Xenozoic

Xenozoic by Mark Schultz
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Five hundred years after an ecological collapse, the earth keeps on turning. Man has emerged from his shelters to find a world overrun by dinosaurs!

I've been aware of Xenozoic Tales, aka Cadillacs and Dinosaurs, for a large portion of my comics reading tenure but I've never taken a chance on it until now, which is a shame because it's fantastic.

My summary is a broad overview. Jack Tenrec is a mechanic in what used to be New York, salvaging old vehicles and making them run again. When he meets Hannah Dundee, the ambassador from a nearby community, sparks start flying...

The world of Xenozoic is unique, a fusion of the post-apocalyptic with an Edgar Rice Burroughs style lost world setting. There are old buildings and old tech lying around but humanity isn't too removed from barbarism. Jack Tenrec is one of the old blood, the people who kept humanity alive underground for centuries before it was safe to emerge.

While Jack and Hannah are obviously attracted to each other, it was refreshing for them not to do the monster mash right off the bad. Jack's pro-environment philosophy clashes with Hannah's progressive politics right off the bat.

All that being said, this is a collection of stories straight out of an EC book like Weird Science or Weird Fantasy. Jack and Hannah adventure to various locales on Xenozoic earth, encounter dinosaurs and old tech, and gradually figure out they're better together than they are apart. The stories start small, ten pagers mostly, and expand to issue length installments. The stories stand on their own but it's clear Schultz is building toward something...

Now that I've gotten all that other crap out of the way, the art in this is fucking spectacular. Schultz's reverence for the EC style is very clear. The art looks like the EC artists had an orgy and Mark Schultz was the fruit of their passion. The man is a dynamo, drawing beautiful women, machines, and dinosaurs with unbelievable skill. The influences of Wally Wood, Al Williamson, and Frank Frazetta are apparent throughout. I haven't run across many books as well drawn as this one.

The one gripe I have about this is that the story has yet to be finished. This is all the Xenozoic action that currently exists.

Xenozoic is a visually flawless masterpiece of pulp science fantasy. Five out of five dinosaurs.




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