Kane conceived the character Savage, an espionage agent and troubleshooter, and developed the story and art. He based his protagonist visually on actor Lee Marvin, whom Kane had seen in the movie "Point Blank". The resemblance was much more pointed on Robert Foster's photo-referenced painted cover, which was replaced by a new Kane illustration for the 1982 Fantagraphics reprint. Kane said in 1996, "We never had any trouble from Lee Marvin — obviously he never saw the goddamn thing. We never had any trouble from anybody".