Dinosaurs: A Celebration review - part two

Welcome back to Mesozoic Mind, the blog where I look at all kinds of dinosaur-related media (but mostly documentaries with the occasional book)

We're continuing Marvel's 1992 miniseries of dinosaur comics, Dinosaurs: A Celebration with the second issue (read here - at your own risk), this issue focusing on small theropods and sauropods. First, observe the Oviraptor (drawn by John Bolton) on the cover, and boy its excellent. it really nails the downright alien bird feel that oviraptorids had, helped by it resembling a macaw due to the stripes on the chees and general head colours. It's even got feathers on it, not too bad for 1992. The detail also deserves mention: notive the holes and scratches in the beak, or the texture of the feathers. Not to sure about the wide tongue though, as I lean more to it having a thin, immobile tongue. The weirdly vampiric-looking teeth (while accurate) are also off to me.

The encyclopaedia chapters cover the following topics. Unlike last time I won't devote whole sections to it as just about no one cares about them. Steve White writes the majority of encyclopedia bits for the book.

• The differences between saurischian or lizard-hipped dinosaurs and the ornithischian or bird-hipped dinosaurs, as well as a family tree. Steve White provides some decent art of it and dicuses how the hips were influenced by diet..
• Oviraptorosaurs (both it and next have Una Fricker art)
• Ornithomimids
• Sauropods, where Richard Dolan provides some sinewy-looking and horribly thin sauropods
• Crocodilians (art by Anthony Willias)
• The Jurassic (a single spread written by some other guys)

The first comic sequence is set in Late Cretaceous Mongolia and also features Oviraptor, the story following its misadventures trying to get food. But let's get it out of the way: FEW FEATHERS ARE FEATURED. At best we get a few tufts on the head as seen on the Avimimus, but that's about it here. Do I even need to mention pronated hands here?

I will say the art style's fairly good though. Not sure how to describe it, perhaps painterly or like watercolours (though those definitely aren't the right words), but Andrew Currie's art is overall pleasing and does its job.

The story as written by Euan Peters in my opinion reminds me of the 2011 documentary Dinosaur Revolution, with the Oviraptor being the victim of misfortune, constantly being chased by other theropods and losing the meal it wants at the moment and generally acting like an unlucky klutz. I love the show (though not as much as I used to), so that's a positive here. The behaviour is fine, nothing too bad or standing out.

Now for the part where I go over inaccuracies, besides the obvious.

• The area of Mongolia is shown with high escarpments (as seen in the picture), when the geologic evidence for the Campanian and early Maastrichtian generally points more to lowlands without such formations.
• Sauropods briefly featured here are mentioned (but not shown) as being good swimmers, diving deep into lakes to escape attacking Tarbosaurus. What!? That's something out of the 50's, not the 90's! If anything, they'd be the prey not even Tarbos would normally hunt.

Also, while the Oviraptor going after eggs is a trope, I don't consider it an inaccuracy; since its seen eating shellfish early on rather then being ovivorous proper, and is treated in-story as a generalist that will eat anything it can swallow, accurate to the real thing.

So I do like this comic sequence even with the inaccuracies of it making for some butt ugly coelurosaurs.

• Accuracy - 5/10
• Aging - 4/10
• Presentation - 8/10
• Art - 8/10
• Story - 7/10
• Rereadability - 7/10

Next is a segment set in Late Cretaceous Laramidia where Alberta, Canada is now and follows a flock of Struthiomimus also trying to find food amongst other herbivores and escape predators, this time during a drought.

Gotta admit, the art style courtesy of Dougie Braithwaite and Garry Leach is great: very stylised and flat but bright bold and contrasting colours that just scream "comic book". Each dinosaur is uniquely coloured and so helps with that. The artwork is also dynamic and makes good use of low angles, pretty necessary when the subject is the kind best known for speed.

I also like a bit where the Struthiomimus deliver a claw kick to ward off an attacking Dromaeosaurus, since its always nice when people remind us the ostrich mimics had the claws and muscles to kick like one and weren't mere fodder.

Okay, let's just say it: in addition to being nekkid and pronated-handed (same for the dromaeosaurus and albertosaurus), the Struthiomimus are very lanky and seem to slink a lot, seemingly lacking muscle. You see this in a lot of old depictions of ornithomimids, but is not true: they were more then likely lean and muscular, replete with bulging muscles known as drumsticks (yes, they form the snack). Really, most of the dinosaurs are a bit on the shrinkwrapped side, even with the drought in the story.

Also, the date is given as 80 million years ago at the start of the Campanian, when the fauna indicates its later, between 77 to 71 million years ago. Thirdly, there's a mention of migration to the artic circle, based off finding same genera at different latitudes, when more recent studies point to different but closely related species or genera that remained stationary in provinces thanks to mountain ranges of Laramidia.

Just about my only non-accuracy complaint is that the Struthiomimus are a bit out of focus at the very end, relegated to a corner in the last panel.

Otherwise, this is a solid chapter that's elevated by unique and strong art.

• Accuracy - 5/10
• Aging - 4/10
• Presentation - 8/10
• Art - 9/10
• Story - 7/10
• Rereadability - 8/10

Next up for the sauropods, we have a story set in South America where a mixed herd of saltasaurs and Antarctosaurus are ambushed by theropods like Carnotaurus leaving their nesting grounds.

I'll be very honest: I hate the illustrations by Chris Foss here. While the gradients of it are nice I suppose, the overly smooth and shiny textures and overall anatomy given give all of the creatures a rubber toy texture, and so seem sloppy and amateurish (the theropods don't even have consistent designs). Doesn't help some of the dinosaurs are traced wholesale from Greg S. Paul's art. That aside, the poor art all makes it hard to follow the story (though that just might be me).

The behaviour in the sequence is also a bit suspect, like you have the theropods continuing to attack the sauropods even when its clear they stand no chance.

There's also the issue of anachronisms: you have the Mid-Cretaceous pterosaurs Pterodaustro and Cearadactylus living along late cretaceous genera, and the date is given as 75,000,00 years ago, when the rest live either 84 mya, or around 70 mya.

Of course, once you actually read the comic sequence, there are still a few positives. The sauropods are correctly depicted sad being huge and nigh-invincible to attacks, and the two sauropods do engage in aggressive competition to one another. Its not always peaceful amongst herbivores despite what media tells you.

• Accuracy - 5/10
• Aging - 6/10
• Presentation - 5/10
• Art - 4/10
• Story - 5/10
• Rereadability - 4/10

Overall, most forgettable if not outright bad of the strips here, just by art alone (so in other words, the antithesis of the Struthio comic).

The final story sequence is in the Triassic Chinle of what would become the Southwest US as various species from the Postosuchus, a phytosaur, to crowding amphibians metoposaurs fight for water just before the seasonal rains, with a little Protosuchus sneaking through to get food. It really nails the atmosphere of the Triassic being way different then what we are used to, bolstered by lovely airbrushing for a dark place with light shining through the treetops. The story by Euan Peters introduces readers to many of the weird reptiles of the time, not just Coelophysis, as seen above, and even the giant fish Xenocanthus. The art by Anthony Williams is very good, even if it goes down a bit down in quality and detail towards the end. Just look at the panel below in all its glory!

Beautiful is all I can say.

The behaviour checks out for the most part, and I don't even see any overt inaccuracies with the fauna here, like if the Postosuchus is quadrupedal here, so yeah, its all good. My only complaint is that it loses my interest at the end after a flood happened, but that's just me from reading through the book over and over.

• Accuracy - 7/10
• Aging - 7/10
• Presentation - 8/10
• Art - 8/10
• Story - 7/10
• Rereadability - 8/10

Accuracy-wise, there still are some glaring errors as per the time. Just to name a few major ones not covered in the respective sections I can find:

• Elaphrosaurus is said to be the first ornithomimid as was believed at the time, rather then a ceratosaur.
• The family tree in the first chapter and taxonomy (and the series as a whole) are obviously outdated: two major offenders are that carnosaurs and coelurosaurs are separate clades based on size alone (nope, they were multiple clades) and segnosaurs are sauropod relatives (they're theropods, and isn't even real anymore, just therizinosaurs).
• Certain clades living longer then they actually did. For instance, the diplodocid and camarasaur sauropods are mentioned as living up well into the late cretaceous when this wasn't even close to the case, as they both died out in the early cretaceous.

Overall, I like the story sequences of Dinosaurs: A Celebration Issue 2 a lot. The stories are generally more interesting, and the art is way more strong and memorable, and overall more consistent in quality... for the most part (and at least most of the bad parts are concentrated into one strip). I do recommend it, whether you can get a hold of a physical copy.

In case you're wondering rank the each of the stories here:

• #4  Euan Peters and Chris Foss' Patagonia
• #3 - Peters and Andre Currie's Oviraptor.
• #2 - Nicholas Vince and  Dougie Braithwaite and Garry Leach's Stuthiomimus.
• #1 -  Peters and Anthony William's Triassic.

• Accuracy - 7/10
• Aging - 7/10
• Presentation - 8/10
• Art - 8/10
• Story - 7/10
• Rereadability - 8/10

Lemme know if I missed anything of note or got anything wrong here.

Well, with those out of the way, I'll be taking a break from editing over the next week or so. The first will be that my family will take a weekend vacation to Ottawa, and I'm gonna visit the Canadian Museum of Nature. More importantly however, I'll be watching what will perhaps be the most monumentous palaeo-media in years, Prehistoric Planet and posting my thoughts on the episodes. See ya then! I'll be glad to share my thoughts!

See Also

• Dinosaurs: A Celebration review - part one