My Little Raptormaniacs Page XIV

My Little Raptormaniacs Page VIII

Celestia is a woefully underused character on the original show. From a narrative perspective, it's entirely understandable that she needs to be written out regularly so the heroines can resolve problems on their own, but it feels like at least half the time she's sidelined in ways that seem undignified for such a reputedly powerful and wise character.

Fortunately, Raptormaniacs runs on absurdity, so I'm allowed to come up with silly reasons for why powerful characters aren't around to help when they're needed.

My Little Raptormaniacs Page I

Coming Soon: My Little Raptormaniacs

Surprisingly (considering that this comic has a relatively small number of readers), I've been asked more than once whether I intend to do a crossover between Raptormaniacs and My Little Maniraptor, my unbridled parody of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. After sitting on a potential plot outline for the past few years, I have at last finalized the script and can now say that the answer is yes.

Will this be canon to Raptormaniacs? Yep. Good arguments can be made that this should have remained a non-canon venture, but my plans from the start were to have it influence the main plot in a number of significant ways, so too late. I have tried my best to provide enough background information where needed for readers who are unfamiliar with My Little Pony. But if any objections to this are solely on the basis of hatred or prejudice against the show, well... haters gonna hate.

Tumblr Roundup 4/7/2016 (Dinosaur March Madness Edition)

Over the past month, Meg Dickson's A Dinosaur A Day has been hosting Dinosaur March Madness to figure out the most popular dinosaurs among her readership. I took the chance to come out of hibernation intermittently to answer questions and have the Raptormaniacs characters comment on the proceedings. The commentary is included in the links below.

-Commentary on Game One.
-Commentary on Game Two.
-Commentary on Game Three.
-Commentary on Game Thirty-One.
-What does Savape's mother think of her cruelty?
-Where are all the non-theropod dinosaurs?
-What tourist destinations are there in the city?
-Does the museum have a Spinosaurus?
-Skull comments on Palaeofail's choice of favorite dromaeosaurid.
-Commentary on results of Round Three.
-Does Zahavi have a power origin story?
-Thoughts on Utahraptor.
-Does the museum have a Yutyrannus?
-Thoughts on Hyracotherium.
-Is there a Microraptor in the museum?
-Commentary on overall results of Dinosaur March Madness.

Tumblr Roundup 12/31/2015

I really dropped the ball on linking back to the Tumblr here. I've been answering questions sporadically this year and have been waiting for enough posts to accumulate before making a roundup post, but I swear I didn't plan for the waiting to go on until the end of the year.

-Have the characters met any ichthyornithines?
-Thoughts on gorgonopsids.
-Are there any retrosaurs in the museum?
-Dinky is dared to catch an insect in front of Savape.
-Can Zahavi reduce his forelimbs into a vestigial form?
-Does the museum have a Yi yet?
-What does Remex think Godzilla would be if the kaiju was a real creature?
-What does Savape do when she's bored, aside from killing?
-What are the characters' favorite "pokemans"?
-Thoughts on TetZoo Time.
-What does it feel like to be turned into a fossil?
-Thoughts on lions, tigers, and jaguars.
-Does Savape think of herself as evil?
-Does Skull have a soul?
-Who would win in a fight between Ebeff and a clone of Ebeff?
-Has Savape ever taken on a megalodon?
-Thoughts on the new Spinosaurus restoration.
-Can Zahavi ride a giant Phidippus audax while herding mealworm beetles while talking with telepathy while Savape destroys army ants?
-Thoughts on gorillas.
-Any word on Velociraptor?

Triassic Park Page XIII

That's a wrap for this storyline! Makes me wonder how many Caviramus it would take to get a full-sized Therizinosaurus airborne in actuality. A worthy research topic for someone's graduate thesis, no doubt.

Triassic Park Page XII

Triassic Park Page XI

Triassic Park Page VII

Triassic Park Page VI

Happy to be done with this page. Drawing that jeep was a nightmare, despite it being very cartoonish.

Dicynodont latrines are real, if anyone is wondering.

Triassic Park Page V

The "tail blade" mention is a reference to Tricia Arnold's reaction towards the fictional dinosaurs made up for Terra Nova.

Triassic Park Page III

As most if not all paleoartists can attest, researching paleobotany for artwork typically sucks. You can see here that I didn't even try. However, on a more serious note, I recommend the "Botany for Paleoartists" series by Maija Karala at her blog Humming Dinosaurs and Nature's Other Small Wonders for all your paleobotanical needs and the in-development Hell Creek simulator game Saurian sets a great example in doing things right.

In my original plans for this story, I had a scene where Ostrom showed the others a nursery where the Triassic animals were being reared from eggs. Savape would eat one of the hatchlings and declare, "Death finds a way." I ended up scrapping it because Triassic Park has a fundamentally different setting from Jurassic Park (a museum as opposed to a biological preserve).

Triassic Park Page II

Sinornithoides, the forgotten sleeping dinosaur. Despite having a head start in its date of discovery, it's hard to beat Mei, whose two described specimens are both preserved in sleeping posture. Here we have our guest star party member for the story, who I created in part because I needed another role in order to parody the source material better. Why "May"? It was primarily for the pun on Mei, but it's also my birth month.

Triassic Park Page I

Tumblr Roundup 1/31/15

I should do one of these; I foresee another break soon.

-Welcome back! (The irony...)
-Was Savape's character based on the Autobot Whirl?
-Has Savape taken on saber-toothed cats?
-Why is Zahavi so random?
-How many languages do the characters know?
-How did Zahavi get his powers?
-Do the characters ever meet the press?
-How do pterosaurs, marine reptiles, and mammoths at the museum feel about being called dinosaurs?
-Is Ebeff a Therizinosaurus or a Beipiaosaurus?

Tumblr Roundup 12/31/14

Been neglecting the site somewhat, but I can at least wrap things up for the year.

-Does Skull's appearance in the comic "Claiming the Throne" suggest he has had some success?
-What are the characters' greatest fears?
-Thoughts on Dinosaur Battlegrounds.
-Has Skull read the Evil Overlord List?
-Are there things Savape refuses to hunt?
-Greeting Ask-Drakos.
-Should Savape become a Jedi?
-Where did the "blob" from two asks ago come from?
-What does the museum do for Christmas?

Turn to Stone Page IX

Thus concludes this storyline.

The shorebirds were based on purported Triassic bird footprints. Solid evidence of Triassic birds would have been big news indeed, and internet chatter occasionally speculated that they were misidentified heterodontosaurid tracks. It was eventually shown that the footprints actually dated to the Eocene.

Turn to Stone Page VIII

The new pterosaur model was brought in to replace this one, which had an old-school short, pointy crest. Even in this universe, pterosaur restorations are updated more slowly than those of dinosaurs.

(Yes, the answer to that ask was specifically a set up for this scene.)

Tumblr Roundup 7/14/14

-Does the museum have horses and do the characters ride them?
-Have the characters encountered mammoths, saber-toothed cats, and giant ground sloths?
-Thoughts on pelycosaur-grade synapsids.
-Thoughts on Yutyrannus.
-Do children try to ride on Ebeff or other large dinosaurs at the museum?
-Have the characters dealt with rhinos?
-Thoughts on Raptor Red.
-Ostrom's thoughts on Dinosaur in Danger.
-Thoughts on Walking with Dinosaurs 3D.
-What do the characters usually eat?
-Can Savape present three mammalian apex predators she has caught?
-Is Jurassic Park the dinosaur version of a minstrel show?
-Have the characters encountered giant otters?
-Saying hello.
-Thoughts on macaws, amazons, and cockatoos.