Comic Book Review: Bone Sharps, Cowboys, and Thunder Lizards by Jim Ottaviani & Big Time Attic
It is the Gilded Age, a time of prosperity for some, and the advancement of knowledge. Science is making great steps forward, but so is entrepreneurship, seeking any way to make a fast buck. Professor O.C. Marsh, a paleontologist, and showman P.T. Barnum, an entertainer, meet on a train. Barnum shows off his newest acquisition, the “Cardiff Giant.” Marsh is not impressed, as he knows this is a copy, and he is convinced the original giant was a fake to begin with. Not that this is going to stop Barnum one little bit.
But Barnum’s antics are a sideshow here. The meat of the story is the rivalry between Professor Marsh and Professor Edward Drinker Cope as they competed for the best fossil finds, and the funding and recognition of the scientific community of the late Nineteenth Century. The story also delves a bit into the career of artist Charles R. Knight, whose pictures helped shape the way we see dinosaurs to this day.
This includes the story of the brontosaur, a dinosaur accidentally created when the wrong skull was placed on a skeleton due to the need for hasty publishing to ensure staying in the public eye. (“Publish or perish” indeed!)
As this is a comic book rather than a full scholarly history, some events have been invented to move the story along, and others tied up more neatly than they were in real life. But the medium of choice allows this to be a fast-paced telling, and there are stunning sequences rendering two Native American legends about the ancient bones. (Professor Marsh thinks one of these stories is not true because it contradicts scientific fact. Chief Red Cloud realizes that it is true in a different way.)
There are notes in the back indicating where liberties have been taken with known history.
Overall, this is an excellent graphic novel for science-minded dinosaur fans from middle school on up who can take the bitter history with the sweet pictures of prehistoric beasts. (Note: some period racism towards Native Americans, even if the people doing it are well-meaning.)
