Bone Sharps, Cowboys, And Thunder Lizards

by Jim Ottaviani, Zander Cannon (Artist), Shad Petosky (Artist), Kevin Cannon (Artist), Mark Schultz (Artist)

Overview

• The Wild West provided the setting for some famous battles, but the gunfightat O.K. Corral doesn't hold a candle to the Bone Wars. Following the Civil War,the (Re-)United States turned its attention to the unexplored territoriesbetween the Mississippi and the Pacific. The railroads led the way, and to buildthem we blasted through mountains and leveled valleys and exposed rock thathadn't seen the light of day for millions of years.
• This is the story of Edwin Drinker Cope and Othniel Charles Marsh, twoscientists who found and fought for those bones, and the artist Charles R.Knight who almost single-handedly brought dinosaurs back to life for anawestruck public. Guest starring Chief Red Cloud and hundreds of his IndianBraves, the gun-totin' and gamblin' Professor John Bell Hatcher, colossal andstupefying Dinosauria of the New World, and featuring special appearances by TheCardiff Giant, P.T. Barnum, Buffalo Bill Cody, Ulysses S. Grant, AlexanderGraham Bell, and a plentiful supporting cast of Rogues and Gallants from theEastern Scientific Establishment and The Old West, the colorful supporting castmakes for a rich blend of history, adventure, science, andart.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780966010664
Publisher:	G.T. Labs
Publication date:	10/11/2005
Pages:	176
Product dimensions:	7.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.00(d)
Age Range:	13 - 16 Years

About the Author

Jim Ottaviani has written nonfiction, science-oriented comics since 1997, notably the number one New York Times bestseller, Feynman and Fallout which was nominated for an Ignatz Award. He has worked as a nuclear engineer, caddy, programmer, and reference librarian. Primates is his first collaboration with artist Maris Wicks. He lives in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

Editorial Reviews

Ottaviani has been writing historical graphic novels about scientists for years, but he's outdone himself with this delightful and fascinating account of the late-19th-century struggle between two scientists over fossilized dinosaur bones in the American West. Scheming paleontologist Marsh is more or less the villain of the piece, and his scrappy, doomed rival, Cope, is something like a hero, but Ottaviani paints rich, complicated portraits of both and milks their skullduggery for an exciting, fast-paced story. The rollicking narrative includes guest appearances by historical personages who got mixed up in the dispute-everyone from President Ulysses S. Grant to P.T. Barnum-as well as a subplot involving a hugely popular dinosaur artist, Charles R. Knight. The artwork by the Big Time Attic collective (Zander Cannon, Shad Petosky and Kevin Cannon) is cartoony and whimsical but meticulous when the historical record calls for it. As a bonus, a "Fact or Fiction?" section at the end of the book painstakingly details where Ottaviani has fudged history for a livelier narrative, and where his details are bizarre but true. (Oct.) Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.

Publishers Weekly