doonesbury
Foxtrot
Dick Tracy
Thimble Theater
Calvin & Hobbes
Rex Morgan
Blondie
Tumbleweeds
Sorry if I missed your favorite.
Erik will mimic each comic strip’s art style (cf. R. Sikoryak).
Erik has been known to pay homage to comic characters in the past, mostly comic book heroes but comic strips have been among his honorees. In Savage Dragon #236 (July 2018) the issue featured a story involving the children. It wasn’t drawn in Bill Watterson‘s art style but the layouts were credited as being inspired by the Calvin and Hobbes Sunday pages.
A few months later in Savage Dragon #241 (January 2019) Erik went with Captain Tootsie as a guest star. Captain Tootsie was an advertising character for Tootsie Roll. Visually created by famed comic book cartoonist C. C. Beck Captain Tootsie advertisements appeared alongside Sunday and daily comic strips and in comic books of the 1940s and 1950s.
Erik mimicked the CC Beck style on the cover (another homage) but not inside the comic book.
Which brings us back to Savage Dragon #252, available September 23, 2020 at your local comic book store. The “Salute to Funnies” issue also has an homage cover:
