Comments on: Can IDW Redeem Jurassic Park?

By: Brett Booth

Brett Booth — Wed, 08 Sep 2010 15:07:45 +0000

Thanks Brian!

I did try to get on a JP a few weeks ago. I was told they were all booked up.

Best,

Brett

By: Kaje

Kaje — Wed, 08 Sep 2010 01:35:35 +0000

I was less bothered by the appearance of Wu (after all, he never died in the movie and that’s the canon the comic is using) and more bothered by the fact that the Dr. Bakker look-a-like is back. After dying quite messily in the second movie. That’s almost unbelievably lazy. Ditto the artwork.

By: jurassiraptor

jurassiraptor — Wed, 08 Sep 2010 01:12:12 +0000

I dont think JP3 can be considered a flop: with a budget of $93 million it earned over $360 million, making it among the highest grossing films of 2001 (and received generally favorable reviews). Far from Jurassic Park 1 numbers, but still nothing to sneeze at.

As for the comics, I agree the artwork leaves much to be desired. Would it have been so hard for the artists to do some research and capture the “Jurasic Park style”? The best part of the old Topps series is that they took great care to ensure the characters and dinosaurs matched the distictive look of their movie counterparts that we are familiar with.

I am enjoying the covers of the new comics, however. (There are different cover variants for each issue, for those interested.) Most of them are quite good. An especially colorful issue #5 cover even features fully feathered raptors, attacking what appears to be an acrocanthosaurus along with a marine reptile in a melee of prehistoric terror. Good times.

By: Quick Links | A Blog Around The Clock

Quick Links | A Blog Around The Clock — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 23:57:41 +0000

[...] Can IDW Redeem Jurassic Park? [...]

By: Glendon Mellow

Glendon Mellow — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 18:04:55 +0000

Thanks for the review, I had no idea there was a JP comic. I’ll have to wander over to the Silver Snail comic shop and check it out.

By: Michael Stearns

Michael Stearns — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 16:43:46 +0000

@ #4, probably someone unconnected to whoever did the interior was hired for the cover illustration, and typically only the best get to do covers. The comics whose covers and interiors are done by the same person are pretty few and far between.

By: David Tana

David Tana — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 16:23:29 +0000

I haven’t seen the actual books, but I do have to give the artists credit on one point: they put bristles on their Triceratops. At least on the cover of the issue pictured here. That being said, I don’t know why you’d do the right thing (I say “right” assuming that the paper on filamentous integumentary structures in Triceratops will be hitting the shelves soon) in one place, and the wrong thing in so many others.

By: Lee

Lee — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 16:02:20 +0000

Totally agree with David on this one. The art of this series is unforgivable. I bought the first issue, but won’t be buying any others.
They should have talked to William Stout or Ricardo Delgado.

By: David

David — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 15:40:52 +0000

Also, the fact that Dr. Wu was eaten alive by raptors in the original JP novel might send some purists over the edge…

By: David

David — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 15:33:10 +0000

Yeah, I’ve been completely unimpressed by the artwork.

Here’s a tip for anyone thinking about publishing a dinosaur comic:

The artwork is all that matters. I don’t care what convoluted devices you use for your plots or how lacking in nuance your characters are. Just make the dinosaurs look awesome. That’s it!