Comics
Review: ‘Dinosaurs Attack’ #1
Watching the History Channel or Animal Planet is a relatively safe way to watch animals from any era. “Dinosaurs Attack” #1 realized this years before these channels existed and gave readers a terrifying sci-fi / disaster / animals attack story. This is a story that was ahead of its time and now we get to see it again.
WRITTEN BY: Gary Gerani
ART BY: Herb Trimpe, Earl Norem
PUBLISHER: IDW Publishing
PRICE: $3.99
RELEASE: July 17th, 2013
I should preface that this is a reprint collection of a series from the mid-90s that also had a trading card aspect to its storytelling. Got it? Good. Knowing that will help with some of the drastic transitions. Super-Genius Professor Elias Thorne has developed a portal to view time like a live newscast. Why? Honestly, it’s not important in the setup of this story. Writer Gary Gerani takes a good long time setting up the world this science exists in.
As this new era of science/history/exploration is about to begin, it’s abruptly thrown a curve. Reptilian eyes look back from the Devonian Era, 300 million years into the past. I get the impression that wasn’t supposed to happen. Artist Herb Trimpe handles the main story with some innovative (for the time) panels and character’s looks. Reading older comics always shows me how far this art of storytelling has evolved: it’s not as clunky or wordy as it used to be. The later half of the story’s art is more gory and horrific as the results of Thorne’s experiments manifest on Earth. Now it’s disaster-horror movie time thanks to Earl Norem’s painted works.
I’m curious to see how or if the art teams are going to balance the story. I’m much more interested in seeing the dinosaurs destroy the world than anything else offered in this first issue. Here’s hoping they smash stuff really well next month.
3/5 Skulls
Reviewed by – Your Friendly Neighborhood Brady
IDW Dark and Paramount recently joined forces to launch limited comic book tales set in the worlds of Smile and A Quiet Place, and we’ve learned today that they’ll continue hanging around in those franchise universes with two brand new limited series tales.
Entertainment Weekly has exclusively revealed this afternoon that IDW Dark’s Any Given Smile debuts in September, while A Quiet Place: Rising Tides arrives in November.
First up, from writer Stephanie Williams and artist Pablo Collar, Any Given Smile puts a football-themed twist on Parker Finn’s successful Smile movie franchise.
The five-part limited series is “set in January 1995, during the American Arena League football championship game in St. Augustine, Florida. The rising superstar of the Sharks, backup quarterback Dupree, is feeling the pressure from his teammates, the fans, and also the city’s gambling underworld, to whom he owes a considerable debt. Meanwhile, a sports journalist investigates a string of suicides that may be connected to the big game. At the very least, they are connected to a sinister entity that preys on the minds of its victims.”
From writer Declan Shalvey and artist Luke Sparrow, A Quiet Place: Rising Tides will also be a five-issue limited story. The comic book tale “brings the creatures to the Florida Keys, where a father-daughter duo attempt to survive on water in a houseboat.”
EW further details, “This tense family reunion coincides with the arrival of the vicious creatures that hunt through sound. Grace and her dad find safety on the open ocean, but she’ll have to make landfall sooner or later; the father’s oxygen tank and their supplies are running low, while a hurricane swiftly approaches.”
Learn more about both comic books over on Entertainment Weekly.
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