One of the more interesting areas of comic collecting is that of collecting dinosaur comics. While this sounds simple enough it presents a number of interesting problems. You could probably put 10 dinosaur collectors in the same room and not find two that agree on the way to collect. There are two basic collecting interests that need to be discussed as well as a number of parameters.

Some collectors are interested in comics with dinosaur covers, while others are interested in dinosaur stories. The first, longest running and perhaps best of the dinosaur story group would have to be the original Turok,Son of Stone which ran 130 issues from 1954-1982. Turok wasn’t the first comic to have a dinosaur cover or a dinosaur story, but it was the longest running series to feature dinosaur covers and stories. Most of the covers of the entire series had dinosaurs prominently featured, and all of the stories featured our prehistoric friends. Dinosaurs made their first appearance in comic books in 1936 in THE FUNNIES #1 in newspaper reprints of Alley Oop. Alley Oop’s dinosaur pal Dinny didn’t make a cover appearance until MAMMOTH COMICS #1 in 1938. Another early dinosaur cover appearance and story was in SPEED COMICS #5 from 1940.

Once you’ve decided you want to collect dinosaur comics you have to determine what constitutes a dinosaur. I know what your saying “everyone knows what a dinosaur is”. Well in comics as well as life that’s not always true. Do you know what a Dimetrodon, Plesiosaur, Pterosaur, Ichthyosaur, Mammoth, Saber Tooth Cat, and Neanderthal Man all have in common? None of them are dinosaurs. Neither are fire-breathing dragons and space monsters. And what about the everyday items that Fred and Wilma Flintstone use to cut the grass or vacuum the house. They appear to be dinosaurs, but are they? And what about their pet dog Dino does he count? These are all questions that need to be answered. There is no “right” or “wrong” answer. What works for me may not work for you, and that’s OK. Even books like the Overstreet Price Guide seem uncertain about what constitutes a dinosaur cover. STAR SPANGLED WAR STORIES #107 is listed as a dinosaur cover, but actually pictures a giant crab. Many of the other issues have covers featuring Plesiosaurs or Pterosaurs which, as stated before, are not dinosaurs. I think most collectors would agree with Overstreet’s listing since the story that goes with the cover is a dinosaur story.

This article is being written by Pat with input from Andrew. I collect dinosaur covers and Andrew collects dinosaur stories. My criteria for dinosaurs is any creature that lived about 65 million years ago, which would include Trilobites, Ammonites and insects from that era. Andrew’s includes prehistoric extinct mammals such as the Mammoth and Smilodon. I have chosen to exclude the Flintstones for now, but do include other cartoon dinosaurs such as the one found on the cover to OSWALD THE RABBIT from FOUR COLOR #143. Andrew tries to concentrate on good stories about or involving dinosaurs. I don’t consider movie monsters like Godzilla, Gorgo or Reptisaurus to be dinosaurs. Andrew agrees as to Godzilla, but not the others.

Another area that needs to be considered is space monsters, dragons, and sea serpents. When, if ever, do they qualify as dinosaurs? And what about the half-man half-dinosaur characters that show up in various superhero comics, like Stegron the dinosaur man or Sauron from Marvel comics. Do they count? Again it’s a matter of personal choice. Most people will include space creatures if they look like a dinosaur, such as in BLUE BOLT #107. If a sea serpent looks like a Plesiosaur it would count in my book. If it looked like a giant snake it wouldn’t. Dragons usually don’t make the cut. The half-man half-dinosaur characters are a real tough call, although there are usually other dinosaurs on the cover or in the stories which make the decision much easier.

As I write this I keep thinking of more and more diversions. What about the invisible dinosaur in STRANGE ADVENTURES #133, does it count? What about SUPERBOY #111 that depicts dinosaur skeletons, does it count?

As you can see there’s no limit to the various aspects of collecting. There is one common thread that ties all this together. It’s fun, and no matter what your opinion is it doesn’t take away the fun for anyone else. So what is a dinosaur when it comes to collecting comics? Anything you want it to be.

This article is intended as the first in a series of articles by me or Andrew which will cover the wide history of dinosaur comics. Future articles might be on individual titles like TUROK or DEVIL DINOSAUR. They might be on characters like CAVEWOMAN or TOR. Perhaps we’ll do one on single appearance comics (one hit wonders). We would love to put together a photo-journal or picture history of the dinosaur comic. Between us we have about 1800 comics with dinosaur covers, and that doesn’t even count the ones that only have dinosaur stories. What we need is your input. What do you want to see and read? What are your interests and ideas? We know that you’ve heard this request a thousand times from every publisher that puts out a new book, but we really mean it. We know we are reaching a very small audience and we hope that with your input we can widen it and still stay true to what we enjoy. Remember the object is to have fun. This is your chance to have fun with us.

You can contact me at comics@comicscastle.com or Andrew at Trilobitecomics@yahoo.com. We really do want to hear from you. If you have any information that you think will help us or if you want to try to write an article please feel free to forward it along. Thanks for your support and interest.