The Thunder Lizard Returns: Dinosaur Books by Ted Rechlin

Tags

Allosaurus, brontosaurus, coloring book, dinosaur comics, dinosaurs, dinosaurs live, farcountry press, jurassic, rextooth studios, ted rechlin, tyrannosaurus rex

The Thunder Lizard Returns: Dinosaur Books by Ted Rechlin

 

 

I began reading dinosaur books in the late 1970s, and back then, we had a dinosaur called Brontosaurus: the iconic Thunder Lizard! But the beast I grew up with would be revealed, in my adulthood, to be a complete fraud. Brontosaurus was nothing more than a hoax perpetuated with the bones of the real animal: Apatosaurus.

 

Just like my generation needed to reconceive of dinosaurs as having feathers, lifting their tails instead of dragging them, and living as endothermic animals instead of exothermic reptiles, my generation accepted the disappearance of our beloved Brontosaurus.

 

But it seems we were wrong about being wrong. Recent examinations of the fossil record have shown both Brontosaurus and Apatosaurus were real animals: structurally similar, but differentiated by their skin. The Thunder Lizard has returned!

 

Author and artist Ted Rechlin couldn’t be happier about it. His graphic novel Jurassic puts Brontosaurus back in the spotlight. When a baby Brontosaur is separated from his mother, he gets swept up in a journey through the perilous landscape of a forgotten North America, encountering all sorts of species of dinosaurs Rechlin renders in gorgeously colored illustrations. Through the young Bronto’s eyes, readers take a tour that is both educational and exciting.

 

 

Despite a few violent dinosaur fights, Jurassic keeps the gore to a minimum, focusing instead on the drama. Rechlin doesn’t try for the existential terror of Jim Lawson’s Paleo and Loner, nor the biological brutality of Ricardo Delgado’s Age of Reptiles. But like those comics, Jurassic tells a thrilling story about animals in the natural world.

 

 

Just between you and me, the Brontosaurs may have been the main characters, but they were not the superstars of the story. That honor belongs to the incredibly awesome Allosaurus who rages through this book, a massive female fighting machine storming the countryside with a pack of smaller Allosaurs at her side. Rechlin renders her with savage, majestic beauty, and she totally steals the show.

 

 

Rechlin doesn’t get heavy-handed with his natural philosophy, but the final scene with the big female Allosaurus puts the entire story in a different light. Throughout the book, you sympathize with the baby Bronto’s separation from his mother, and you hope he will be okay. The female Allosaur and other carnivorous creatures are threats to our main character. But at the end of the day, the murderous Allosaurus is shown to be an attentive mother whose primary concern is feeding and caring for her own babies.

 

 

The interdependent struggle of all animals to survive, eat, and rear their young is a tale that echoes Jack London’s Call of the Wild and White Fang, and it’s a consistent theme in dinosaur comic books. Eat or be eaten. Jurassic‘s triumph is how subtly Rechlin handles this theme and communicates it without getting excessively graphic.

 

 

Brontosaurus, Allosaurus, and many more dinos also appear in Rechlin’s coloring book Dinosaurs Live! This innovative work combines drawings of dinosaur skeletons, educational and entertaining captions like a comic book, and full-page spreads of the dinosaurs in all their fleshy and feathery glory.

 

 

Rechlin isn’t afraid to convey science in casual, conversational language that uses humor to memorable effect. You will learn from his coloring book, but you will laugh, too. Like Jay Hosler’s Clan Apis, which teaches about honeybees, Rechlin’s coloring book is strong on biology without being a stuffy textbook.

 

 

No, I can’t bring myself to color these beautiful pages. I would feel like I was defacing a black-and-white dinosaur comic book such as Epic’s Dinosaurs: An Illustrated Guide by Charles Yates, or Tyrant by Steve Bissette. I might need a second copy so I can color the pages guilt-free!

 

 

Also on my wish list is Rechlin’s other full-color dinosaur graphic novel, Tyrannosaurus Rex.

 

Below is a list of where you can buy these books on Amazon, and with links to purchase directly from FarCountry Press, the distributor who kindly sent us review copies and images. FarCountry has many animal, nature, and history books, and other exquisitely drawn coloring books featuring flora and fauna of national parks.

• Buy Jurassic on Amazon or from FarCountry. 
• Buy Dinosaurs Live! on Amazon.
• Buy Tyrannosaurus Rex on Amazon or from FarCountry. 
• Ted Rechlin’s store, RexTooth Studios, carries books and cool posters! 

Advertisements

indie spotlight: tomb of the triceratops

Tags

dinosaur, dinosaur books, fiction, michael ajax, science fiction, tomb of the triceratops, young adult

Click the cover for a free Kindle preview of Tomb of the Triceratops.

Tomb of the Triceratops takes you on a dinosaur dig where researchers and a group of young students uncover a realm where dinosaurs are still alive. The boys selected to go on this archaeological expedition risk their lives to free a triceratops from the clutches of its brutal, otherworldly tormentors.

And that’s just the beginning.

Author Michael Ajax seasons the story with plenty of dino facts that will surely please any dino-maniac. Between the action scenes, the characters are just as likely to discuss the biology of a Stygimoloch as they are their interpersonal conflicts. The people in this story are passionate about dinosaurs, and that makes it especially fun for those of us who share that enthusiasm.

Though action-packed, Tomb of the Triceratops keeps its language and violence in the “family-friendly” range. Even as an adult reader, I was pulled into the nightmarish struggle of the captive triceratops, but the level of detail and word choice did not venture into overly graphic territory. If you thought Jurassic Park and Rex Riders were fun, this is a good addition to your bookshelf.

The boy heroes of the story casually banter with each other, keep secrets from the adults, and have an unforgettable adventure in this first novel by Michael Ajax. Discover the mysteries inside the Tomb of the Triceratops in paperback or for just 99 cents in Kindle.

Author website: http://www.michaelajax.com/

The World Around Us #15: Prehistoric Animals

Tags

Al Williamson, Classics Illustrated, dinosaur, dinosaur books, dinosaur comics, Gilberton, illustrated story of prehistoric animals, Prehistoric Animals, prehistoric mammals, Sam Glanzman, vintage dinosaur books, World Around Us, World Around Us 15

Gilberton published The World Around Us #15: Prehistoric Animals in 1959 as part of its Classics Illustrated line. World Around Us is a must-have for any collector of dinosaur comics. Despite the way current advances in understanding dinosaur anatomy have made much of this book obsolete from a scientific perspective, it has a quaint historic charm and many stunningly rendered pages. It features uncredited artwork by Sam Glanzman and Al Williamson, according to Steve Bissette’s essay on PalaeoBlog. While dinosaurs take up much of the book, it also features prehistoric mammals, the origin of the planet Earth, and biographies of important biologists and paleontologists.

Collectors can often find a low-grade copy of World Around Us #15 at MyComicShop in the $5-15 range. Copies in various grades appear on eBay, with Fine and Fine+ grades listed in the $30-50 range.

In our second year on this blog, we presented the individual stories in this book as a series of posts. But now, here it is all in one shot for you prehistoric animal enthusiasts. Enjoy!

Flesh: The Dino Files TPB

Tags

black and white, dinosaur, dinosaur comics, dinosaurs, Flesh, flesh dino files, Indie Comics, Pat Mills, UK comics

This isn’t the first time Flesh appears this blog, so let’s keep it brief and look at some awesome dinosaur art! We got our copy at MyComicShop but you can also find it on Amazon. You can see more pages in our Flesh Archives. Okay? Wow, what a beautiful volume this is. Check it out!

random godzilla post

Tags

action figure, bandai, eBay, figure, figurine, Godzilla, gojira

 
Alright, so it’s not really all that random. Being random is just cool these days, and you know we try very, very hard to fit in and be normal.

We sacrificed a Bandai Godzilla figure to the gods of shipping this week, part of our project to preserve our glorious eBay Top Rated Seller Status. Hey, we had to go through hell itself to earn it, so why not try to meet the minimum sales goals one more year? Why not stuff the radioactive lizard overlord right into the sacred eBay fires? Godzilla always rises again from the monstrous depths that spawned him (or her, as the case may be.) GOJIRA!

 

 
It turned out to be a good move. Gojira sold in like 48 hours, edging us ever closer to our 100th sale in 12 months. Do you want funny captions on these photos from our listing? Longbox Graveyard always has hilarious captions. We have Slayer on the speakers of the martian outpost here, so all we can think of is like … horrifying Slayer lyric. Leave us your verbal gems in the comments section please.

 

kingfisher dinosaur encyclopedia

Tags

Dino books, dinosaur, dinosaur book, dinosaur books, Dinosaur Encyclopedia, dinosaurs, Kingfisher, kingfisher dinosaur encyclopedia

Kingfisher Dinosaur Encyclopedia brings readers up to date on many current developments in dino science. Lavishly filled with photographs and paintings, and easily-read charts, it is a visual feast worthy of a hungry Allosaurus.

One of the best features: a focus on certain regions of dino discoveries. You will visit specific digs, sites in England, Portugal, and China, that yielded new discoveries in the last 10 to 20 years and pushed dino science forward. Many books lack this regional organization, making this one special. You get a picture of each unique biome certain dinos inhabited, where some books simply list dinos alphabetically or historically. The grouping also gives the writers a chance to share about current leaders in the field in these countries.

Kingfisher breaks up its pages into small blocks of text that the reader can take one at a time, or in chunks. Like any Megalosaurus could tell you, it’s easier to digest things when you break them into smaller peices first! This makes the book entertaining and light, but by no means insubstantial. A reader can simply enjoy highlights, or dig deeper.

From the 2000 specimens of a single Cretaceous bird unearthed in China, to the confident resolution of an old myth about Oviraptors, to the solid presentation of the meteorite impact site, Kingfisher gives new dino fans a great introduction, and updates us old dino fans about several solved mysteries.

Criticisms? Calling the book an Encyclopedia may be stretching it. It is not an exhaustive tome of the history of paleontology, or dino physiology, or even a complete list of all known species. I have several “encyclopedias” and scientific texts that are more intensive. They’re also a lot harder to read! So, although I wouldn’t call it an encyclopedia, it’s a worthy and exciting book.

The one missing bone in this skeleton is a pronunication key. Dino books lately have thrown this idea away, and Kingfisher’s isn’t the only culprit. Some help pronouncing the latest Chinese dinos would really help us read this out loud!

Glad to have this on my shelf with the other great dino books. Recommended for all ages, young and old.

Buy the Kingfisher Dinosaur Encyclopedia on Amazon.

Ten More Top Ten Favorite Single Issues

Tags

comic books, top ten

Since we posted Our Top Ten Favorite Single Issues in October, 2011, our fan-blogging obsessions brought many more printed treasures to our attention. One by one, we added them to Mars Will Send No More until today’s post can link you to every one of them for in-depth exploration.

Well, nine out of ten at least. Close enough for this summer! Qualifications for inclusion on this list are simple: The issue cannot be from a series already covered in our original Top Ten, and it must be brain-stunningly awesome. Six of them are black and white books, and we had only read three of them before we started this site in 2011. Allow us to present, in no particular order, Ten More of Our All-Time Favorite Single Issues. Click their titles to learn more about each one!

Armadillo Comics #2 by Jim Franklin; 1971, Rip Off Press

Man from Utopia #0 by Rick Griffin; 1972

Lone Wolf & Cub #28; First Publishing

Devil Dinosaur #1 by Jack Kirby; Marvel, 1978

Cartoon History of the Universe #1 by Larry Gonick; 1978, Rip Off Press

Anarchy Comics #1; 1978, Last Gasp

Silver Surfer #1; Marvel, 1968

Super Villain Classics #1; Marvel, 1983

World Around Us #15: Prehistoric Animals; Gilberton, 1959

Psychotic Adventures #2. Last Gasp, 1974.

Runner up:
Spectacular Spider-man #21; Marvel, 2003.

But what about…?
Several noteworthy series have not made it into our Top 20 single issues. This includes works like DMZ, Clan Apis, Frank, 100 Bullets, and Sin City, where the entire series as a work of art outweighs any single issue. We will rectify this with future lists!

World of Dinosaurs by Edwin Colbert and George Geygan

Tags

dinosaur, dinosaur book, Edwin Colbert, George Geygan, Home Library Press, vintage dinosaur books, World of Dinosaurs

 
Some time ago we posted an ad for World of Dinosaurs from a vintage issue of The Brave & the Bold. We went looking for the book after finding that ad, and got an affordable copy. Colbert, a respected paleontologist who among other things discovered Coelophysis, would no doubt want to update some of the science in World of Dinosaurs, from the swamp-dwelling sauropods dragging their tails to the extinction theories. Nevertheless, we always get a kick out of the art in vintage dinosaur books, and George Geygan’s painterly approach is no exception.

Collector’s Guide:
– from World of Dinosaurs by Dr. Edwin H. Colbert and George Geygan; Home Library Press, 1961.
Note: an edition published in 1977 had the title The Dinosaur World.

 

 

He Could Hit Tyrannosaurus Rex with a Stick – the Biggest Stick He Could Find!

Tags

Danger in Dinosaur Valley, dinosaur, dinosaur books, diplodocus, Joan Lowery Nixon, Marc Simont, Putnam, vintage dinosaur books, World Series baseball game

 
Danger in Dinosaur Valley portrays the intelligence and adaptability of a child who teaches his parents some important life skills. A young diplodocus observes a World Series baseball game when time travelers come to visit, and he uses baseball to save his family.

 

 
As with many older dinosaur books, Danger in Dinosaur valley gets some things wrong: pterodactyls are not birds, television signals do not travel across time with their televisions, and brutal hand-to-hand combat is not always the best option. But the story works in its own cute way, and this vintage dinosaur book entranced us many times as young Martians. Treat yourself and your dino-loving kids to this entertaining tale by Joan Lowery Nixon, with artwork by Marc Simont!

Collector’s Guide:
– from Danger in Dinosaur Valley; G.P. Putnam & Sons, 1978.
Note: most existing copies of this out-of-print children’s book are ex-library copies.

 

dinosaur toy

Tags

dinosaur, iphone, photography, plasric, toy

dino cards: tuojiangosaurus

Tags

dinosaur, postcards, Tuojiangosaurus

Intrepid internet adventurers may want to track down the set of cards that include these dinosaurs. We haven’t yet, and so they remain part of the mysterious collection of postcards we joyfully receive here at Martian HQ.

As a bonus, the bright colors look amazing in our black light chamber.
Witness today the awesomeness of Tuojiangosaurus!

 

 

dino cards: hadrosaurs

Tags

dinosaur, hadrosaur, postcards

Intrepid internet adventurers may want to track down the set of cards that include these dinosaurs. We haven’t yet, and so they remain part of the mysterious collection of postcards we joyfully receive here at Martian HQ.

As a bonus, the bright colors look amazing in our black light chamber.
Witness today the awesomeness of the Hadrosaurs!

 

 

dino cards: parasaurolophus

Tags

dinosaur, parasaurolophus, postcards

Intrepid internet adventurers may want to track down the set of cards that include these dinosaurs. We haven’t yet, and so they remain part of the mysterious collection of postcards we joyfully receive here at Martian HQ.

As a bonus, the bright colors look amazing in our black light chamber.
Witness today the awesomeness of Parasaurolophus!

 

 

Dinosaurs Washed My Dishes!

Tags

dinosaur, dishes, plastic dinosaurs, toys

We woke up the other morning to find dinosaurs hard at work, scrubbing and stacking the dishes.

 

The More the Hoardasaurus Gave Away, the Less Nervous He Felt!

Tags

Glink, Hoardasaurus, Price Stern Loan, Robin James, Saveopotamus, Serendipity, Stephen Cosgrove, tyrannosaurus

 
The Serendipity series of children’s books began in 1974 as author Stephen Cosgrove’s personal vision. He collaborated with illustrator Robin James many, many times on stories that entertained while demonstrating a value or life lesson. In Search of the Saveopotamus may have caught our youthful attention with its colorful dinosaurs, but its philosophy has remained important to us even as adults.

The main character, the Hoardasaurus, has become a nervous wreck. His collection of material possessions brings him no joy. Spending his every waking hour fretting that someone might steal his stuff, he can never really enjoy what he has. True, he has some things of value. But, he holds onto old junk and broken things with equal fervor.

The Hoardasaurus reminds us not to spend our life obsessing over material possessions. They may fill our space, but they cannot fill our hearts. He reminds us that we can let go of all that does not bring us joy. He reminds us that part of the joy of material things is not hoarding them, but giving them. He reminds us we can move into the future with greater speed and agility when we liberate ourselves from carrying around the past. And, he reminds us that even Tyrannosaurus likes to play with a yo-yo.

Collector’s Guide:
– from In Search of the Saveopotamus; Price/Stern/Loan, 1974.
A Serendipity Book by Stephen Cosgrove, illustrated by Robin James.

 

A Striking Example of Centuries of Progress!

Tags

big news, chicago, chicago world's fair edition, dinosaur, Sinclair, Sinclair dinosaur, Sinclair Oil, Sinclair World's Fair Dinosaur, worlds fair

Today we’ll share with you a publication nearly a century old now: the Chicago World’s Fair Edition of Big News. Published by Sinclair Oil, it showcases their dinosaur exhibit at the World’s Fair in 1934.

Yes, we have shared with you some other Sinclair memorabilia in our Sinclair Archives, and specifically some things from this same World’s Fair. But this monstrous tome takes the prehistoric cake. Though our copy has damage, the images and text remain intact for the most part. Allow us to mention a few notes, or just scroll down to our gallery today and dive right in!

But first, a word from beauty and the beast:

 

 
Notes: We spliced a few things, but the front cover has a tear requiring more digital reconstruction than we care to do right now. To keep the file sizes at 1 MB or less, we reduced our original scans by 90%. You will find you can still enlarge them on your screen a great deal and retain clarity.

One image we did not bother to splice together in our restoration efforts: the silly Sinclair Minstrels musical act with members in blackface. Some parts of American history just don’t merit the pixels they are printed on. These embarrassing racist depictions stick out like a sore thumb among the dinosaur sculptures. But, they also remind us of the cultural attitudes of the dominant class in this time period.

We know there was a second edition of this magazine with different images, but we don’t have it… yet! We also know many of these dinosaur depictions have what we now consider gross scientific inaccuracies. We could point them out to you and play dino expert, but it’s really more fun finding them for yourself!

While Scaly Monsters Fought in Pennsylvania!

Tags

ads, dinosaur, Saturday Evening Post, Sinclair, Sinclair Dinosaurs, Sinclair Oil

Look what we have here: Sinclair Oil ads from 1931 and 1932! These off-beat dinosaur illustrations ran in the Saturday Evening Post. You will see we included the ad copy, too, for completion. We confess that we don’t understand the pictures, really. Are they sculptures? Dioramas? Paintings? Pictures of sculptural dioramas developed and then painted over? If you have a clue, educate us with a comment, please! If you like these, click on the tags under the post to see more of our archives of Sinclair dinosaur memorabilia.

 

 

 

Alarming Tales 6: Moon Descent!

Tags

Alarming Tales, dinosaur, Harvey Comics, Moon

This one page story from Alarming Tales showcases two of our favorite things: going to the moon, and dinosaurs! We’re not really sure who gets the credit for this, but feel free to enlighten us.

Collector’s Guide:
– From Alarming Tales #6; Harvey, 1958.

Issues #1-3 are now collected in a Kindle version!

If Dinosaurs Were Meant to Fly…

Tags

dinosaur, dinosaur comics, dr. watchstop, eclipse, Eclipse Comics, flight, fusion, Indie Comics, ken macklin, right stuff

In this three page story by Ken Macklin, a dinosaur invents the first set of artificial wings. “Dr. WatchStop” was one of several original creations by Macklin, about whom we haven’t been able to discover much. It seems he was in underground comics in the 70s, too.

We don’t recall ever seeing this story before last month. Fusion was never one of the Eclipse titles we got into back in the 1980s. But, you have to admit, the concept bears a striking resemblance to the core idea we had for our own little dinosaur comic. How did we find it? Our art teacher snagged this book at random out of a clearance bin for a project. Talk about synchronicity…

Collector’s Guide:
– from Fusion #7; Eclipse, 1988.
Backup art & story by Ken Macklin

Sauratopia, Episode One: The Launch

Tags

Brian Bowhay, dinosaur, dinosaur comics, Dracorex, pachycephalosaurus, Sauratopia

Millions of years ago, terrible reptiles ruled the earth.
They also ruled… Outer Space!

Two years ago my Project Management 101 instructor approved my proposed special project: creating a mini-comic from scratch. I already had the rough draft and a series of storyboards breaking down the action. My friend Brian agreed to collaborate with me on this project. Brian and I went to high school together, and our parents attended the same church. Working with him on a comic book fulfilled a lifelong dream, and his character design especially brought this piece to life.

Originally I wanted to also hire a letterer, but met with no success through the college’s channels. So, in a matter of weeks, I learned from ComiCraft’s brief but powerful guide how to letter comic books in Adobe Illustrator. This project turned out to be a lot of fun, and I wouldn’t mind producing the next half-dozen “episodes” hiding in the filing cabinet.

Short “backup” stories like you used to find in the back of comics provide the model for this project. But for the class, we laid it out as a 1/2 sized comic book, complete with a wrap-around cover and a double splash centerfold. I always enjoy public speaking, so telling the class how we made this and what I learned felt really good. They all got a printed copy, signed at their request – as have some of our friends here in the blog-o-verse, and anyone who sends me dinosaur books.

Without further ado, we present the pilot episode of Sauratopia.