Back Issue #140 Preview by TwoMorrows Publishing

No.140 December 2022 $10.95 Reserved.RightsAllSchultz.MarkXenozoic®Schultz.Mark2022©Artwork LOOK OUT!! DINOSAURS ARE INVADING… ™ William Stout interview • Godzilla at Dark Horse Comics • Sauron villain history • Dinosaurs Attack! • Dinosaurs for Hire • Dinosaur Rex • Dino Riders & Jurassic Park Mark Schultz’s ® 1 8 2 6 5 8 0 0 4 7 8 1

Volume EDITOR-IN-CHIEFDecemberNumber1,1402022 Michael Eury PUBLISHER John Morrow DESIGNER Rich Fowlks COVER ARTIST Mark Sinkproduced(CoverSchultzartoriginallyforKitchenPress’ Cadillacs and Dinosaurs 3-D #1, July 1992. Scan courtesy of Heritage.) COVER COLORIST Glenn Whitmore COVER DESIGNER Michael Kronenberg PROOFREADER David Baldy SPECIAL THANKS Arthur Adams Mark Arnold Mike Baron Al StephenBigley Bissette Glen DaveBarbaraDanHeritageKarlR.GrandDonGaryStephanBillHowardCadiganChaykinDeSimoneFriedtGeraniGlutComicsDatabaseC.HarveyHeitmueller,Jr.ComicsAuctionsJohnsonKaalbergLemieux Matt Levin Ed MannyLute Maris Tom RyderDonToppsTohoJanRandyTomGordonBrandonMasonMcKinneyPurcellSmithStradleyStrnadCo.,Ltd.Company,Inc.VaughanWindham VERY THANKSSPECIAL Mark WilliamSchultzStout C’mon citizen, DO THE RIGHT THING! A Mom & Pop publisher like us needs every sale just to survive! ORDOWNLOADDON’TREADILLEGAL COPIES ONLINE! Buy affordable, legal downloads only at www.twomorrows.com or through our Apple and Google Apps! & DON’T SHARE THEM WITH FRIENDS OR POST THEM ONLINE. Help us keep producing great publications like this one! Don’t STEAL our Digital Editions! IN MEMORIAM: Neal Adams 2 IN MEMORIAM: George Pérez 3 BACKSEAT DRIVER: Editorial by Michael Eury 4 INTERVIEW: William Stout’s Dino Comics 5 PINUP: DC Special #27 ................................................. 16 BRING ON THE BAD GUYS: Sauron ....................................... 17 GREATEST STORIES NEVER TOLD: Dave Cockrum’s The Man With the Dinosaur Brain 24 ROUGH STUFF: Captain Marvel, Jr.’s Dino Battle by Cockrum 26 INTERVIEW: Mark Schultz’s Xenozoic Tales 29 FLASHBACK: Godzilla at Dark Horse Comics ...............................39 INTERVIEW: Jan Strnad and Dinosaur Rex ..................................49 PRINCE STREET NEWS: Holiday Grab Bag ................................. 54 BACKSTAGE PASS: Tom Mason’s Dinosaurs for Hire ........................... 57 FLASHBACK: Topps’ Dinosaurs Attack! .....................................63 THE TOY BOX: Dino-Riders 69 FLASHBACK: Jurassic Park , the Comic Book 73 BACK TALK: Reader Reactions 79 BACK ISSUE ™ issue 140, December 2022 (ISSN 1932-6904) is published monthly (except Jan., March, May, and Nov.) by TwoMorrows Publishing, 10407 Bedfordtown Drive, Raleigh, NC 27614, USA. Phone: (919) 449-0344. Periodicals postage paid at Raleigh, NC. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Back Issue, c/o TwoMorrows, 10407 Bedfordtown Drive, Raleigh, NC 27614. Michael Eury, Editor-in-Chief. John Morrow, Publisher. Editorial Office: BACK ISSUE, c/o Michael Eury, Editor-in-Chief, 112 Fairmount Way, New Bern, NC 28562. Email: euryman@gmail.com. Eight-issue subscriptions: $90 Economy US, $137 International, $39 Digital. Please send subscription orders and funds to TwoMorrows, NOT to the editorial office. Cover artwork © 2022 Mark Schultz. Xenozoic® Mark Schultz. All Rights Reserved. All editorial matter © 2022 TwoMorrows and Michael Eury except for Prince Street News, TM & © 2022 Karl Heitmueller, Jr. Printed in China. FIRST PRINTING Comics’ Bronze Age and Beyond! Dinosaurs Issue • BACK ISSUE • 1 Stout.William©ArtAuctions.ComicsHeritageofarchivesthefromStout,Williambyillustrationspecialty1977Abutterfly!vs.Dinosaurart:Background

WILLIAM STOUT: I was a huge Edgar Rice Burroughs fan and had a subscription to a Burroughs fanzine called ERB-dom. I would occasionally contribute stuff to that magazine. The Burroughs estate was about to release a previously unpublished Burroughs novel called I Am a Barbarian, told from the point of view of Caligula’s personal slave. I got a copy and saw that it was illustrated by Jeff Jones. I felt the Jones drawings weren’t compelling enough, so I did my own drawings based on Burroughs’ novel. I did six of them, each in a different style. I did one in the style of Frank Frazetta, one in the style of Al Williamson, one in the style of Reed Crandall, and others. I sent them off, and about a year later they were published in ERB-dom. As soon as they were printed, I got a call from Russ Manning, asking if I would like to be his assistant. I jumped at the chance because I was a huge fan. I had all the Magnus Robot Fighter comics, and I was a big fan of his Tarzan comics. It was funny because when I read the Tarzan novels, the picture in my head of Tarzan turned out to be exactly as Russ drew him. I knew it was going to be an interesting experience. I began inking for him and also doing the color on the Sunday strips. My lettering was pretty crappy back then, so either Russ or Mike Royer did the lettering. Russ lived way out in a place called Modjeska When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth Cover to Stout’s The Dinosaurs: A Fantastic New View of a Lost Era (Bantam Books, 1981).

All are gorgeous. I’ll admit this right off the bat: William Stout is among my favorite artists for a variety of reasons. Foremost, he’s a remarkable craftsman, capable and at ease with the tools of his trade, able to capture the essence of a scene with stunning realism, whether it’s a museum mural or a comic-book illustration. There’s a genuine sense of joy in Stout’s art, no matter the subject or the medium. He’s obviously an artist who loves his job.

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But that’s just one aspect of Stout’s expansive career. He has also illustrated album covers, movie posters, trading cards, book covers—and comic books. A LOT of comic books, many of which, unsurprisingly, feature dinosaurs. Some are serious, others cartoony.

In the following conversation with BACK ISSUE , Stout discusses various aspects of his prolific dinosaur comicbook work, a favorite gig illustrating the words of Ray Bradbury, his artistic influences, and more. – Don Vaughan

DON VAUGHAN: Bill, thank you for talking with us today. I’d like to start with your gig in the early ’70s assisting Russ Manning on the Tarzan newspaper strips and graphic novels, some of which featured dinosaurs. How did you get that job, and what did you learn from Manning?

interview by Don Vaughan

William Stout is one of the preeminent paleo artists of his generation. His murals and paintings of prehistoric life can be found in museums of natural history around the United States, and his first book, The Dinosaurs: A Fantastic New View of a Lost Era (Bantam Books, 1981), was an inspiration for Michael Crichton’s Jurassic Park.

VAUGHAN: How long did you work for Russ?

Canyon in a very rural part of Orange County, California. He was a member of the volunteer fire department there, so every now and then an alarm would go off and Russ would be in his truck and on his way to the fire in about three seconds. I learned a tremendous amount from Russ, especially about respecting deadlines, the importance of artistic consistency, and being professional. Russ introduced me to Japanese prints, Hal Foster’s best work, and opera. Most importantly, Russ showed me how to be a great dad. I learned lots watching how Russ interacted with his son and daughter. When I was inking Russ, I could ink everything except the main characters. Russ always wanted to ink Tarzan, and if there was any other main character he wanted to ink, he would let me know. I usually ink with two tools: a crow quill pen or a Windsor Newton Series 7 #1 brush. That worked out great because Russ did most of his inking with a brush. My job was basically to speed things up for Russ, get the comics and the daily and Sunday strips done in a reasonable time, so we weren’t panicking about deadlines.

VAUGHAN: Ray Bradbury Dinosaur Tales (Byron Preiss, 1983) gave you the opportunity to illustrate one of Bradbury’s best-known dinosaur stories, “A Sound of Thunder.” Dinosaur Tales isn’t really a comic book, but I think it falls in the purview of this article.

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STOUT: That’s a great collection. All of the illustrators were comic artists. Some of the other contributors were Jim Steranko, Moebius, Overton Loyd, and Gahan Wilson.

STOUT: I worked for him for about three or four years. I started in 1970, and I think the last thing I did for him was in ’73 or ’74. I was inking the dailies, coloring the Sundays, and Russ and I did three graphic novels together. Unfortunately, when Dark Horse reprinted our graphic novels, they didn’t use my coloring.

(bottom) Stout’s original art for an unpublished Tarzan portrait produced in 1981. Both, courtesy of Heritage Comic Auctions (www.ha.com).

Lord of the Jungle (top) Stout was an assistant to Tarzan comic-strip artist Russ Manning in the early 1970s, inking Manning’s pencils and coloring the Sunday pages. This color guide is from the Sunday, October 15, 1972 strip.

STOUT: And some double-page spreads, too. We all drew several illustrations for whatever story we were assigned. I was experimenting with a sort of Franklin Booth–style of inking with some of the pictures. I think I did some of my best stuff for that book. [Stout revisited “A Sound of Thunder” a decade later with a stunning cover for The Ray Bradbury Chronicles vol. 4 (NBM, 1993). The story was adapted by Rich Corben, and the issue also contained a reprint of the EC Comics adaptation illustrated by Al Williamson.]

STOUT: I didn’t get to do all of them because the other guys they got to draw covers were Mark Schultz, Dave Stevens, and Al Williamson! That’s stiff competition. I was lucky to get two covers instead of just one.

VAUGHAN: In 1991 and 1992, you provided two covers to a six-issue Fantagraphics series that retold the story of King Kong . You’ve said that you had hoped to do all six covers. What happened?

VAUGHAN: Speaking of covers, you did three variant covers for Cadillacs and Dinosaurs , Topps’ 1994 continuation of Mark Schultz’s Xenozoic Tales . You’ve said that the cover for #2 was inspired by your ‘A Sound of Thunder’ Original art, courtesy of Heritage, by William Stout, from pages 74–75 of Ray Bradbury’s Dinosaur Tales Art © William Stout.

VAUGHAN: You note in your career overview book Fantastic Worlds: The Art of William Stout that one of your illustrations for “A Sound of Thunder” inspired a scene in Steven Spielberg’s Jurassic Park: Lost World. Tell us about that. STOUT: When I got into the film business, I was sharing offices with Steven Spielberg. I would work on Conan the Barbarian during the day, and then Ron Cobb, my Conan production designer, and I would jump across the hall to Steven’s office, and in the evening, we would kick around ideas for Steven’s next project, which was Raiders of the Lost Ark. So, he was well aware of my work. When Steven was making Jurassic Park, I had lunch every other week with Rick Carter, Steven’s production designer on the film, and I fed him a bunch of stuff to put into the film, a lot of which actually ended up in the film. Rick or Steven or Kathleen Kennedy must have seen my cover for the paperback edition of Ray Bradbury Dinosaur Tales of a Tyrannosaurus rex [T. rex] looking across water at a city, because that ended up being a shot in the second Jurassic Park movie, Lost World I think in the movie the T. rex is looking at San Diego.

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VAUGHAN: Your illustrations for “A Sound of Thunder” are really evocative. Tell us how the project came about. STOUT: That was a Byron Preiss project. Byron was always looking for ways to bring Bradbury before a broader audience. “A Sound of Thunder” is one of my favorite Bradbury stories, and was actually featured in my American Literature textbook in high school. Dinosaur Tales wasn’t my first introduction to Ray, though. Byron introduced me to Ray when I was working on my first dinosaur book, The Dinosaurs: A Fantastic New View of a Lost Era. We became friends, and Ray ended up writing the introduction to my book. We started collaborating whenever we could on projects. In addition to “A Sound of Thunder,” I illustrated the cover of Dinosaur Tales

VAUGHAN: You drew several full-page black-and-white illustrations for “A Sound of Thunder.”

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Mutants vs. a Terror-dactyl Sauron’s first appearance, in X-Men #60 (Sept. 1969). Written by Roy Thomas and illustrated by the late, great Neal Adams. (BACK ISSUE #142 will honor the artist, who died on April 28, 2022, with a special Neal Adams Tribute edition.)

TM & © Marvel. by Christopher Larochelle

The entire idea of Sauron was certainly “edgy,” given the harsh restrictions on what was and wasn’t possible in stories that had to be submitted to the Comics Code Authority in 1969. According to Roy Thomas, “Neal and I wanted to do a mutant vampire story… but this was still in the days before the Code was changed to allow vampires, and—I forget which—either I checked with the Code or we just assumed they’d give us trouble. So we made it a ‘psychic vampire,’ without using those words.” At the very end of X-Men #59 (Aug. 1969), Havok has been injured following a battle with the Sentinels. The Beast makes a call to Dr. Karl Lykos in hopes that his teammate can be helped. The reader is warned that Beast’s phone call may not have gone to the best physician available, since Lykos himself is in shadow… and a victim harnessed to some kind of horrible device is shown at first resisting, and then succumbing to, something that sure does look like torture. The beginning of X-Men #60 (Sept. 1969) explains Beast’s phone call. Lykos was, in fact, a colleague of Professor Xavier’s when both men worked on a “mysterious enterprise” called Project Mutant. Beast doesn’t have much more information to share with his teammates, stating, roy thomas IMDb.com.

A ‘PSYCHIC VAMPIRE’

The story of the villainous Sauron, also known as Dr. Karl Lykos, unfolds over the course of a few stories that are spread out between 1969 and 1982. The character’s visuals are spectacular: a fusion of man and pterodactyl, menacingly colored green and looking absolutely horrifying! When it comes to the origins of the character, one legendary team of comics creators is involved: Roy Thomas and Neal Adams. Before the X-Men title was relegated to becoming a reprint book for several years, the energy of the Thomas/Adams issues showed what could really be done with the X-Men concept, which had proven to have a difficult time finding its footing in the 1960s. Sauron’s story is an essential piece of this exciting run of comics.

“It is said, X-Men, that the greatness of a being is measured by the quality of his foes. If so, our mutual glory is assured. Yours, of course will be posthumous.”

– Sauron, Marvel Fanfare #4

After helping Havok, Dr. Lykos recounts how some unusual circumstances led to his current status quo. Before he had grown to adulthood, Lykos had been a part of an expedition in Tierra del Fuego. Lykos’ father worked as an explorer’s guide. On this particular trip, Karl came along as his father showed this dangerous land to a man known as Herr Anderssen. Anderssen’s child, Tanya, was also present and soon became lost. After a long search, Karl found the missing Tanya in a cave populated by some truly shocking creatures—pterodactyls! Karl sustained some injuries… and little did he know the mark his wounds would leave on him. He soon discovered that touching a being would transfer life energy to him (his pet dog was the first victim). This led to a dependence on taking the raw energy of others; in fact, Dr. Lykos’ association with Professor Xavier was merely to source some ultra-powerful mutants he could use. Rigged up to Lykos’ machinery, Havok supplies the energy that leads to a truly terrifying transformation! With energy surging throughout him, Lykos begins to take on some of the traits of the pterodactyls that attacked him years ago. His skin turns green, a beak forms, giant wings sprout… a monster has been born. “My body… my face… my very soul… they are changed… transformed… filled with a bursting, billowing power… power for good… or power for evil! And, I choose… evil! An evil so great, so monumental that only one name in all the annals of literature will contain it! The name of Tolkien’s ultimate villain… the dark lord who personified evil… who was truly evil incarnate! The name of… Sauron!”

Tolkien of GratitudeOur (top) Dr. Karl Lykos’ painful transforma tion intofromSauron, X-Men #60. Neal Adams would soon illustrate a similarMan-BatphosismetamorwiththeintroductionofinDC’s Detective Comics #400 (June 1970). (bottom) Adams’ cover for the twoparter’s conclusion, in X-Men #61. TM & © Marvel.

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“The Professor’s records on him are decidedly incomplete! But right now, he’s the only physician we dare trust!”

Hearing about a “winged thief” on the news, the X-Men discuss that maybe it’s best to lie low. Angel dissents, caring little for what people think about mutants. He brashly flies out to meet Sauron, quickly becoming a victim of the villain’s hypnotic gaze. X-Men #61 (Oct. 1969) continues the X-Men’s dangerous encounter with Sauron. Before the rest of the X-Men arrive to help, Angel fights through Sauron’s hallucinations. The winged X-Man eventually realizes what’s real and what isn’t in a twopage spread that showcases a fantastic layout by Neal Adams. Sauron’s figure fills the pages, and smaller panels that recap the previous issue’s details are drawn over his wings. Soon after the battle between heroes and villain begins, Sauron’s powers fade. He manages to coerce Angel to return him to his office, reverting again to his human form. At the office, Havok is doing much better than before… but not all is well for Karl Lykos. Tanya is there, and Lykos reminds her that she has been forbidden, by order of her father. Sure enough, Dr. Anderssen re-enters Lykos’ life at this moment, dragging his daughter away. A chance to drain the mutant energies of Polaris is soon taken advantage of, and Sauron flies again. Sauron’s game here is one of simple revenge. He crashes through a window of the Anderssen household, threatening to do harm to the father of the woman he loves. The X-Men aren’t far behind, though, and Sauron seems to be gaining a sense of not wanting to follow through with his evil impulses: “Murder? Yes… yes, I would have killed him! How could Tanya have looked at me again… if I destroyed her father? I hadn’t realized till now… how fully the evil side of me… is in command! Must go away someplace… where none can ever find me…!” With that, Sauron flies away to the place where it all began… his father’s cabin. Living in complete seclusion, Karl Lykos reemerges. He’s very intentional about this being the end of his life, and when Tanya returns to bring him back, he is so fearful of being dangerous that he runs right off a cliff. If not for a quickly created ice shield, Tanya surely would have followed him.

Regarding the villain’s Lord of the Rings-inspired name, “It was a sort of mixture of homage and pandering, I suppose,” Roy Thomas tells BACK ISSUE . “I liked Tolkien well enough, but I was never a big fan. Since the psychic vampire was to be reptilian, ‘Sauron’ seemed a good enough name, but it was a mistake to use it, even if—since it’s only a name and nothing else of Tolkien was used—it was probably legal enough. If I had it to do over, I’d use a different name.”

Aurora got its start in the 1950s with models of planes and, by the 1960s, had added cars to its lineup. But its most popular kits (arguably; at least, the ones people talk about the most today) came from tie-ins with licensed material from movies, TV shows, and comic books. Star Trek, The Man from U.N.C.L.E., and Lost in Space were all represented, as were various Marvel and DC characters. But ahead of all the rest were kits based upon its license with Universal Studios to make models featuring its various monsters: Dracula, Frankenstein, the Mummy, and the Wolf Man were all produced, as was a personal favorite of Cockrum’s, the Creature from the Black Lagoon. [Editor’s note: See our sister mag, RetroFan #17, for a look at Aurora’s monster models and an interview with their extraordinary cover art painter, James Bama.]

Alas, the Aurora brass lacked the same vision. They shut down both their Prehistoric Scenes line and their soon-to-be-started Science Fiction Scenes before it could even get off the ground. Not only that, but proposed new kits for its Comic Scenes (such as Flash Gordon and the Phantom) were also cancelled. It was the mid-’70s, and models were fading in popularity. Aurora attempted to enter the toy and board game market (one particular toy, Kar-a-a-ate Men, was also designed by Cockrum), but they were outmatched and outgunned by companies that specialized in those fields. Aurora’s model kit division was sold by its owner, Nabisco, to a competing modeling company, Monogram, in 1977. There are still Aurora fans around today, and “lost” Auroras get made from time to time in limited runs by smaller companies. Both of Dave Cockrum’s unproduced dinosaur kits have since made it into physical form; he even consulted on the recreation of Issue Meet T. Rex… …a.k.a. Lord Dinosaur. Cover for Dave Cockrum’s proposed Aurora comic tie-in. Scan courtesy of Al Bigley.

It happened in 1973. The year before, Dave Cockrum had begun his run on the “Legion of Super-Heroes” feature that ran in the back pages of Superboy . A year later, he would leave the (nowcover-starring) series because of a dispute over the return of his original artwork. In between, he joined with friends Mark Hanerfeld, Marv Wolfman, and Len Wein to form Graphic Features, a company designed to create custom comics for clients. Their first (and apparently only) patron was Aurora Plastics, with whom Cockrum already had a professional relationship.

With the Cockrum connection, Graphic Features signed a deal with Aurora to produce comic books (eight pages each; six pages of story and art [including the cover], two of instructions) for reissues of its superhero kits. They hired some of the best talent around to work on the comics: John Romita, Sr. did Captain America and Spider-Man; Gil Kane drew The Lone Ranger and Tonto; Neal Adams did Tarzan; Dick Giordano drew Batman and Robin Cockrum himself handled Superboy (Curt Swan had Superman), as well as did the instructions for many of the figures. [Editor’s note: See BI #138 for a glimpse at the Lone Ranger comic art.] But Aurora also had dinosaurs! In fact, Cockrum’s first job for the company was to design its Tyrannosaurus rex figure. In 1973, with sales failing on Aurora’s Prehistoric Scenes line (it would be discontinued in 1975), Dave concocted a scheme to help it: a model based upon a figure, which was what Aurora did best. And so was born Lord Dinosaur, a.k.a. T. Rex, the man with the dinosaur brain! The plan was the character could also function as a toy and allow potential customers to engage with (and buy more of) the extinct reptiles. Cockrum had a vested interest in helping the Prehistoric Scenes line; not only was he a fan, he was also a designer. In fact, he had two unproduced dinosaur designs in their hands: the parasaurol ophus and the stegosaurus, the latter of which actually made it to the sculpt stage. What was more, there was also a planned Science Fiction Scenes line based upon popular old movies, and Cockrum had many designs in the works there, too. (In a clever premise, the time machine from The Time Machine would’ve been used by imaginative youngsters to merge the two together.)

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Age in the pages of the science-fiction/horror anthology Death Rattle #8 (Dec. 1986), published by Kitchen Sink. Springing from the mind of writer-artist Mark Schultz, the concept was quickly awarded its own title by publisher Denis Kitchen. The resulting Xenozoic Tales proved to be one of the longer-lasting properties birthed during the black-and-white comics boom of the mid-1980s and ran until #14 (Oct. 1996). The series is set against the backdrop of a post-apocalyptic future, some 600 years hence, where mankind has re-emerged from vast underground shelters to find a much-changed landscape. The challenge now is how to survive this brave new world. Some would like to live in harmonious balance with nature, while others would prefer a return to the old ways. Mechanic Jack Tenrec meets diplomat Hannah Dundee, and their sparky relationship forms the emotional core of Xenozoic Tales However, their lives, and the lives of everyone on the planet, are made just a little bit more difficult by the fact that, unexpectedly, while humans sheltered, the dinosaurs have returned to stalk the Earth— and they may not be willing to share! Via the wonders of transatlantic cabling, BACK ISSUE sat down with Mark Schultz to excavate the hidden history of the Xenozoic Era. Mark copyedited the transcript for clarity. – Allan Harvey ALLAN HARVEY: What’s the secret origin of Mark Schultz? MARK SCHULTZ: I saw the original King Kong when I was six years old on the TV. At the same time, they were rebroadcasting the old Johnny Weissmuller Tarzan movies, and the first Jungle Girl serial, with Frances Deal me in! Mark Schultz shows us a new way to crash a card game on the wild and wonderful cover to Kitchen Sink’s Xenozoic Tales #1 (Feb. 1987).

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HARVEY: And Gorgo [the 1961 movie] comes out around that time.

SCHULTZ: Absolutely. I grew up in an era when John Wayne was still kind of the iconic, male action hero figure, so that imprinted on me. Him and guys like Burt Lancaster were the templates for Jack, and actresses like Barbara Stanwyck were the origins of Hannah— temperamentally, at least—although the look of Hannah came straight from Wally Wood’s version of [drawing] women. [laughs]

Gifford. So, that all got kind of lodged into my conscious and subcon scious, I guess, and led to an appreciation of Edgar Rice Burroughs’ books in general, beyond just Tarzan. Then, when I was about seven years old, my mother took me to the movies, and I saw Hatari!, the Howard Hawks film with John Wayne, where they’re capturing rhinoc eroses and giraffes, using motor vehicles. That all kind of mish-mashed up in my head, I think, and eventually Xenozoic was the result of that.

HARVEY: How old were you when you discovered comics?

SCHULTZ: Five or six. Again, the ones that grabbed my attention were the ones that had dinosaurs on the cover. Turok, Son of Stone DC’s “The War That Time Forgot” [in Star Spangled War Stories], I guess. I don’t think I recognized the titles at the time, I just remember seeing the covers in stores.

HARVEY: I read in an interview that a book called The How and Why Wonder Book of Dinosaurs was important. SCHULTZ: Yeah. That was the first factual dinosaur book my parents Dino-ComicsInfluential Turok, Son of Stone (#50, Mar. 1966) and Gorgo (seen here in Fantastic Giants #26, Sept. 1966) were among the works imprinting young Mark Schultz. (Be sure to come back for BACK ISSUE #144 and its examination of the return of Turok!) Turok © Random House. Issue ‘Xenozoic’ Premiere (opposite page, inset) Schultz’s cover to Death Rattle #8 (Dec. 1986) hinted at horrors, not dinosaurs, but (main) the interior story’s first page—and its EC-influenced art— made it clear that prehistoric beasts were to be on view. Page restoration by Allan Harvey. Artwork © 2022 Mark Schultz. Xenozoic® Mark Schultz. bought me, and it started me on the direction where I would take my stories.

HARVEY: They made a big impression on you? SCHULTZ: Yeah. Absolutely. Some of those stories that Verne and Wells wrote, I first encountered in the Classics Illustrated comics. They intrigued me enough to plug into the novels. This would have been in the ’60s, when there was—in the States, anyway—a huge resurgence of reprints, in paperback form, of people like Verne and Wells. Burroughs. Robert E. Howard. All of a sudden you had a flood of wonderful, classic science fiction and fantasy.

SCHULTZ: Yeah. You know, it’s limited in its special effects—especially by today’s standards, of course—but it’s a great story. It’s the one giant monster/dinosaur film where the dinosaurs are the sympathetic protagonists. Your sympathies are with Gorgo and Gorgo’s mother. That’s another thing: when I was around nine years old, Charlton reprinted Steve Ditko’s adaptations of Gorgo and Konga [in Fantastic Giants #26 (Sept. 1966)—ed.], and they blew my mind. His adaptation of Konga is much better than the movie, I’ve got to say! [laughs] I still have my copy.

HARVEY: You were introduced to writers like Jules Verne, Edgar Allan Poe, Edgar Rice Burroughs, and Robert E. Howard at a young age…

HARVEY: Let’s jump ahead to Xenozoic Tales . Where did that first germinate? SCHULTZ: In the early ’80s, I was doing illustration work for local companies. Advertising, some book illustrations for “how to” books, like “How to Renovate your Kitchen,” that kind of stuff. I was also working as a security guard at a college campus at a small university, and I had a lot of time to daydream about what I’d like to be doing. Over a period of years, Xenozoic developed. Again, from these old stories, old movies, old comics that I grew up with and I loved. Over a period of, I’d say, three to four years, it coalesced into something that I finally felt… Well, I was turning 30, and I figured, “You know, I’m starting to get old: I’m 30! I’ve got to do something with my life.” [laughs] I finally got up the nerve, [and] over a sixmonth period, in my spare time, I put together a six-page Xenozoic

HARVEY: You can sort of see that: cars and dinosaurs, cars and safaris… with John Wayne as Jack Tenrec.

SCHULTZ: Yep. H. G. Wells. All those classic writers.

SCHULTZ: Yeah. [laughs]

It turned out that I’m way too slow to do a regular book, so what we had originally envisioned as a bimonthly, I think, quickly devolved into a quarterly, and then devolved further into…

SCHULTZ: I think word of mouth did more than any thing else to promote Xenozoic. At the time, you just weren’t seeing much in the way of adventure comics anymore. Superhero comics had become ubiquitous.

HARVEY: Bi-annual! [laughs]

HARVEY: Being at Kitchen Sink, which was already reprinting Will Eisner’s Spirit , was quite fortuitous then? SCHULTZ: Yeah. A few years earlier, around ’83–’84, the first independent comic shop had opened in my vicinity. I went in, and all of a sudden, I’m seeing all these comics that you didn’t see on the traditional newsstand. All the independent companies that sprang up at the time. I was seeing Love and Rockets, Howard Chaykin’s American Flagg

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HARVEY: Yeah. SCHULTZ: Something that I didn’t mention [earlier as an influence]: EC Comics. I studied a lot of their short-format stories. The first few issues of Xenozoic more or less follow that template. I studied a lot of EC stories, especially Harvey Kurtzman stories, and Will Eisner’s Spirit stories, too, just to figure out, how do you tell a story? How do you pace a story in six, seven, eight pages? It was on-the-job training. [ laughs ] Learning how to tell stories with sequential art.

HARVEY: The Rocketeer SCHULTZ: And Kitchen Sink doing all those great Spirit reprints, and Death Rattle. It just seemed to me, all of a sudden, this is something I could do; something I could get into. I have no particular desire myself to do superhero comics, but there was adventure stuff out there that harked back to the stuff from the ’50s and early ’60s. That was really inspiring to me. It was the Hannah and Jack Hannah Dundee and Jack Tenrec, and friend, in a gorgeous pencil portrait by Schultz, courtesy of Heritage, plus (above) early covers. (inset) A tenrec.

HARVEY: The second issue was the first one I got. I remember being in the comic shop and asking for recommendations, and the guy behind the counter said, “This Xenozoic Tales thing is pretty good.” So, I bought that and went back for the first one, and I’ve been a fan ever since.

They asked me if I could do a story that was more of a science fiction or horror story for the Death Rattle comic, which was their anthology book. So, I did the first published Xenozoic story, [which] was tailored for Death Rattle.

proposal story, which I then mailed around to seven different companies that were extant at the time. I got a response from almost all of them, of some sort or another; but Kitchen Sink was the one that was actually interested in my story and my proposal.

[Editor’s note: The original Xenozoic story from the pitch, “Mammoth Pitfall!,” eventually saw print in Xenozoic Tales #2 (Apr. 1987). For a history of the Death Rattle series, see BACK ISSUE #75.] Thank goodness, Denis Kitchen then offered me the chance to take Xenozoic as its own book. It was successful enough to keep it going well into the ’90s.

When Dark Horse Comics first came on the scene in the mid-1980s, I was aware of the company and had seen their titles in my local comic-book shop, but I really didn’t take the time to check out what they had to offer. Back then, I was a teenage reader, and a publisher had to do something big to get my attention. Let me tell you, for 17-year-old Danny Johnson, nothing was bigger than Godzilla.

Stephen Bissette, who helped redefine horror comics in the 1980s, was the artist Stradley wanted for Godzilla. “I was still coming off of Swamp Thing and DC had burned my ass,” recalls Bissette. “I was in very rough Urban Renewal (Needed) Dark Horse Comics unleashed the fury of the Big G in Godzilla, King of the Monsters Special #1 (Aug. 1987). Detail from the cover by Stephen Bissette.

IN THE BEGINNING

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randy stradley

I know from chronicling the history of comics that people can remember things differently. That being said, everyone I spoke with for this article confirmed the same thing to me: Randy Stradley was a huge fan of Godzilla. A copy of a letter dated December 23, 1986 from Stradley to artist Stephen Bissette confirms this fact in his own words. In the letter Stradley wrote, “We’re all beside ourselves with excitement here. As I mentioned, this has been a long-term project for me, so I feel like a kid getting to fulfill a lifelong dream.”

Godzilla® © Toho Co., Ltd.

The first Dark Horse Godzilla comic was Godzilla, King of the Monsters Special #1 (Aug. 1987). This black-andwhite one-shot brought Godzilla back to American comics, right at the time the character and the other Toho “Kaiju” Monsters were experiencing a resurgence in Japan that began with the 1984 film The Return of Godzilla [a.k.a. Gojira 1984 ], or, as it was known in America, Godzilla 1985 This one-shot, and the comics that would follow, were the brainchild of Dark Horse writer and editor Randy Stradley. “I was always pushing for some Godzillarelated project and was lucky enough to make Godzilla our first licensed project,” says Stradley.

The endgame for Stradley was going to be a series that would lead to a giant monster mash-up, similar to the Godzilla film Destroy All Monsters, where all the Toho Monsters were featured in one movie. Once a deal to publish Godzilla has been struck, though, Stradley realized there was one hitch. “At that time, the US rights for Godzilla were licensed through Hank Saperstein’s UPA Productions in Los Angeles,” recalls Stradley. “And it wasn’t until after we had acquired the license that we realized we had only Godzilla, and that any of the other monsters would cost us the same as what we were paying for Godzilla. That led to the creation of some of the other monsters that were glimpsed in that first special—Soran, Kamerus, etc.”

Art © Stephen Bissette. Godzilla © Toho Co., Ltd.

Petting Not Recommended (left) Some of Stephen Bissette’s character roughs for Godzilla beasts. (right) The Special of 1987 was reprinted—in color—in Dark Horse Classics: Godzilla, King of the Monsters #1 (July 1998).

A compromise was struck, and Stradley and Bissette agreed to co-plot the one-shot together. “By December of 1986, Randy and I had had extensive co-plotting conversations,” says Bissette. “We both had ideas we wanted to bring to the table. Much as I love the Toho Godzilla movies, I have also been reading science fiction since I was five, and I was a big fan of Nigel Kneale, the British television and short-story writer, who was best known for writing the Quatermass films. I wanted to bring an aspect of Kneale’s conceptual work to the Godzilla mythos. My idea was lifting from Quatermass and the Pit. Let’s introduce that there is something buried in the Earth that basically activates the monsters. It’s like a homing beacon, and Randy liked that idea. Both Randy and I were into the idea that the old monsters were here before man, so it

THE PLOT THICKENS Eventually, Stradley convinced Bissette to take on Godzilla. “One of my conditions was, I wanted to write and draw [Godzilla],” says Bissette. “Well, Randy, this was his baby. He was the one who convinced [Dark Horse publisher] Mike Richardson to do a Godzilla comic. I understood Randy wanting to write it, but I just really wanted to write and draw a comic so I could take three or four months and do the best job I could, but I caved on that point.”

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shape and had no desire to work on another tightly scheduled comic. Randy called me out of the blue and he kind of had to talk me into it. He and I hit it off right from the start. We had a lot of common interests, and he was a really sweet guy, but unfortu nately they caught me coming off of a really rough stretch as a freelancer. When I had been on Swamp Thing, I really had been put through the meat grinder. I remember Randy calling more than once, and I wanted to do Godzilla, but I was not interested in do ing a project that had to be penciled in a month. I had been doing that for too long on Swamp Thing.”

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Take one of the most widely read humorists of the 20th Century , Sir Pelham Grenville Wodehouse (October 15, 1888–February 14, 1975), KBE [Knight Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire —ed. ], commonly known as P. G. Wodehouse… the creator of Bertie Wooster and his valet, Jeeves; the loquacious Psmith; Lord Emsworth and the Blandings Castle set; the Oldest Member, with stories about golf; and Mr. Mulliner, with a variety of tales on subjects ranging from bibulous bishops to megalomaniac movie moguls. Mix his humor style with sentient dinosaurs and you have the title and lead story for the short-lived, three-issue series Dinosaur Rex (1987) from Upshot Graphics, an imprint of Fantagraphics.“I’veneverkilled a dinosaur in my life… In fact, I rather like the brutes. As a child, I used to fantasize about befriending one—taking a thorn from its paw or saving it from agonizing death in the tar pits.” With that we are introduced to our “hero” Hempsted Wallop, cousin Flavia Sipp, and dinosaur butler Duubadah, and we begin a journey through English manors, lost fortunes, and an adventurous expedition. P. G. Wodehouse authored more than 90 books, 40 plays, 200 short stories, and other writings. Between 1902 and 1974, P. G. would often have multiple works in progress at the same time and take up to two years to build up a plot and scenario of 30,000 words… and then he’d start writing the book. For many of us, he was the companion to Mark Twain in our reading stack, and often our first introduction to the fanciful life of upper-class Englishmen. Dinosaur Rex author Jan Strnad was no exception. Artwork on Dinosaur Rex was provided by comicbook newcomer Henry (Hank) Mayo. Henry had cut his teeth in the movie field as a storyboard artist and concept artist on many films, starting with Dune (1984). After his short foray into comics, it was back to the film industry for Mayo, with work including Jumanji Dinoton Manor Meet Hempsted Wallopp, Flavia Sipp, and mandinoservant Duubadah, on the cover of Upshot Graphics’ (a Fantagraphics imprint) Dinosaur Rex #1 (1987). Scans accompanying this interview are courtesy of Stephan Friedt, unless otherwise noted.

(1995), Men in Black (1997), Tarzan (1999), The Mummy (1999), The Mummy Returns (2001), and Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey (a TV miniseries documentary). He would return to comics for a one-shot in Creeps Magazine #4 (Winter 2015–2016), then head back to films. With over 30 credits on live-action and animated movies, comics take a backseat to his time and efforts. Jan Strnad also has over 30 credits to his name in films and animation in dozens of cartoon shows like Darkwing Duck , Talespin , and Goof Troop for Disney, and Spider-Man: The Animated Series and X-Men: The Animated Series for Marvel , to just name a few. When it comes to comic stories, Jan started publishing his own fanzine, Anomaly , in 1969. The Grand Comics Database lists over 264 stories by Strnad in US publications alone. Collabo rations with the late Richard Corben like Mutant World , as well as The Miracle Squad , Dalgoda , and Sword of the Atom are just a few examples. I recently shared emails with Mr. Strnad and asked him about the Dinosaur Rex series. – Stephan Friedt

STEPHAN FRIEDT: I’m intrigued by how your appreciation of P. G. Wodehouse and dinosaurs became Dinosaur Rex . What was your impetus to do this story? Do you have a favorite Wodehouse book?

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JAN STRNAD: What kid didn’t grow up loving dino saurs? I had the books, the plastic models, I loved the movies, The Flintstones , the dinosaur on the Sinclair Oil sign. I still own dinosaur models that I’d have out on the shelves if I had more shelves, and I still love dinosaur movies, especially those featuring stopmotion animation. O’Brien and Harryhausen… wow. Danforth. But even second-tier stop-motion dinosaurs put a smile on my face. And P. G. Wodehouse… my God, what a hoot to read his stories. He invented the butler Jeeves, and Bertie Wooster, and a whole pantheon of hilarious characters. There’s never been a funnier writer on the face of the planet than P. G. Wodehouse. Mashing up Wodehouse’s style, as best I could imitate it, with dinosaurs was a collision waiting to happen, like driving in Albania. My favorite Wodehouse book would be the thickest one with the most words in it.

STRNAD: I was working for Fantagraphics at the time. I’d made my escape from Wichita, Kansas, with Man of the House (top left) Author P. G. Wodehouse, in an autographed postcard. (right) Wodehouse’s 1954 novel, The Return of Jeeves. Both, courtesy of Heritage. (bottom) From Strnad and Mayo’s Dinosaur Rex #1, the only issue of the threeissue series published in color.

FRIEDT: I assume the story ended up at Fantagraphics due to your long association with them. How did you get paired with Holden (Hank) Mayo as the artist? Did you work closely on the project?

Armed and Dangerous From Eternity Comics, Tom Mason’s Dinosaurs for Hire vol. 1 #1 (Mar. 1988).

ELVIS HAS LEFT THE BUILDING DFH was a comic book about three (later four) anthro pomorphic dinosaurs that work for the US government as freelance agents with itchy trigger fingers, but it’s actually much more than that.

BACK ISSUE takes a takes a look at these locked-andloaded dinos, the series itself, and its strange connection to the King of Rock and Roll, Elvis Presley.

Who doesn’t love a little (actually, a lot) of humor along with their gun-toting dinosaur stories? Well, that’s just what readers got with Dinosaurs for Hire ( DFH ). The 1980s comic provided readers with action aplenty as well as satire galore. And, of course, dinosaurs with heavy weaponry!

The three main characters are Archie (who resembles a Tyrannosaurus rex), Lorenzo (who appears like a tricer atops, but wears a Hawaiian shirt), and Reese (who looks like a one-eyed stegosaurus and likes heavy weapons). Although they look like dinosaurs, they are actually aliens. They happened to crash-land on Earth and are mistaken for smaller, talking versions of the prehistoric mammoths. So where did the concept for this unusual title just come from? Writer/ creator Tom Mason tells BACK ISSUE , “My friend [comic-book writer] Jan Strnad, myself, and another writer, Mike Valerio, were kicking around ideas one afternoon. We were either at lunch or at Jan’s apartment in Hollywood. We all lived within six blocks of each other. Jan had written comics for DC and Marvel, had most recently created Dalgoda , and now had a publishing company called Mad Dog Graphics.

“Mike pitched this idea about Elvis as a private eye/ cop/detective that made us howl. Jan said he’d publish it, Mike said he’d write it, and I said I’d read it. That’s where we left it. Mike eventually dropped out—he was stuck for an idea and couldn’t get started, and he had a really busy job as a producer at NBC. But Jan still thought it was a good idea, and Mike graciously let me pick up the ball. “No one would ever consider me a writer back then, and I wasn’t interested in becoming a writer, but I did think the idea was fun in a very over-the-top kind of way. Jan said he’d help me, which was a big boost. So I did a first draft of a script, and then I sat with Jan for an afternoon, and he gave me notes and really taught me how to make a story in comics. I’m sure I still have a printed copy of that draft with his original notes on it. Then I rewrote it, and Jan liked it.

Dinosaurs Issue • BACK ISSUE • 57

“Jan reached out to Don Lomax, who did some artwork for it, and that stuff looked great. Don really captured the physicality of late-stage Elvis. There was a cover and at least two or three continuity pages. There was also a promotional article written about the comic book in the Los Angeles Times. But then Jan got worried that the Elvis estate would come after him, and he cancelled the book. I still owned the script, however.” That’s a nice story, Tom, but what does Elvis have to do with dinosaurs that are armed to the teeth? He continues, “So, jump ahead a little bit. Dave Olbrich had pitched Scott Rosenberg on the idea of starting Malibu Comics, and Dave would be the publisher. Scott greenlit the company, and Dave brought me in to help out. We were kicking around ideas for new titles to fill out the schedule, and Dave knew about the Elvis comic book, probably because I wouldn’t shut up about ‘the comic that might’ve been.’ Dave suggested that I pull out that script and change the Elvis character into something cool, like, perhaps, dinosaurs. Ding! “And that was it. I think I had a weekend to get the script revised and find an artist so it could be [ready] at the time when Malibu needed a new book on the schedule. I spent a couple of days reworking the script and changing Elvis into three distinct dinosaur characters.”Whenthe fictional Elvis was changed into three dinosaurs, surely the comic became vastly different, right? Not according to Mason. “A lot of the script stayed the same… The setup, the structure, even some of the jokes were identical. The supporting cast is the same... even a bunch of jokes are the same.” But what about the original Elvis version? “I don’t know what I’ll ever do with the original Elvis script,” Mason reveals. “I still think it’s a good idea, and I still fiddle with it from time-to-time, but Elvis has faded from the pop-culture conversation. It’s a little like doing a Dean Martin, Private Eye comic now. Who’s the audi ence and what problem does that book solve for them?”

DINOSAUR VICE With the script completed, the next step was to secure an artist. That artist was Bryon Carson. According to Mason, “Dave and I knew Bryon because he had done a couple of series for Malibu Comics before Dinosaurs for Hire. He felt like a natural fit, and when I talked to him about the series, he said he’d always wanted to draw dinosaurs. “That was it, that’s all it took. He did the initial character designs that were really terrific.” Artists Scott Bieser, Chuck Wojtkiewicz, Mike Roberts, and Terry Pallot all contributed to the book as well throughout its original nine-issue run. Dinosaurs for Hire #1 (Mar. 1988) not only introduced our dino heroes to readers but also to their handler, Professor Tyrell, and their robotic female companions that keep them… *ahem*… entertained during the downtime. The story had Archie and pals face off against drug smugglers, but it was the humor—with To Here from Eternity (top) From Dinosaurs for Hire vol. 1, covers for: issue #2 (by Carson and Hanna) and 4 (by Scott Bieser and Mike Roberts). (bottom) Splash page from issue #1. TM & © Tom Mason.

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Collector cards are a unique aspect of popular culture.

In 1988, Topps returned to the well with Dinosaurs Attack!, a 55-card set conceived and written by longtime Topps employee Gary Gerani, that was both an homage to Mars Attacks and an effort to reclaim the gory glory of that initial effort. Gerani wrote the story, conceived every image, and designed the unique card backs. Herb Trimpe, assisted by George Evans and John Nemec, penciled the art, which was then painted by Chet Darmstaedter (a.k.a. XNO) and Earl Norem. The set’s 11 stickers were drawn by Paul Mavrides and Harry S. Robins. Gerani got his start at Topps in 1973 as a result of his work with The Monster Times , which debuted in January 1972 [see RetroFan #18 ed.]. Gerani specialized in humorous yet factual monster “biographies” that caught the eye of Len Brown, Topps’ director of new product development. Gerani’s first project was writing gags for the company’s Creature Feature card set, and he would go on to work on hundreds of products over a nearly 50-year career. Gerani collected the Mars Attacks cards as a kid, and desperately wanted to produce a similar science-fiction painted-card product of his own at Topps. “In the 1970s, I proposed something called ‘The Colossals,’ which were gelatinous monstrosities from beyond the stars,” Gerani tells BACK ISSUE . “It was basically the kind of mayhem the Martians were doing in Mars Attacks , but with these giant Lovecraftian things.” Topps declined, telling Gerani that painted science-fiction cards didn’t sell. Brown even pulled out the sales sheets for Mars Attacks to prove his point after Gerani proposed a sequel to the original.

Live! From New York! The Statue of Liberty is under siege on Earl Norem’s cover to Dinosaurs Attack! #1 (1991), from Eclipse Comics.

Among the most prolific manufacturers is Topps, which made its reputation with sports cards and later expanded into other areas of card collectability, including motion pictures, television, and products such as the extremely popular Garbage Pail Kids.

One of Topps’ most controversial products was Mars Attacks , a 55-card set released in 1962 that sold for five cents per pack. The cards depicted a Martian invasion of Earth in gruesome detail, with the Wally Wood–inspired Martians and their various minions engaging in horrific acts of violence and mayhem before being driven back and their home world destroyed. Young people loved Mars Attacks , but their parents and teachers did not. Condemnation was swift and vociferous, and the cards were quickly withdrawn. Today, a complete set in good condition will set you back thousands of dollars. [ Editor’s note: See issue #8 of our sister mag, RetroFan , for a Mars Attacks history.]

Dinosaurs Issue • BACK ISSUE • 63

Thorne and his associates work frantically to reverse the portal and return the rampaging dinosaurs to their own time. When the situation is at its most dire, Thorne sacrifices himself to the Supreme Monstrosity so his wife, Helen, can finally end the horror. The time portal is reversed, and all of the dinosaurs are gruesomely torn asunder as they are flung back in time.

Gerani had a great time conceiving crazy ways for dinosaurs to kill people, including the cards “Nuptial Nightmare” (bride and groom impaled on the horns of a triceratops ), “Crushing a Canine” (dog squished while its young owner looks on), “Rock Concert Carnage” (dinosaur pulling the bloody scalp off a rock singer), and “Coasting to Calamity” (roller-coaster cars flying into the mouth of an enraged Gorgosaurus ).

The vast majority of the cards were painted by Chet Darmstaedter, who imbued them with a wonderfully garish look. “Chet’s earlier portrait work really knocked me out,” Gerani says. “I thought, wow, if we could get these faces, within the context of these incredible dinosaur attacks, that could be a really interesting, jarring thing. So Chet wound up becoming our main painter, and he was wonderful.”

Darmstaedter and Norem painted small, Gerani adds. Most of the paintings were 8x10 inches in size, perhaps a little smaller. Darmstaedter and Norem were each able to produce a painting a week on average, so the entire set took a few months to complete. Gerani assisted by taking photographs of everyone who worked at Topps. Some photos were used as reference by the artists, while others were setups to be used on the backs of certain cards. The back of “Rock Concert Carnage,” for example, is a photo of the “scalped” musicians and a journalist, who comments, “Apparently the plant-eating creatures mistook the hair of these rock performers for the tops of trees they fed upon a hundred million years ago!”

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And You Thought the Martians Were Bad… Those towering, tromping, toothy terrors! A trio of Dinosaurs Attack! trading cards.

TM & © Topps.

A decade later, however, things had changed dramatically. Dinosaurs were suddenly very popular, which gave Gerani an idea. “I sat down with Art Spiegelman and Len Brown and a few others and proposed another Mars Attacks, but with dinosaurs. This was right after the Garbage Pail Kids, which had proved extremely popular, so they were thinking positively about the potential of self-created properties like this.” Gerani brought his artists onboard and got to work on the story. Unlike Mars Attacks , in which the rather flimsy story was secondary to the gruesome art, Gerani crafted a detailed narrative featuring “temporal physicist” Elias Thorne, who has developed a device aboard a massive space station that can reveal moments in Earth’s distant past. His goal is to confirm with certainty what killed the dinosaurs, but the experiment goes horribly wrong when the device opens a portal to prehistoric times that allows giant dinosaurs to enter our world. As the dinosaurs wreak havoc on a global scale, killing and maiming people in all manner of horrific ways, it is revealed that they are being guided by the Supreme Monstrosity, a kind of dinosaur deity that wants dinosaurs to take over the modern world.

The two warring factions utilized the dinosaurs in different ways. The Valorians became the dinosaurs’ friends, while the Rulons would brainwash the dinosaurs. After the Valorians ultimately defeated the Rulons, the Valorians renamed themselves Dino-Riders.

The two fighting forces both came from the future from the planet Valoria and were transported back in time to the age of the dinosaurs on the planet Earth. At first, the Valorians escaped to the past via their spaceship equipped with their time machine device called S.T.E.P., also known as the Space Time Energy Projector. The Rulons followed, as they were already locked onto the Valorians with their tractor beam.

Dinosaurs Issue • BACK ISSUE • 69

He-Man and the Masters of the Universe and G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero, Dino-Riders was yet another animated TV series from the 1980s based upon a children’s toy line, this one launched by Tyco. Fourteen episodes were ultimately produced, and three of these were originally released direct-to-video in 1988 and then aired on television for the first time on October 1, 1988. Animation for the series was by Marvel Productions.

Dino-Riders originally aired as part of a programming block called Marvel Action Universe, which also showed animated versions Robocop and Pride of the X-Men, as well as airing repeat segments from 1981’s Spider-Man and Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends, 1986’s Defenders of the Earth, 1982’s The Incredible Hulk, 1983’s Dungeons & Dragons, 1978’s The New Fantastic Four, and 1979’s Spider-Woman . Basically, they re-aired every Marvel Comics animated series produced up to that point except for their cartoons produced during the 1960s.

Also like G.I. Joe and He-Man, there was an extensive backstory tied to the toy line concerning a battle between the Valorians and the Rulon Alliance set during prehistoric times. The Valorians were superhuman beings, while the Rulons consisted of various types of animals including ants, crocodiles, snakes, and sharks.

For those looking to this series for historical accuracy, please look elsewhere. Various species of dinosaurs co-exist during the same time periods on this show and its comic book despite scientific evidence that many existed at distinctly different times and eras. As far as the toys go, there were four series of Dino-Riders toys produced. Series One debuted in 1988, Series Two in 1989, and Series Three and “The Ice Age” (Series Four) both premiered in 1990, after which the toy line ran its course. The toys appeared in various sizes and some had a motorized walking action. The toys were so highly detailed in their body shapes and coloring that the Smithsonian Institution actually contacted Tyco to make similar dinosaurs for a dinosaur exhibit they were doing. All Aboard! Marvel’s Dino-Riders #1 (Feb. 1989) brought the new toy and animation concept to the comic-book spin rack. Cover art by Don Perlin and Danny Bulanadi. & © Mattel, Inc. by Mark Arnold TM

. PlaythingsPrehistoric (top) producedPaulWriter-artistKirchnerthesetwo Dino-Riders comic books that Dino-Riders(bottom)selectinsertedwereintoproduct.SamplesfromTyco’stoyline.TM&©Mattel,Inc. 70 • BACK ISSUE • Dinosaurs Issue don glut Donglutsdinosaurs.com.

TV shows such as Shazam!, Land of the Lost, Transformers, Challenge of the GoBots, Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends, DuckTales, Tarzan, G.I. Joe, X-Men, and He-Man For comic books, Glut wrote scripts for Chilling Adventures of Sorcery and Madhouse for Archie; House of Mystery and House of Secrets for DC; Ghost Manor, Ghostly Haunts, and Ghostly Tales for Charlton; The Occult Files of Dr. Spektor , Dagar the Invincible , and Tragg and the Sky Gods for Gold Key; Captain America , The Invaders , Kull the Destroyer , Star Wars , and What If? for Marvel; Creepy , Eerie , and Vampirella for Warren; and is currently working for Warrant publications’ Shudder (formerly The Creeps ) and Vampiress Carmilla

Artist and cartoonist William Stout was credited for the elaborate dinosaur designs for the show, and Donald F. Glut was one of the writers for the animated series. Stout, interviewed elsewhere in this issue, has a lengthy pedigree in drawing and designing dinosaurs among his other various projects over theGlutyears.isbest known for writing the novelization of The Empire Strikes Back. He is also a motion picture film director and screenwriter. He made over 40 amateur films growing up and that caught the attention of Forrest J Ackerman and his Famous Monsters of Filmland magazine. This early fame led to Glut becoming a screenwriter for a number of children’s

Dinosaurs

BACK ISSUE #140 DINOSAUR COMICS! Interviews with Xenozoic®’s MARK SCHULTZ and dino-artist extraordinaire WILLIAM STOUT! Plus: Godzilla at Dark Horse, Sauron villain history, Dinosaurs Attack!, Dinosaurs for Hire, Dinosaur Rex, Dino Riders, Lord Dinosaur, and Jurassic Park! Featuring ARTHUR ADAMS, BISSETTE, CLAREMONT, COCKRUM, GERANI, STRADLEY, ROY THOMAS, and more. SCHULTZ cover. (84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $10.95 (Digital Edition) https://twomorrows.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=98_54&products_id=1673$4.99

“It was really nice of them to put all that merchandising and a movie out to promote our comic.” Said no one with a straight face. Ever. After 20 years at Marvel, Jim Salicrup became the editor-in-chief of the Topps Comics line. In 1992, in David Anthony Kraft’s Comics Interview #115, Salicrup discussed with Charles S. Novinskie plans for the line, including the Dracula movie adaptation with Roy Thomas and Mike Mignola, Mars Attacks, and tying in the comics with Topps’ specialty, trading cards. Jurassic Park was to be their first newsstand comic, and he hinted at direct-sales versions, sequels, and spinoffs. About the comics:

SALICRUP: …We haven’t announced who will be doing the book yet, but for the people that follow comics, they’ll know that there are a few creators that have a big love for dinosaurs.

CHARLES: So you’re saying Walt Simonson will be doing JURASSIC PARK?

SALICRUP: I’m not saying anything, you said that [ Walter Simonson not only scripted Topps’ book, he did art for four trading cards, a wraparound cover, and the introduction for the first collected edition. But he wasn’t the only name from Salicrup’s contact list. Gil Kane, George Pérez, Tom Smith, John Workman, and Dave Cockrum all worked on the series itself, and the cards and collected editions added creators like Arthur Adams, Frank Brunner, Howard Chaykin, Michael Golden, Jeffrey Catherine Jones, Joe Quesada, Mark Schultz, Kent Williams, and Al TheWilliamson.amountof merchandise for the movie led Simonson to write, “…I did wonder briefly if even I would be sick of dinosaurs…”

(Spoiler: He wasn’t.) But this project has a second purpose, not just to provide another thing to sell: it keeps these artists’ work attached to a movie franchise, still active after almost 30 years, waiting for the next generation of fans to find. Peek-A-Boo! Covers for Topps Comics’ Jurassic Park #1 (June 1993): (left) the main edition with cover art by Gil Kane and George Pérez; and (right) a AmblinCityJurassicCockrumDavevariant.Park©UniversalStudiosLLCandEntertainment,Inc. Issue • BACK ISSUE • 73 by Bill DeSimone TM IF YOU ENJOYED THIS PREVIEW, CLICK THE LINK TO ORDER THIS ISSUE IN PRINT OR DIGITAL FORMAT!