Dinostack
Do Dinosaurs Still Rule the World?
Beloved Readers,
I love dinos. Ever since reading Calvin and Hobbes as a kid, I knew dinosaurs had an important, even essential, place in comics. Ever since being a kid, I also knew dinosaurs had an important, even essential, place in the human experience - alongside fire trucks and space.
I had no idea that knowing how to get good sleep is actually monumentally more important to most adults than knowing random things about dinosaurs. But, if you’re a cartoonist, you get to keep dinosaurs as an important part of your adult, professional life. Which, besides the cash and the fame, is a pretty good reason to pivot right now and turn to a life of cartooning.
-Kendra
Sofia Warren
Pulled this out of the archives from Fall 2020, and I have to say, this is among the lighter fare from that particular epoch of toons.
Ellis Rosen
AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!
Oh, hi there. I’m just currently running away from that giant T-Rex, but I guess now’s as good a time as any to talk about one my favorite cartoon tropes: Dinosaurs!
OH GOD IT’S CLOSING IN, IT’S GOING TO GET ME
As I was saying, dinosaurs are just so much fun. They're fun to draw, they're fun to think about, they're fun to use as a conduit for cartoons. I don’t know what it is about them that's so wonderful. Maybe it's that they have achieved a sort of mystical status, being creatures that predate humans? Maybe it's their size or teeth? Whatever it is, you fall in love with them early in life and that love never goes extinct.
OH GOD NO IT HAS ME! IT HAS ME IN ITS JAWS!
I have many dinosaur toons. A lot of them are about their inescapable extinction, visualized by an easy-to-draw asteroid about to hit the earth. This of course is the perfect metaphor for humanity’s fears of their own extinction event. It’s the cartoon of choice for fear of death on the macro level, unlike the Grim Reaper cartoon, which is more personal. Every election, every climate report, every time it seems our society is on the brink of collapse, the dinosaur-and-asteroid toon becomes relevant. That’s why you see it all the time!
OH GOD IT HURTS SO MUCH
Anyway, that's just my thoughts about dinosaurs. They make for great toons. Later!
Johnny DiNapoli
When I was a kid, my favorite dinosaur was the triceratops. Now, as an adult, wisened by decades of life, love, and despair, my favorite dinosaur is still the triceratops. Because the triceratops IS the best dinosaur.
Kendra Allenby
The triceratops IS the best dinosaur. Especially for this recipe. Can’t recommend it enough.
Navied Mahdavian
When I was in the 4th grade, I was president of a dinosaur club. Unfortunately, the club met in my closet which meant, due to low attendance of weekly meetings, I was also vice-president, treasurer, and secretary.
The next meeting will be this Tuesday at 7 pm.
Also, does anyone have a walk-in closet?
ToonStack NewsStack:
Join Kendra Allenby’s new online drawing class in January: the Lunchtime Sketchbook Hour
Amy Kurzweil teaches cartoon classes on Patreon! Sign up now to get the recording of every past class!
Be sure to check out Shelby Lorman’s newsletter, Please Clap!
The same goes for Sofia Warren’s advice newsletter, You’re Doing Great!
See more cartoons from Ellis Rosen’s weekly Junk Drawer!
For me it was The World We Live In that sold me on dinosaurs. It was a big book from Time/Life that originally came out early in the Fifties. There was a lot of territory to cover in what began as a magazine series, which then a book, heavy on illustrations (like Life). I immediately drawn to the fold-out pages full of dramatic dinosaurs, with Tyrannosaurus Rex King of them all, lording over the smaller animals.
Since I come from a family of pack rats, I still have that book, having inherited my parents copy. But I also have a set of three books, boxed in individual presentation copies, something I bought at a yard sale. I can’t even remember the names of the other two books and I only glanced through them before they were absorbed into the disorder of my tsundoku, as the Japanese call piles of unread books.
The other thing that comes to mind is the California public school system, where my education began. All of the second grade students used to study dinosaurs, maybe they still do. It comes at an important point in childhood development, where kids are absorbing all sorts of information and just getting deeper into books. At any rate those dinosaurs left a lasting impression on me.