Tom Raney Savage Dragon Trading Card 82 (Savage Dragon vs. Cutthroat)

Like many who experienced the (comics centric) Trading Cards craze of the 90s, I absolutely LOVED those which offered art created specifically for them, even at that tiny size. This is was the only needed commercial pitch I needed to buy a set. (Now if someone had the good idea to collect those in bona fide regular sized artbooks, I’d be in nostalgia art haven).

This one comes from the eponymous Savage Dragon set produced by Wildstorm productions and features art by a young Tom Raney whose work I already loved and followed. He was raw in those days and would obviously become much better but what he lacked in experience, he overcompensated with the energy of youth (which could probably be said for 95% of the second generation Image guys) 😊

I love that Raney played well with the over bulky physique of the Dragon, which was established by Larsen but whose style is more cartoony so here we have a more “realistic take” by way of Raney’s if that makes sense. Just look at that torso, those arms and shoulders. Dragon isn’t skipping any day in the gym clearly 😉

The tilted pose is also fun, like he is circling around the villain (a blaxploitation razor-first wannabe, please insert your fav’ going to the bathroom joke here). In fact the staging make sit look like they are at that instant before jumping at each other, each evaluating the other.

The head in the square was the behind of the card, the bio profile one. It’s cool that this one was not separated from the main image as it’s sometime the case with TC art.
The second head is a pure bonus 😊

I’d be curious to hear what Larsen thought of Raney’s version as he’s been notoriously picky about interpretations by other artists, especially when it comes to the fin.