Dinosaurs

This is a sample of the art for "Raptor Island". It was all in ink and done in a realistic style.


That's the cover for the first and only issue for this title. As you can see it was very cartoony and colorful.


As a kid I loved dinosaurs. Like most any kid I learned names like tyrannosaurus rex, stegosaurus and here's a good one: quetzalcoatlus. I like the way that one rolls off the tongue. Dinosaurs still fascinate me and four years ago or maybe it was five. Time flies when your raising a family. But around four or five years ago I was assigned to illustrate two of fictional stories about dinosaurs. One made it into print and the other did not. The first, which did make it into print, was a comic book for elementary school-age kids titled "Uno and the Raptors" written by a fellow popularly known as Dinosaur George. Why can't artists have names like that! Well, the comic tells the story of an anthropomorphic quartet of Raptors (yes, raptors) who are searching for their parents. I really enjoyed drawing these characters and learning all the particulars of drawing a raptor. If I recall correctly I think they were velociraptors. The story was so fun and goofy and I was looking forward to drawing issue two.

Almost simultaneously being drawn were a series of ink drawings for the second project, a time travel story titled "Raptor Island", written by and featuring Dinosaur George. It was an exciting adventure story that followed George around as he explored the the prehistoric world of dinos. He had many hair raising encounters but thanks to his paleontologist training and reflexes plus some super -duper high tech weapons he fights off the prehistoric terrors and lives to see another day filled with more cliff hanger encounters with the scaly beasts. Both "Uno and the Raptors" and "Raptor Island" were planned as a series of books but it was not meant to be. For various reasons the projects came to an abrupt halt and the party was over Rover! Oh well. It was fun while it lasted. But my artist senses are tingling. Who knows...maybe I'll do more dino art some day soon.