dinosaur – Author Carlo Carrasco

A Look Back at Jurassic Park #4 (1993)

July 12, 2022July 10, 2022carlocarrasco

Disclaimer: This is my original work with details sourced from reading the comic book and doing personal research. Anyone who wants to use this article, in part or in whole, needs to secure first my permission and agree to cite me as the source and author. Let it be known that any unauthorized use of this article will constrain the author to pursue the remedies under R.A. No. 8293, the Revised Penal Code, and/or all applicable legal actions under the laws of the Philippines.

Welcome back superhero enthusiasts, 1990s culture enthusiasts and comic book collectors! Today we go back to the year 1993 for another look at Steven Spielberg’s Jurassic Park in the form of licensed comic books published by Topps Comics.

In my previous retro review, I found issue #3 to be much more entertaining than the two previous issues mainly due to the thrills and suspense that were the result of the comic book creators’ interpretation the encounter between Dr. Alan Grant’s group and the Tyrannosaurus Rex at its paddock (with the fence no longer electrified due to Dennis Nedry’s dirty act). While the said comic book still had lots of exposition and a wordy presentation, the pace of the storytelling notably moved a bit faster overall.

With those details laid down, here is a look back at Jurassic Park #4, published in 1993 by Topps Comics with a story written by Walter Simonson and drawn by Gil Kane with ink work done by the late George Perez. This comic book was the fourth of a 4-issue mini-series based on the Spielberg-directed movie.

Early story

The story begins at the ruined side of the Tyrannosaurus Rex paddock. Lawyer Gennaro is dead while Dr. Ian Malcolm got serious injured as a result of being chased by the T. Rex. The same T. Rex is right in front of Dr. Alan Grant and teenager Lex with the flipped, ruined vehicle near them (with Tim still inside). Knowing that the huge dinosaur’s vision is based on movement, Grant tells Lex to stand perfectly still no matter what happens. As they try to make their slow move to safety, the T. Rex suddenly moves the ruined vehicle against them by the wall of the still deactivated fence. While holding Lex with his left arm, Grant grabs a loose cable to break their fall as the vehicle got pushed over the edge. Several feet down, Grant and Lex land safely as the vehicle hits the ground.

Over at Jurassic Park’s control center, John Hammond is outraged over what happened as Nedry left them (secretly carrying the stolen dinosaur embryos) and their safety systems are all down. Hammond dispatches Robert Muldoon to go out and rescue his grandchildren, and Ellie Sattler volunteers to help out. Struggling with the computer, Ray Arnold tells his boss that there is no way to get Jurassic Park back on-line without Nedry.

Elsewhere within the park, Dennis Nedry struggles to find his way to his destination. Suddenly, his vehicle slips and loses traction…

Quality

*This is how the memorable scene of the Raptors and Hammond’s grandchildren was adapted.*

Let me start by stating what is very obvious here….this comic book is easily the most enjoyable and fastest-moving adaptation of the key events of Spielberg’s movie (from the T. Rex encounter until the end of the film) albeit with some signs of rush and creative short-cuts. It is also here where the exposition has been lessened and the creators focused more on adapting the cinematic dialogue and the remaining scenes along with the spectacle. The narrative is clearly rushed and it is amusingly amazing to see how the creators managed to cover the remaining events of the movie (note: Dennis Nedry’s death, Robert Muldoon’s tragic encounter with the raptors, Ellie Sattler’s struggle to reactivate the park’s power system, and the varied encounters with the raptors were included) to fit within the pages of this very comic book. In my reading experience, it still worked.

While it is flawed in its execution, this comic book managed to click as a pay-off to the build-up that happened in the first three issues. There is a decent amount of action and sudden moments of incidents here and there, and still the creators managed to tell their own interpretation of the remaining events from the movie.

*This is how Dennis Nedry’s death and the loss of the canister (containing the stolen dinosaur embros) were portrayed in this comic book.*

Gil Kane’s art on the dinosaurs are somewhat good but in what seems to be a sign of behind-the-scenes production rush, his visual take on the T. Rex’s unexpected heroic moment and struggle with the two raptors was drawn with a lack of precision on size and scale. Such literary translation only made me want to return to the movie itself and replay the said scene (which was climactic cinematically speaking). Surprisingly, Gil Kane managed to visualize a few but noticeable bloody moments particularly with the respective deaths of Dennis Nedry (to the Dilophosaurus) and Robert Muldoon (to the raptors).

As the focus here has always been the adaptation of cinematic events, it is unsurprising that there really was no room for character development. Dr. Grant is the only one who showed any real change from being rough on children (as seen in issue #1) to becoming more caring on them (specifically John Hammond’s grandchildren) due to incidents. All the development on Dr. Grant took four issues both literally and visually. John Hammond could have been developed a lot more if only the dialogue was not too limited with the focus on adapting movie dialogue. Speaking of adaptation, the cinematic error about the instant drop (from the perimeter fence of the T. Rex paddock opposite the road) also made it in this comic book.

Conclusion

*This is a creative and clever way the comic book creators combined elements of two separate film scenes into a single sequence with readers in mind.*

Even though it had a rushed narrative, Jurassic Park #4 (1993) ironically managed to be the most enjoyable issue of the 4-issue mini-series adapting the blockbuster movie. It has the most amount of spectacle, more dinosaur visuals for dinosaur enthusiasts to enjoy, and the pace moved much faster. Compared to each of the previous issues, this one was a breeze to read and there were bouts of fun. As a companion piece to the blockbuster movie, the 4-part Jurassic Park movie adaptation mini-series served its purpose to translate its events within the limits of illustrated literature. While it does not obviously capture the magical moments nor the sentimental elements of Spielberg’s work, this mini-series managed to complete its own interpretation ultimately creating stuff that could satisfy the brainy comic book reader, the reader who loves thrills and the reader who is simply obsessed with dinosaurs. It is somewhat symbolic that this final issue had the most fun stuff.

Overall, Jurassic Park #4 (1993) is recommended.

+++++

Thank you for reading. If you find this article engaging, please click the like button below and also please consider sharing this article to others. If you are looking for a copywriter to create content for your special project or business, check out my services and my portfolio. Feel free to contact me with a private message. Also please feel free to visit my Facebook page Author Carlo Carrasco and follow me on Twitter at @HavenorFantasy as well as on Tumblr at https://carlocarrasco.tumblr.com/ and on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/authorcarlocarrasco/

A Look Back at Jurassic Park #3 (1993)

July 5, 2022July 2, 2022carlocarrasco

In my previous retro review, the comic book still had the creative issues of heavy exposition and being very word-heavy to read as the creators focused on adapting the movie’s story closely (from the iconic brachiosaurus scene up to the encounter with the triceratops). Compared to issue #1, the comic book’s narrative improved temporarily as it closely adapted the lunch-and-talk scene between John Hammond, Donald Gennaro, Ellie Sattler, Alan Grant and Ian Malcolm whose dialogue was easily the most engaging in both film and in literary format.

With those details laid down, here is a look back at Jurassic Park #3, published in 1993 by Topps Comics with a story written by Walter Simonson and drawn by Gil Kane with ink work done by the late George Perez. This comic book was the third of a 4-issue mini-series based on the Spielberg-directed movie.

Early story

The story begins with the group of Alan Grant, Ellie Sattler, Ian Malcolm, Donald Gennaro and the two kids Lex and Tim who are shocked to see a living triceratops. The large dinosaur, however, falls down on its side causing Ellie Sattler to go near and examine it. Gerry Harding, a Jurassic Park employee, suddenly appears and explains that the triceratops was tranquilized by Robert Muldoon and has been sick. After examining the dinosaur further, Ellie wants to have its droppings examined.

Back in the control room of Jurassic Park, Ray Arnold explains to John Hammond that the center of an approaching story has not changed course and states that he likes to cut the current tour and resume the next day. He emphasized to Hammond that the storm is risky to those on tour.

Just across the room, Dennis Nedry (who secretly cut a deal with a business rival of inGen’s and has been frustrated working for John Hammond) carefully communicates with the captain of the ship that will depart once all the workers have boarded. Knowing he is running out of time to steal the dinosaur embryos and send it to Biosyn, he starts his move with Jurassic Park’s main system…

Quality

*While the sequences of the T.Rex going after Ian Malcolm are not the same as those in the movie, the dinosaur itself really looks creepy.*

When it comes to entertainment value related to spectacle, I can say clearly that this issue really marked the beginning of fun in this 4-issue mini-series. This is because this comic book includes the appearance of the Tyrannosaurus Rex (T.Rex) which arrived just when Alan Grant, Ian Malcolm, Lex, Tim and Donald Gennaro are helpless sitting inside vehicles that stopped by the said dinosaur’s paddock with the fences no longer electrified.

Of course, the minutes-long T. Rex scene in the movie remains memorable as it had a well-blended mix of suspense, action and some horror directed by Steven Spielberg. This comic book’s creators did their best to replicate the experience in illustrated literature format. While it’s not surprising that the essence of the T.Rex paddock scenes in movie were not perfectly captured, this comic book’s adaptation still managed to be entertaining to read showing suspense, horror and some thrills plus Gil Kane managed to even make the infamous dinosaur look frightening. Very clearly, Kane went all-out in presenting the T.Rex as the main dinosaur not only in this comic book but for the whole mini-series.

While the T.Rex paddock scene is the highlight of this comic book, the scene with the triceratops proved to be another exposition-heavy presentation laced with pretentious science and technical explanations dealing with plants, animal health and the like. Meanwhile, the scenes about John Hammond, Robert Muldoon and Ray Arnold struggling with the failures of the park systems while Nedry betrays them secretly were pretty intense to read.

Conclusion

*Lots of exposition and creative explanations in this scene about the sick triceratops.*

So far, I find Jurassic Park #3 (1993) to be the most entertaining issue so far thanks to the way the comic book creators adapted the Tyrannosaurus Rex paddock scene from the movie. While the narrative still had lots of exposition and creative explanations that started since issue #1, the consequential events of Dennis Nedry’s acts intensified the reading experience and the T.Rex scenes really ramped up the fun factor.

Overall, Jurassic Park #3 (1993) is recommended.

+++++

A Look Back at Jurassic Park #2 (1993)

June 29, 2022July 2, 2022carlocarrasco

My previous retro review was the literary version of the film’s opening until the start of the iconic scene of the brachiosaur. The comic book was very exposition-heavy, had too few dinosaurs visualized and was ultimately a word-heavy experience with little entertainment value.

With those details laid down, here is a look back at Jurassic Park #2, published in 1993 by Topps Comics with a story written by Walter Simonson and drawn by Gil Kane with ink work done by the late George Perez. This comic book was the second of a 4-issue mini-series based on the Spielberg movie.

Early story

The story begins on an island where John Hammond’s guests (Alan Grant, Ellie Sattler, Ian Malcolm and lawyer Gennaro) cannot help but stare and marvel at the brachiosaurus walking in front of them. Soon enough, they spot five more dinosaurs of the same species moving around. As they stare, Dr. Alan Grant and Ellie Sattler can’t help but be amazed as the sight of living dinosaurs literally broke the limits of what they previously learned about dinosaurs through books.

Grant then asks Jurassic Park owner John Hammond how he was able to come up with dinosaurs. Hammond then takes his guests into the visitor’s center which has a 50-seat auditorium for the prepared pre-show he prepared for their orientation. With Hammond taking an active part in the program, a video presentation shows how Jurassic Park’s personnel extracted dinosaur DNA from fossilized mosquitoes (which drew blood from dinosaurs), used advanced technologies and amphibian DNA to complete DNA sequencing, and created dinosaurs…

Quality

*The baby Velociraptor, John Hammond, Ian Malcolm, Dr. Grant, Ellie Sattler and Dr. Wu in a scene.*

The most obvious thing about this comic book (which starts with the brachiosaurus reveal until the triceratops’ appearance) is that it is very wordy and has lots of expository dialogue and creative explanations which reflected the film it was based on. What makes this a slightly better reading experience over issue #1 is that it closely captured the essence of the best talk scene of Spielberg’s movie – the lunch meeting hosted by Hammond. To see Gennaro, Dr. Grant and Ellie give their feedback to Hammond with Ian Malcolm’s extensive opinion about Jurassic Park’s use of genetics, their revival of extinct species and their lack of humility before nature was easily the most compelling part of the comic book to read. In a way, a lot of exposition dump and build-up that started in issue #1 were paid off nicely in the said scene.

As mentioned earlier, this comic book’s story reaches the appearance of the triceratops and by then John Hammond’s grandchildren (Tim and Lex) joined Grant, Gennaro, Sattler and Malcolm on the basic tour in vehicles. That being said, the story moved at a moderate pace and the only comic book spectacle here are the images of dinosaurs which were decently drawn by Gil Kane. Don’t expect any action nor thrills here because those would not happen until the T. Rex’s first appearance.

Conclusion

*Can you imagine how you would react if you ever see large dinosaurs walking in front of you?*

I can say that Jurassic Park #2 (1993) is a slightly better reading experience than issue #1 mainly due to the way the comic book creators adapted the movie’s best talk scene. The same old issues of heavy exposition and excessive dialogue are here which reflect Simonson and Kane’s focus on adapting scenes from the movie closely. Other than that, there is still no excitement to enjoy here which can be disappointing if you are anticipating dinosaur-related thrills and action sequences. Readers who enjoy exposition and the Jurassic Park entertainment franchise’s approach on portraying science (distorted and fantasized to be more attractive than true science) will still find something to enjoy here.

Overall, Jurassic Park #2 (1993) is satisfactory.

+++++

A Look Back at Jurassic Park #1 (1993)

June 23, 2022June 22, 2022carlocarrasco

Welcome back superhero enthusiasts, 1990s culture enthusiasts and comic book collectors! Today we go back to the year 1993 which was a wild time for entertainment not only because of the comic book collection craze of the time but also because the whole world marveled at Steven Spielberg’s sci-fi film Jurassic Park which was simply unavoidable.

Jurassic Park was released into cinemas worldwide at a time when computer-generated imagery (CGI) was advanced enough to show and animated dinosaurs in a photo-realistic way on the big screen. Unlike films of today, CGI in Spielberg’s movie was sparingly used and they cleverly used computer graphics to show dinosaurs in their entirety especially on really wide shots that literally made human actors look really small compared to them. What added also to the photorealism of the dinosaurs was the use of animatronics (read: physical models) when capturing close-ups of the dinosaurs. For millions of people, Jurassic Park was a dream come true for those who wanted to see very convincing and lively dinosaurs on the big screen in ways that stop motion animation could not do.

As mentioned earlier, Jurassic Park was unavoidable as it was everywhere from the cinemas to the TV and print ads, to the stores that had licensed toys and merchandise of the movie, to the book stores that sold copies of the novel written by Michael Crichton, and also in the comic book stores that had copies of the comic book adaptation published by Topps Comics.

With those details laid down, here is a look back at Jurassic Park #1, published in 1993 by Topps Comics with a story written by Walter Simonson and drawn by Gil Kane with ink work done by the late George Perez. This comic book was the first of a 4-issue mini-series based on the Spielberg movie.

Early story

The story begins at Isla Nublar, an island located over a hundred miles west of the nation of Costa Rica. Uniformed men and heavy equipment operators carefully moved a heavy containment unit that has a dinosaur inside. They are trying to connect the unit into an unusual looking containment facility which has vegetation inside. Their objective was to move the dinosaur into the facility and that includes lifting up the containment unit’s door.

Suddenly, the containment unit shakes as its door opened causing one man (who was responsible for opening the door from the top) falls down. It turns out, the dinosaur inside played a trick on them and it grabbed and pulled the fallen man inside which leads to tragedy.

A short time later, lawyer Gennaro arrives at an amber mind in the Dominican Republic searching for John Hammond for an important matter about a $20 million lawsuit from the family of the injured worker and an insurance company that thinks the accident raises serious safety questions about Jurassic Park.

Over at Montana, Dr. Alan Grant and Ellie Sattler are conducting work at a dig site not knowing that an unexpected visit will happen to them…

Quality

*Nothing like entering a large gate going into a theme park.*

I will start with what is very obvious about this first issue of the mini-series adapting the events of Steven Spielberg’s movie. This is one very wordy comic book filled with lots of details spilled all over by lots of expository dialogue clearly sourced from the movie. To be clear, this comic book follows the movie’s opening scene until the start of the iconic scene in which Dr. Grant, Ellie and Dr. Ian Malcolm saw the large dinosaur for the first time ever (note: this scene stunned and amazed viewers back then).

As the comic creators really pushed themselves to fill in the key details straight out of the movie most of the time, this comic book lacks spectacle and it is unsurprising that it has very few images of dinosaurs.

Like most comic book adaptations of movies, there were certain cosmetic differences between scenes adapted from the movie such as the traitor Dennis Nedry meeting with Lewis Dodgson in a very urban city street setting (as opposed to the location with lots of trees and vegetation in the film). Also notably different looking was Dr. Grant’s place where he and Ellie first meet John Hammond (in the movie, Dr. Grant’s place looked more lived-in).

In what looked like the creators’ attempt to emphasize something more than what was shown in the movie, the scene in which Dr. Grant scares a kid by showing what a Velociraptor would do to him was visualized with two panels of a dream sequence.

Gil Kane’s art looks good here but don’t expect to see the characters resembling their cinematic counterparts at all. I can only guess that Topps Comics had no authority to capture the likeness of the actors for this adaptation. Dr. Grant does not look like Sam Neill. Ellie Sattler looks nothing like Laura Dern.

Conclusion

*This is easily the most entertaining and the most intriguing page from the comic book. The comic book creators succeeded in making Dr. Alan Grant scare the kid more convincingly than the movie.*

Jurassic Park #1 (1993) is not a fun read due to its heavy load of expository dialogue and explanations of key details. This issue, to say the least, was done mainly to get readers oriented with terms and details in order to help them understand Jurassic Park’s concepts. Due to the exposition and explanations, the storytelling here moved at a slow space which ironically provides readers opportunities to understand Jurassic Park. The way this comic book script was written, there was clearly too little space for entertainment. If you are the brainy type of reader or if you like junk science mixed with real science explained, then this one can still entertain you. When it comes to visuals, Gil Kane’s art made this one attractive and also established this comic book’s own look.

Overall, Jurassic Park #1 (1993) is satisfactory.

+++++

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