SUBSCRIBE
SUBSCRIBE
SLJ Blog Network +
  • 100 Scope Notes
  • A Fuse #8 Production
  • Good Comics for Kids
  • Heavy Medal: A Mock Newbery Blog
  • Teen Librarian Toolbox
  • The Classroom Bookshelf
  • The Yarn
  • Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • About/Contact
  • Previews
  • Reviews
  • Manga
  • All Ages
  • Young Adult
  • Interviews
  • News

September 18, 2017 by J. Caleb Mozzocco

Review: ‘Dinosaur Empire’

September 18, 2017 by J. Caleb Mozzocco   Leave a Comment

Dinosaur Empire LargeDinosaur Empire
Writer/artist: Abby Howard
Amulet Books; $15.99

What are two of the most awesome things to ever exist in the entire history of the planet Earth? If you answered dinosaurs and comic books, then you and I are on the same wavelength, dear reader, and I therefore feel quite confident in recommending Dinosaur Empire to you. It is, after all, a comic book about dinosaurs.

Dinosaur EmpireUnlike most dinosaur comics, it isn’t merely a comic book in which there are dinosaurs, but dinosaurs are the subject matter. It’s a sort of primer on dinosaurs and the various creatures they shared the earth with throughout the Mesozoic Era, when they were at their peak, couched within a narrative that gives the book the shape and momentum of a story, even though the drama and conflict is minimal to the point that it’s barely even there. For all intents and purposes, the narrative is merely an excuse for all of the information about dinosaurs, although it is an engaging and amusing excuse.

SCROLL TO KEEP READING THIS POST

ADVERTISEMENT

ADVERTISEMENT

When the book opens, Ronnie is walking home from Citytown Elementary School, clutching her dinosaur quiz, on which she scored a 0%. She crumbles it up and tosses it in a recycling bin, where it is un-crumpled and loudly commented upon by Ms. Lernin, who is sitting in that recycling bin. Why, you may ask, as Ronnie did? (“That’s not important. What is important is your education!”)

That recycling bin is also a time portal that allows Ms. Lernin (get it? Lernin?) to take Ronnie on a tour through the Mesozoic Era, where they are safe from any and all harm, including falls from great distances and drowning, thanks to what Ms. Lernin cheerfully, dismissively refers to with a shrug as “Science Magic.”

That then is the narrative structure that cartoonist Abby Howard has chosen. From there, the pair spends a little time in a field with a white board and school desk where Ms. Lernin can explain concepts like evolution (and Howard can illustrate them), and then they plunge to various eras to visit the world as it existed then. At each stop, Ronnie and Lernin check in with the same types of organisms in the same order: Plants, dinosaurs, crocodilomorphs and their ancestors, flying reptiles, marine reptiles, mammals and their ancestors, and insects.

During the tour, themes and running gags develop, like Ronnie’s impatience to see a Tyrannosaurus Rex, her affection for the tinier, cuter crocodilomorphs, and her revulsion at insects. Howard is able to pack an incredible amount of information into each page, thanks in large part to using a lot of small panels and drawing crowds of animals onto each splash page.

The former guarantees that the book flows at a fast, readable pace; there might be a lot of dialogue on a single page, for example, but because it’s broken up into a bunch of panels, the book still moves like a comic book, rather than getting bogged down. The latter means it only takes two pages to list, illustrate, and discuss, say, a dozen prominent species of the Late Cretaceous ocean environment.

SCROLL TO KEEP READING THIS POST

ADVERTISEMENT

ADVERTISEMENT

Miss Lerner’s unflappable, sometimes semi-psychotic enthusiasm for her subject matter and Ronnie’s shock and delight to learn just how dang different dinosaurs are (or, er, were) than TV and movies taught her to believe make them both ideal companions for the trip, their own emotional reactions telegraphing how weird and wonderful the dinosaurs and their neighbors really were.

And Howard’s science seems to be as up-to-date as possible, as she includes lots of “newer” species, as well as the newest thinking on dinosaurs, including thinking that is rarely if ever reflected in pop culture depictions of the creatures, like the amount of fuzz many of them likely sported. (“When I get home I’m gonna tell everybody that dinosaurs are actually very soft and adorable,” Abby declares after seeing what a “real” Velociraptor looks like.)

Visually, Howard’s storytelling is perfect, getting an encycopedia’s worth of information into a fictive format that reads entertainingly enough that even a jaded, cynical adult like me, suspicious of any “edu-tainment” product, can easily get lost in it. Her many animals are just detailed enough that they can share panels and pages with the loose, cartoony human characters and still manage to seem to belong to the same universe as them, aesthetically. Those human characters have the big round eyes and expressive, squishy, squiggly faces that will look comfortingly familiar to readers of many popular web comics or post-Lumberjanes BOOM! Studios comics, or to viewers of many popular cartoon shows.

As exciting a read as Dinosaur Empire is, here’s one more exciting aspect. It’s apparently the first part of a series collectively called “Earth Before Us,” which means there’s going to be a volume two sooner or later, and I’d bet pretty good money that’s going to be sub-titled “Journey Through The Cenozoic Era” and feature the strange and fantastic prehistoric mammals from the millennia around the ice ages.

Filed under: Graphic Novels, Reviews

SHARE:

Read or Leave Comments
Abby HowardAmulet BooksDinosaur EmpireEarth Before Us

About J. Caleb Mozzocco

J. Caleb Mozzocco is a way-too-busy freelance writer who has written about comics for online and print venues for a rather long time now. He currently contributes to Comic Book Resources' Robot 6 blog and ComicsAlliance, and maintains his own daily-ish blog at EveryDayIsLikeWednesday.blogspot.com. He lives in northeast Ohio, where he works as a circulation clerk at a public library by day.

ADVERTISEMENT

Related Posts

January 2023

Young Agatha Christie | Review

by J. Caleb Mozzocco

January 2023

Andy Warner's Oddball Histories: Pests and Pets | Review

by J. Caleb Mozzocco

January 2023

My Sister, the Cat, vol. 1 | Review

by J. Caleb Mozzocco

January 2023

History Comics: Rosa Parks & Claudette Colvin | Review

by J. Caleb Mozzocco

December 2022

Heartstopper Volumes 1 and 2 | Review

by J. Caleb Mozzocco

ADVERTISEMENT

SLJ Blog Network

100 Scope Notes

Your 2023 Caldecott Comment Card

by Travis Jonker

A Fuse #8 Production

Poems As Picture Books: Zetta Elliott Discusses the Upcoming A Song for Juneteenth

by Betsy Bird

Good Comics for Kids

2023 ALA Youth Media Awards

by Esther Keller

Heavy Medal

FREEWATER wins the Newbery Medal, live reactions from Heavy Medal bloggers

by Emily Mroczek-Bayci

Teen Librarian Toolbox

A Conversation with Kendare Blake about BUFFY, THE NEXT GENERATION

by Amanda MacGregor

The Classroom Bookshelf

The Classroom Bookshelf is Moving

by Erika Thulin Dawes

The Yarn

A Book 25 Years in the Making: Marla Frazee Visits The Yarn

by Travis Jonker

ADVERTISEMENT

Related Articles on SLJ

PEN America and Trust Project Release Newsroom Transparency Tracker | News Bites

10 Standout Graphic Novels by AAPI Creators

Best Graphic Novels 2019 | SLJ Best Books

Reviews and Coverage of the 2021 Eisner Award Nominations

Graphic Novel Series Updates for Both Die-Hard Fans and New Readers

Commenting for all posts is disabled after 30 days.

ADVERTISEMENT

Archives

Follow This Blog

Enter your email address below to receive notifications of new blog posts by email.

This coverage is free for all visitors. Your support makes this possible.

This coverage is free for all visitors. Your support makes this possible.

Primary Sidebar

  • News & Features
  • Reviews+
  • Technology
  • School Libraries
  • Public Libraries
  • Age Level
  • Ideas
  • Blogs
  • Classroom
  • Diversity
  • People
  • Job Zone

Reviews+

  • Book Lists
  • Best Books
  • Media
  • Reference
  • Series Made Simple
  • Tech
  • Review for SLJ
  • Review Submissions

SLJ Blog Network

  • 100 Scope Notes
  • A Fuse #8 Production
  • Good Comics for Kids
  • Heavy Medal
  • Neverending Search
  • Teen Librarian Toolbox
  • The Classroom Bookshelf
  • The Yarn

Resources

  • 2022 Youth Media Awards
  • The Newbery at 100: SLJ Celebrates the 100th Anniversary of the Award
  • Special Report | School Libraries 2021
  • Summer Reading 2021
  • Series Made Simple Spring 2021
  • SLJ Diverse Books Survey
  • Summer Programming Survey
  • Research
  • White Papers / Case Studies
  • School Librarian of the Year
  • Mathical Book Prize Collection Development Awards
  • Librarian/Teacher Collaboration Award

Events & PD

  • In-Person Events
  • Online Courses
  • Virtual Events
  • Webcasts
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Advertise
  • Subscribe
  • Media Inquiries
  • Newsletter Sign Up
  • Content Submissions
  • Data Privacy
  • Terms of Use
  • Terms of Sale
  • FAQs
  • Diversity Policy
  • Careers at MSI


COPYRIGHT © 2023


COPYRIGHT © 2023