Comic Reptiles: Steve White on Dinosaurs: A Celebration

While it’s true that That Movie launched the dinosaur obsessions of (possibly) millions in ’93, it’s always important to remember that it rode in on the peak of a wave of Dinomania inspired by the Dinosaur Renaissance. Dinosaurs were no longer the tail-dragging, swamp-hogging, brown dullards of the mid 20th century, but were now athletic, dynamic, colourful and exciting. Popular books and documentaries (like the Walter Cronkite-starring Dinosaur!), along with the latest generation of life-sized roaring museum robots and cool toys like Dino Riders, helped popularise the Renaissance image of fast-moving, dangerous, and altogether sexier dinosaurs in the ’80s and early ’90s. Not evolutionary failures, but a rip-roaring success story.

It was in this milieu that Dinosaurs: A Celebration emerged, a 4 part comic series published by Marvel(‘s Epic imprint) in 1992 – just a tiny bit too early for me to have encountered it back then. Thanks to Zubin Dutta, I now have a copy of the compendium, published in 1997 and cursed with one of the most horrendous, over-the-top, unspeakably hideous book covers to ever be inflicted on any printed work concerning dinosaurs. It’s all sharp angles and spines and drooling and giant fangs and nonsensical limbs and blah blah blah. Still, the strips inside remain fascinating in how they perfectly embody a very specific moment in dinosaur pop culture. They are very much of their time, with a strong focus on conflict, intense action, and dromaeosaurs that are nigh-on unstoppable, pack-hunting killing machines. And scaly, obviously. Perhaps the most Peak ’90s moment comes in the Deinonychus strip (art by John Watkiss), when after a Deinonychus pack takes down a Tenontosaurus, an Acrocanthosaurus approaches to steal the kill, only for the dromaeosaurs to swarm over and kill him too. Brilliant stuff.

What’s most notable about this series is the wide variety of different styles employed by the artists; it’s probably the one aspect of the whole affair that’s best stood the test of time. While most artists attempt realism to some extent, all the strips are stylised to some degree, with some going all-in and employing garish, deliberately unrealistic comic-book colours and exaggerated action poses, and others employing something of a naïve style with highly contrasting blocks of colour. It wasn’t all that long ago that we were all complaining about the homogeneity of palaeoart and encouraging artists to experiment stylistically, so Dinosaurs: A Celebration almost feels ahead of its time in that respect.

We should get to the main attraction, though. I asked Steve White, veteran comics bod, recent editor of the likes of Mesozoic Art and a highly accomplished artist in his own right (merch and books for sale!), to provide a few words on the conception of Dinosaurs: A Celebration. Steve provided the concept and was the comics’ supervising editor. Over to Steve…

If there’s one project I would love to update, redo and revisit, it’s Dinosaurs: A Celebration. The project was conceived in 1991 while I was working at Marvel’s UK office: a four-part series, each issue focusing on different groups of dinosaurs, each group or family represented by an illustrated factual text feature and a day-in-the-life comic strip.

The series was published by Epic, Marvel’s imprint for more esoteric and exotic works aimed at older readers. At the time of the comic’s inception, I was a regular visitor to Marvel’s New York office and had made several good friends there. These included Carl Potts, one of Epic’s editors and a writer and artist of note; it just so happened he was also something of a dinophile. When he visited Marvel UK, based in London at the time, I would take him to the famous Foyles bookshop, where he would curse me for making him spend so much money (I remember him buying the now legendary Salamander Books’ pterosaur and dinosaur encyclopaedias; he eagerly awaiting the marine reptiles edition, which, sadly, remained a forlorn hope).

Another good friend was Carol Kalish. She was Marvel’s Vice President of New Product Development; she was also a serious dinosaur enthusiast, having even trained as a geologist under Stephen J. Gould. There was a time I considered giving up the wild world of comics to go study palaeontology and while sitting in her office, she told me, “Forget it, Steve, all the best work is done by gifted amateurs; you’ll just ending stuck in a classroom.”

With both Carl and Carol sharing a passion for dinosaurs, it meant that I had a receptive audience when, while on a trip to New York, I pitched the concept of Dinosaurs: A Celebration to them. I thought it was a pretty unique idea, especially as the overlap in the Venn diagram between comics and dinosaurs is considerable, and because 1992 would be the 150th anniversary of the coining of the word ‘dinosaur’ by Sir Richard Owen.

I was, of course, thrilled to be given the go ahead. The downside was how on earth I would accomplish what was clearly going to be something of an undertaking. I was also given a rather limited budget (I can’t remember how much); this budget had to pay for everything; for the comic strips, that included writing, art, lettering and, in some cases, colouring; there was also illustrations for the text features, plus the four covers. I was given an editorial fee but with such limited resources and all the money going on the strips, illustrations and covers, my role was stretched to writing all the text features and doing numerous pieces of art essentially pro bono.

In 1991, the internet was the purview of William Gibson and Neil Stephenson, and dinosaurs were going through their naked supermodel ‘shrink-wrapped’ phase with Greg Paul as the Jean-Paul Gaultier of dinosaur High Fashion; feathers were the wild imaginings of the palaeontological Avante Garde. There were no on-line communities; the only person I knew who had scientific credentials was Mike Howgate, who I met at a talk he did and who ended up as consultant on the comic. It was through Mike I met my first palaeoartist: the legend that is Luis Rey. He was the first artist I asked to come aboard Dinosaurs: A Celebration, producing his usual extravagantly coloured artwork for the ‘pachycephalosaur’ strip.

For all other creators, I had to turn to the world of comics. That meant asking just about every writer and artist I knew to help out; there were a few who had a passing interest in dinosaurs (a couple were serious enthusiasts), others who were glad of the work and still more who were kind enough to say ‘yes’ when I pulled in a favour. As it was, I managed to gather together a pretty decent line-up of comics talent, many of whom went above and beyond for me (or ‘below and beyond’ if you will, excepting page rates far lower than they were used to when I came begging). I spent a great deal of time photocopying references for the writers and artists; many of my books bore the flimsy, broken spines of volumes constantly opened wide to copy spreads and squashed down by the heavy top of the copier. The things you do for love.

Then, on 6 September, I got a phone call to tell me of Carol’s death the day before. She had died of a pulmonary embolism at the age of 36. A tragic loss. It saddened me deeply (and still does) to lose such a wonderful friend and that she never got to see Dinosaurs: A Celebration come to fruition. But come to fruition it did. By the start of 1992 I was working for another comic company, Tundra, and found myself up against the wall, the print deadline looming. Fortunately, I had an understanding boss, Dave Elliott, who was happy to let me battle on, even allowing the final strip to be lettered in the Tundra officers while a courier waited to take the final pages off to the US.

I must admit, even at the time I was never best thrilled with the results. I’d had to cut corners for the sake of deadlines and use creators with no knowledge beyond the basics of dinosaurs, but who happened to be available (this in no way denigrates their efforts and I was – and am – supremely grateful for their efforts). Still, it was a massive undertaking, and I could be proud of my efforts. There was also the matter of the signing. How this came about, I can’t recall, but there it was: a massed signing at London’s Natural History Museum, featuring pretty much all of the talent involved in the comics, plus a multitude of friends, well-wishers and fifth columnists who came along for the fun. The signing was originally more of a chance for museum visitors to have dinosaur drawings done, usually for their kids, as well as buy copies of the comics. However, after the signing was announced in London’s Time Out magazine, which detailed the creators in attendance, and as entry was free to the museum, it attracted a considerable number of comics fans keen to get their issues signed by those artists who rarely did signings. Some arrived with boxes of comics, graphic novels and books, and I was required to have them wait until after the official event, which was, after all, really for the kids.

Their wait was long. The event proved hugely successful and overran by about an hour and a half. After that, the comics hordes descended and by the time the last issue had been signed, we had been at the signing tables (set in what was then the cafeteria at the back of the Main Hall) for about four hours. A truly monumental, one-off event.

I rarely look at Dinosaurs: A Celebration now. It hasn’t aged well but it was very much of its time and it’s a miracle it happened at all, under the circumstances. Now, of course it would be much simpler to give life to. Palaeoart is an art movement in and of itself, and there is a global community of talent with styles many and varied, including some very gifted comics creators. So, if there’s a publisher out there ready and willing to take a crack at Dinosaurs: A Celebration volume 2, let’s make this happen…

Thanks very much to Steve for taking the time to write a few words for the blog, and Zubin for sending the book over. Could a Volume 2 ever happen? With dinosaurs as popular as they’ve ever been, and the Mesozoic Art books proving to be strong sellers, I wouldn’t rule it out completely.