My latest comic book read is Ricardo Delgado’s Age of Reptiles: Ancient Egyptians, part of Delgado’s Age of Reptiles series, in which the artist creates stories about (slightly) anthropomorphized dinosaurs in their natural setting and time period. This specific comic follows a season in the life of a Spinosaurus, one of the largest known carnivorous dinosaurs, in it’s natural habitat - what has become modern day Egypt.
I don’t really have much to say about this comic. The artwork was incredibly beautiful, detailed, and full of life, but the story was… sort of lacking. While some of the dinosaurs have anthropomorphized features, Delgado tries to paint dinosaur life as naturally and organically as if we were watching a wildlife documentary… one without commentary. There is no text in Age of Reptiles, and why would there be? It’s a comic book depicting Cretaceous life, as such the story is driven wholly by plot… and I found that a little boring. It did take me a while to get through this comic, I just wasn’t particularly drawn to the “characters” or the plot.
But where this comic excels is in the art, as it should. Delgado truly transports you to an ancient world filled with dinosaurs and wildlife that is now-extinct, and provides a colourful snapshot of ancient reptilian life.
