Monday, February 7, 2011

Vintage Dinosaur Art: Richard Roe

Dinosaur Days

Dinosaur Days, a Random House title from 1985, is mostly focused on reading skills, walking kids through sounding out the imposing names of dinosaurs. Providing the somewhat cartoony drawings is Richard Roe, a mysterious figure who doesn't have much of a web presence. Just a few listings for other titles he illustrated. Many of the drawings are two-page spreads depicting dramatic interactions between the animals, such as this angry Triceratops chasing off a pair of ornithomimosaurs.

One Angry Trike

Probably due to the star power of T. rex, Dinosaur Days to the Hell Creek biota of late Cretaceous North America. Here's the big guy squaring off against an Ankylosaurus.

T. rex vs. Ankylosaur

I can't get enough of illustrated dinosaur carnage, especially in these old children's titles. This is one of the best ones I've seen. Roe opts to capture the moment just before the great teeth of T. rex puncture the flesh of the poor Edmontosaurus he's caught.

T. rex Chomps Down

Coming in second to the carnage above in terms of pure entertainment value is the following illustration, depicting one of the easiest dinosaur digs imaginable: the tyrannosaur skull just lifts right out as if buried in a sandbox. I love the way the paleontologist is maneuvering it with a single hand.

Easiest Dig Ever

As always, head over to the Vintage Dinosaur Art Flickr group to browse a huge library of artwork from the entire history of dinosaur paleontology.

3 comments:

  1. this was always one of my favorite Dinosaur books growing up. The art is so pretty and smooth.

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  2. I agree - one of the nicer "cartoony" titles I've come across.

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  3. Oh, absolutely. In my young mind, this book was the end all volume on dinosaurs, both for illustrations and content. Now I need to find my copy...

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