Dinosaur Stories with a terra green cover!

And we have a second printing of Dinosaur Stories!

This time, the cover is printed on terra green paper. It definitely looks cooler with this colorful cover to contrast with the black and white interior.

Dinosaur Stories contains three graphic narratives featuring dinosaurs and other Mesozoic wildlife, authored by me and originally published in the Mesozine #1-3 (2020-2024), a publication edited by Denis St. John. The book also contains pin-up illustrations of prehistoric reptiles and short essays about the science behind the dinosaur comics. Whether you’re a neophyte or a seasoned dinophile, you’ll find something to thrill to in these pages. For sale on my Etsy site: https://www.etsy.com/.../1785.../dinosaur-stories-comic-book

The Beginning and the End of 2022--in Animal Art

Based on sketchbook chronology, I’ve made an educated guess that the baby alligator is my first drawing of 2022.  Indisputably, the dragonfly naiad (larva) hunting a tadpole is my last drawing of 2022.  A voracious predator with a quick-thrusting extensible lower jaw, the naiad is a real-life xenomorph.  As a young woman on my guided walk at my other job as an Everglades Ranger put it, “Nature is metal!”

 

Ross-man the Barbarian; the dragons find him tasty

Awesome 'Possum Volume 4, the natural science comics anthology, edited by Angela Boyle, contains "Saliva & Skin," a story about Komodo dragons written by Steve Bissette and drawn by me. Here are my answers to some questions from Angela:

How did you pick your topic for Awesome ‘Possum?

I have been fascinated by Komodo dragons ever since I was a child. As a dinosaur-loving kid, I was thrilled that there were still a few giant reptiles inhabiting the earth. At age 10, I named one of my pet anoles “Komodo.” More recently, I learned from a Youtube video by the “Hybrid Librarian” (Kevin Garattoni) that until the 1920s, Americans had regarded Komodo dragons as cryptids, like the Loch Ness Monster or Bigfoot. In 1926, American naturalist W. Douglas Burden led an expedition to Komodo Island to verify the existence of the “dragon lizards.” In 1933, filmmaker Merian C. Cooper directed a blockbuster horror movie, largely based on Burden’s voyage. The movie, King Kong, is still popular 85 years later. Knowing that my collaborator for this project, Steve Bissette, is a wizard of dinosaur comics and expert on monster movies, I suspected that Komodo dragons would be a topic well-suited to his writing style. After I chose our reptilian subject matter, Bissette wrote a script (resembling a film script) and I created the comics pages based on said script.

Awesome 'Possum 4 is live on Kickstarter through April 25! We still need more backers to fund the publication of this book.  By pledging $25, you can preorder a beautiful printed copy of this tome, pending on the success of the Kickstarter fundraiser.

What is your favorite animal or plant?

In recent years, I have been especially fascinated by spadefoot toads, denizens of the arid southwestern U.S. These amphibians stay quietly buried underground for most of their lives (up to three years at a stretch in the case of Couch’s spadefoot), until summer rain storms summon them to the surface. They engage in a frenzy of eating and mating, using the ephemeral pools, then return to their burrows for a long wait until the next “monsoon.” When I visited my friend Lesley, who was a park ranger at Colorado National Monument, we happened to strike it lucky and meet live spadefoot toads in the desert streams. Behind the huge cat-like eyes of the spadefoots, there seems to be an alien mind, one that does not object to hanging out alone in a hole in the ground for 1,000 or more consecutive days and nights.

Why do you think talking about nature is important?

We humans ought to preserve the earth’s remarkable diversity of life, what Charles Darwin described as “endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful.” Considering that we’re in the midst of the sixth mass extinction, it is fair to say that we’ve been doing a poor job at this task so far. People will care more about protecting creatures that they know and like. Telling the stories of wild creatures is a way of getting people to know and like them.

As of April 19, we still must raise a total of $2,121 via Kickstarter to fund this book's publication. And we have only six days to go! This book will make a great gift for someone you know.

What are your favorite drawing tools?

I remain attached to drawing comics in the traditional way—first I sketch the images in pencil on bristol board, then I make the final drawing with india ink on top of the pencils. Then I scan the pages, make some edits and do the lettering digitally. I’m especially fond of liner brushes, which I use primarily for inking the contour lines around foreground figures and objects. My main liner brushes for the Komodo story were a Grumbacher #4 and a Princeton #4, which are very different in size. (The numbers are not at all consistent across the different brands.)

The topmost picture is my self-portrait with Komodo dragons, inspired by Frank Frazetta’s painting “Conan the Barbarian.”

To get in the mindset of a naturalist-explorer, I read Burden's first-hand account.

I warmed up for drawing “Saliva & Skin” by visiting the ABQ Biopark Zoo and sketching (and photographing) live Komodo dragons.

Back at the studio, I posed for selfies and used them as reference material for many of the panels featuring human figures. In this one, I’m reenacting the experience of Maen, the Indonesian park ranger who survived a Komodo dragon attack. Below, the drawn scene as it appears in AP4.

 

My studio while I was working on “Saliva & Skin.” The floor is scattered with reference photos I printed from all over the web, as well as drawing tools and scraps of carbon paper.

If all this intrigues you, you ain't seen nothing yet! Awesome 'Possum Volume 4 is 229 pages long, and contains nonfiction comics about science and nature by over 30 creators. The tales are both educational and entertaining, and feature a broad range of plants and animals, including sphinx moths, lemurs, and Rafflesia. The tome is all-ages friendly and especially good for ages 9-12. The great American author of nonfiction graphic novels about science Jim Ottaviani said,

"You'll witness love of the natural world with every story, and your own love for it will grow with every page. You'll learn stuff, too, and learning stuff is awesome."

But to bring this book to life, we still need some backers on Kickstarter! Do you know anyone who likes nature or science or comics or learning stuff? This book will make them smile.

Book cover ©Kessinger Legacy Reprints. All other pictures ©R.W.S.

Awesome 'Possum Volume 4, featuring Komodo dragons!

“I’ll never forget seeing my first dragon,” reads the opening line of a new comics story written by Stephen Bissette and drawn by me for Awesome ‘Possum Volume 4! The book is live on Kickstarter now, so now you have the opportunity to back the book's publication and preorder your copy. Awesome ‘Possum is an anthology series of nonfiction comics about natural science, edited by Angela Boyle. It brings together leading emerging and established cartoonists to tell the stories of earth’s remarkable plants and animals. The tales range from the very scientific to the very personal; they are friendly for all ages and especially good for ages 9-12. Bissette was my teacher at The Center for Cartoon Studies, and is best known for his collaborations with Alan Moore on the DC comic book series Saga of the Swamp-Thing. As dinosaur-loving children who never fully grew up, Bissette and I put our hearts and souls into writing about and illustrating the natural history and human history of one of the few giant reptiles that still inhabits the earth. AP4 also includes stories by other creators about lemurs, llamas, sphinx moths, Rafflesia, and much more.

We’re live on Kickstarter: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/861608378/awesome-possum-vol-4

My work also appears in AP2 (collaboration with Bissette about fishers) and AP3 (solo work about frogs and mosses). As in the previous volumes, the writers and artists of AP4 will be amazingly diverse in how they approach presenting the biodiversity of our planet!

Cheers and thank you~

Komodo Dragons at ABQ Biopark Zoo

En route to Carlsbad, I visited the Albuquerque Biopark Zoo and sketched living Komodo dragons! This is a warm-up for Awesome 'Possum Volume 4 (the natural science comics anthology, edited by Angela Boyle.) I have teamed back up with the legendary Stephen Bissette; our new comics story will be about Komodo dragons, the beasts that inspired King Kong. We'll be at work on this one this winter, with Bissette as scribe, me as artist. Stay tuned!

 

From out of the basement, the Bogosaurus awakens!

I made this papier-mâché sculpture when I was 16; ’twas a project for a high school art class. Now I have reunited with the beast, after it had long been dormant in my parents’ basement. At the time I laid down the flour-soaked strips of newspaper, I referred to the sculpted alien as simply “my creature.” Evidently, I am long overdue to give this creature a name and a story. I am working on that now. Tentatively calling it a Bogosaurus; and it’s first issue is forthcoming!

When the whole Studlar family moved out of our old home in West Virginia, I thought that could not keep the sculpture. It’s combination of length and height made it wholly impractical to transport by way of our rental vans, which were already overloaded with stuff. In the final move-out, I had played an insane and exhausting game of “Tetris” in the vehicles. I filled suitcases with books, nested containers in containers like Russian dolls, stuffed all empty spaces with soft things like clothes, put items like staplers and surge protectors under the seats, and arranged and rotated every piece of the puzzle in an effort to use every millimeter of available space. It was around midnight and the snow was falling outside. Weary from the protracted effort and with sore forearms from all the stuffing, I took my final photos of the creature under the basement’s fluorescent lights, thinking it would then join the trash pile, with the moldy clothes hamper and the cans of solidified paint. It seemed an undignified ending to such a memorable creation. But my dad proclaimed that we could keep the creature. I declared that impossible. He suggested putting it atop the load; I objected because that would prevent the driver from seeing out the back. He suggested the car-top carrier; and I noted that it was already full of stuff. Then I had a flash of insight. Or maybe a solution this obvious is not worthy of being called insight. I got out my pocket-knife and cut the creature’s tail off. The long tail we put on top of the load in the back of the van. The body we placed in the front-seat, where there was just enough room, amidst the driver’s overnight back and snack food and CDs. Upon arrival to our new home in Asheville, North Carolina, I taped the beast back together. It now stands proud atop the mantle. I am working on inventing its science-fictional biology.

Bogosaurus sculpture  ©Ross Wood Studlar. Photo ©Susan Moyle Studlar.

Ancient Realms (and Old Times) Revisited

 

I must give my props to The Museum of Ancient Life, at Thanksgiving Point, Utah. Its exhibits told chronologically the story of life on Earth, beginning with the unicellular, moving through the Precambrian seas, and on to that part of the ancient past which has long captured the imaginations of youngsters (and imaginative oldsters)--the Mesozoic Era, the age of dinosaurs (and gymnosperms!) The skeletons or replicas on display were set such that I felt like I walked through a jungle populated by the giant reptiles—sauropods thundered past, and raptors lurked among the cycads, poised to leap from the shadows or strike from above. Although they would rather eat me, I also thought of the dinosaurs as old friends from my youth, having populated my picture books and stop-motion movies, my imagination, and the typing paper which I filled with drawings by number two pencil, and colored pencil, and crayon. There was the ravenous Tyrannosaurus Rex, the horned Ceratosaurus, the giant turtle Archelon, the giant amphibians, the mountain-sized Supersaurus, and Pachycephalosaurus (interpreted in the display as using its hard round skull as a battering ram). The awe and fear and admiration I had felt as a child for these extinct beasts returned vividly; I survived my encounter with the Utah Raptor and departed full of blood and electricity. Many great fossils have been found in Utah, including those of Dinosaur National Monument (which straddles the border between Utah and Colorado.) At least for the moment, I was glad to be in this odd and beautiful state.

Photo stars from top down: Many skulls with Archelon at far left middle, giant amphibians, Supersaurus, T-Rex, some kind of theropod. Thanks go out to the couple of unknown bystanders who photographed me with the Dinos!

The Hawk and the Flying Turtle

I composed this drawing as a gift for my friend Lesley, whose spirit animal is the hawk. The turtle could represent all the animals she aids. However, my choice to add the reptile was influenced by the story of my grandmother, Evelyn Wood Moyle, who departed from this earth four years ago, in January 2010. My family members know all about her connection to an aerial chelonian; for now, I shall let it remain a mystery to the outside world. I also recall the Dakota story of "How Turtle Flew South for the Winter;" I rather enjoy giving the turtle an odd voice when sharing this story with youngsters. You can choose your own interpretation of the flying turtle.

Happy 2014!

Lizards and Dragons

I encountered this bearded dragon at Science Works museum in Ashland, Oregon. The lizard's wild relatives dwell in Australia. Although no dragons are known to inhabit Rock Bottom Ranch, we do keep two leopard Geckos, whom I have named Spiny and Rex. They are as terrifying as the dinosaurs for whom they are named (Spinosaurus and Tyrannosaurus Rex)... but only to crickets and insects, whom they stalk, pounce upon, and chomp to pieces. Whether rulers of a Mesozoic jungle or a sandy terrarium, reptiles carry an aura of ancient mystery. This bearded dragon, basking in lamp-light, appeared like the king of his little world.