Customer Reviews

Time in Overdrive (Cadillacs & Dinosaurs Saga, No 3)

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Definitely count XENOZOIC TALES - more popularly known by its nickname of Cadillacs and Dinosaurs - as one of those unfinished comic books for which one yearns a definitive resolution. So, in that sense, gently place XENOZOIC TALES on that same much lamented pile which already includes THE ELEMENTALS, MAGE, NEXT MEN, JUSTICE MACHINE, a bunch of canceled titles from CrossGen, and does MARVELMAN even count? XENOZOIC TALES ran for 14 issues from 1987 and 1996, and that it lacks resolution is due more to writer/artist Mark Schultz's glacially slow work rate. I guess there's still hope that the man will someday pick up where he left off. This is still the best dinosaur-themed comic book I have ever read.

Not that the series ever dealt in specific details, but in the late 20th century, a series of geological catastrophes nearly destroyed the world. Countless species perished, and what's left of humanity resorted to holing up in underground shelters. Hundreds of years elapsed before man cautiously re-emerged, only to be confronted with a shockingly hostile post-apocalyptic environment, a strange ecological amalgam. Suddenly, long-extinct monsters once more inhabit the planet. Mammoths. Sabertooths. And dinosaurs. S#i+loads of rampaging dinosaurs. And there went man's standing as the preeminent creature on Earth. The very few survivors find themselves equipped with limited technology and confined to the ruins of ancient cities. And though he doesn't know it yet, man is no longer the sole intelligent life around.

XENOZOIC TALES focuses on the goings-on in the City in the Sea (which seems to be what's left of New York City). Jack "Cadillac" Tenrec and Hannah Dundee are the two primary protagonists and sometime rivals. Hannah Dundee is a scientist of sorts and an ambassador from the Wassoon territory come to visit the City in the Sea. Her scientific curiosity promptly clashes with Tenrec's fatalistic acceptance of the way things are. Tenrec is an all-around troubleshooter. He's also an Old Blood mechanic and his hobby is reconstructing vintage Cadillacs. But being an Old Blood also means that Tenrec is something of a shaman, someone who espouses the "machinatio vitae," a strict doctrine which outlines man's strict covenant with the earth. The suspicion is - because Mark Schultz never did really go into it - that man's excesses caused the great 20th century cataclysms. Of late, certain political parties in the City in the Sea are plotting to expand man's sphere of influence. This would break the covenant, would shatter man's brittle harmony with nature.

CADILLACS AND DINOSAURS Vol. 3: TIME IN OVERDRIVE reprints the black and white issues #9-12 of XENOZOIC TALES with an introduction by illustrator William Stout. In this collection, Tenrec, while out in the wilds, finds his equipment sabotaged and himself stranded, injured, and playing cat and mouse games with a sneaky broken-jawed allosaurus. Political power plays have a significant role, what with the Old Blood ways proving to be too restrictive to some. This results in the expulsion of our heroes and their desperate trek towards the Wassoon province, a place of questionable sanctuary for Tenrec and Dundee. Mark Schultz also writes side stories, drawn by Steve Stiles, which flesh out the main story arc. This set of side stories mostly chronicles the engineer Mustapha Cairo's attempts to foment a revolt and oust the new and increasingly rapacious governing order.

Mark Schultz is a master craftsman. He can narrate compellingly, and he can certainly do this with words but, even more tellingly, he can do this with imagery. When Schultz began this series he produced pretty and serviceable artwork. But his evolution as an artist from then to now is friggin' astounding. By the time these particular issues had rolled around, Schultz had evolved into a truly exceptional illustrator, and I marvel at his grasp of human and dinosaur anatomies, his lush composition and eye for details and the sheer organic dynamism he infused onto the pages. Not to dis backup artist Steve Stiles, but his stuff by comparison looks clumsy and stiff.

"Qua hoon" is a catch-all expression used by characters in the series, so I'll use it here as one of frustration. Qua hoon! So many questions left unanswered, the prevailing fear being that they perhaps won't ever get answered. What happens to Jack "Cadillac" Tenrec and Hannah Dundee? How goes the underground movement back in the City in the Sea? What about the telepathic Griths, the aliens who communicate with man thru the use of Scrabble tiles? When can I see more of Hermes the pet allosaurus? From '87 to '96 XENOZOIC TALES spanned 14 issues. It's well into 2010 now. Isn't Mark Schultz done with issue #15 yet?