Comments on: John Seavey’s Storytelling Engines: The War That Time Forgot

By: John Seavey

John Seavey — Fri, 30 May 2008 00:26:54 +0000

And I have no problem with that–the concept isn’t “lost island of dinosaurs”, it’s “World War II soldiers versus dinosaurs”, and the soldiers should be important. But I think it would have worked better if they’d been plausible, believable soldiers and the story had built from issue to issue, instead of Kanigher trotting out a bunch of gimmick characters and hit the reset button every issue. (I think the circus acrobats discovered the island three times?)

By: The Mutt

The Mutt — Thu, 29 May 2008 19:10:55 +0000

Star Spangled War Stories was first and foremost a War comic, so Kanigher stuck with the model that was working very well for DC at the time. The Sci-Fi and horror aspects played second fiddle to tales of men at war.

By: John Stanshall

John Stanshall — Thu, 29 May 2008 13:36:35 +0000

As far as not having faith in the premise, well… keep in mind the idea of a lost island/valley/crater to the center of the earth with dinosaurs was not unique by any standards (I can think of at least three movies from Mystery Science Theater 3000 built around the idea just off the top of my head), and while it seems like dinosaur islands would be enough, the wide assortment of human characters could be Kanigher trying to put his own unique stamp on the idea.

By: Matthew E

Matthew E — Thu, 29 May 2008 02:33:13 +0000

And of course this series was a tremendously important ingredient of Cooke’s _New Frontier_.

By: The Mutt

The Mutt — Wed, 28 May 2008 22:37:35 +0000

THE favorite comic of my childhood. For a back-up feature, it sure made the cover a lot, unless my memory is failing me. I actually had a subscription to S-SWS back in the sixties, when they were mailed folded in half, creased and slipped into a paper sleeve.

The accuracy of the dinosaurs depended on the artist, but even those drawn “correctly” were usually drawn over-sized. All the websites I can find that mention TWtTF only mention Ross Andru as the artist, by I remember more variety. And as I recall, not all of the stories took place on the island. I remember a story set in the Antarctic, as well as some set on and under the open sea. I recall a few instances of characters reappearing, but it was mainly single shots.

If I had to pick the one single comic that made me the life-long fanboy I am today, it would be S-SWS #129 by Howard Liss and Russ Heath. “The Navy pilot was reared by Flying Giant Creatures only HE could call… My Brothers with Wings!”

A Joe Kubert cover of a man in a loin cloth, riding a Pteranadon, firing a Tommy Gun at a Jap Zero. That’s just… perfect!

http://www.comics.org/coverview.lasso?id=128284&zoom=4

By: Scott MacIver

Scott MacIver — Wed, 28 May 2008 20:09:34 +0000

I adore the “The War that Time Forgot”, but my main nitpick is that the dinosaurs often looked more like fantasy creatures than dinos. It’s a pet peeve, yes, but it still nags at me.

By: Evan Waters

Evan Waters — Wed, 28 May 2008 20:06:27 +0000

I think Kanigher got bored easily. It would have been interesting to see a group of GIs stranded in dinosaur land over the long term (I understand the new mini is focused on that), but apparently he wanted to do other things.

To be fair, Morgan and Mace (the tobogganist/brother combo) are fairly entertaining, mainly because of how psychotically single minded Morgan is.

By: Stephen

Stephen — Wed, 28 May 2008 20:03:13 +0000

“after all, a popular back-up for the better part of a decade, and is still well-remembered enough to this day that DC released a â€˜Showcase Presentsâ€™ volume for it.”

Chuck Dixon also wrote a Birds of Prey (guest starring Connor Hawke) story based on the same concept. Not sure if he threw out a credit to the original creators, but it was pretty clearly supposed to be the same island.