There is a little girl who is very upset. It sounds like her family will be moving to San Francisco, and she doesn’t want to. She’s looking for comfort from an older friend named Walter. He’s perfectly happy to move away from Toronto with her and her family. He is, after all, an anthropomorphized tiger. The snows of Toronto would be kind of frigid. She buries her little green-finned head into the tiger’s chest and thanks him. San Francisco is going to be a better place for everyone in Savage Dragon #266. Writer/artist Erik Larsen brings his long-running series to the brink of its 30th anniversary with a drama-heavy transitional issue.

Malcolm is moving. He’s been offered a position with S.O.S.: Special Operations Strikeforce. He and his whole family are going to be moving to San Francisco. It’s going to be a big change for everyone. Before they can make the decision final, they’re going to have to take a look around. San Francisco is a nice place, but it certainly has its drawbacks, as Malcolm and his wife are about to find out. There’s no question they’ll be moving, though. The Dragon needs to go where he’s needed, and he’s definitely needed in San Francisco.

Larsen has been hanging out with the Dragon for a very, very long time. The intimacy and familiarity that he has with the whole ensemble is clearly apparent in an indulgent issue that details a simple initial trip to San Francisco and back as everyone prepares for the big move. There’s scarcely a subplot in sight as Larsen ushers Malcolm and company through the complex difficulties of moving to a densely-populated area with insanely high property values and a million other problems. 

Larsen really takes his time with meticulously-rendered architectural backgrounds that firmly place Malcolm in his new surroundings. Though it largely feels like it might have been pulled out of a generic Google image search for “San Francisco,” the backgrounds and establishing shots of the surrounding area give the drama a firm grounding. There isn’t a really solid look at what Malcolm and his family are leaving behind, though. Larsen is clearly weighing the visuals of the issue firmly on the side of the future. No looking back here. THAT will likely happen for the 30th anniversary next issue.

To a degree, it feels like Larsen is simply hanging out with a group of people that he truly loves. One does not work on a single project for 30 years straight without gaining a very deep love for everyone involved, and Larsen is clearly having fun with it, but he doesn’t exactly need to work terribly hard to sell a series that’s been running for as long as Savage Dragon. So it’s really no problem for him to spend an entire issue focusing exclusively on the decision to move across the continent. On one level, Savage Dragon is a perfectly social and casual experience. On another level, it’s actually kind of weird to see an entire issue focused so narrowly on...a move.

Grade: B+