Dinosaur Comics

Dinosaur Comics

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Updated Dec 03, 2020 at 06:14PM EST by Philipp.

Added Aug 15, 2013 at 04:24PM EDT by amanda b..

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About

Dinosaur Comics[1] is a webcomic created by Canadian Ryan North[2] in February 2003. The comic updates every weekday, consisting of the same six panels illustrating a conversation between three dinosaurs, T-Rex, Dromiceiomimus and Utahraptor.

History

Ryan North registered the domain name qwantz.com on November 19th, 2002. In a 2012 Ask Me Anything thread on Reddit, North stated that the name has the "same secret semantics as xkcd," whose domain name came from Randall Munroe's attempt at finding a combination of letters that weren't already being used. The first Dinosaur Comics strip (shown below) was posted on February 1st, 2003 after North created the six panel layout using a clip art program with posable dinosaurs.


Today is a beautiful day to be stomping on things! As a dinos aur, stomping 1s the best part of my day indeed! what's that, 1ittle house? You wish you were back in your own time? THAT IS TOO BAD FOR YOU gasp* Perhaps vou too wi11 get stomping little girl! Is stomping really the answer to vour problem(s)? My only problem(s have to do with you interrupting my stomping! WAIT Problem(s)? crazy utahraptor! C) 2003Ryan North ww.qwantz. com

In 2004, Dinosaur Comics began to gain traction in the webcomics community with a review on ComixTalk[5] in April and two separate mentions in the commentary of the webcomic Questionable Content[6][7] later that year. On April 1st, 2005, graphic novelist Warren Ellis named Dinosaur Comics as one of his favorite webcomics on his blog.[8] The following month, it was linked on internet culture blog BoingBoing[9] and in June a Wikiquote[10] page for the series was created. That November, a parody site titled NewsRex[12] was created, mashing up Reuters' RSS feed with the Dinosaur Comics template (shown below). In December 2005, Dinosaur Comics was named the Most Outstanding Anthropomorphic Comic on About.com's Web Cartoonist Choice Awards.[11]


...which linked the incident to "Santarchy.!!!

In 2011, a fan composed a timeline[18] of the events in the comic. As of 2013, Dinosaur Comics have been discussed on Comic Vine[25], Think Progress[26], Newgrounds[27] and Comic Book Resources[28], among many others. Additionally, creator Ryan North has participated in several Reddit Ask Me Anything threads[24] and has been interviewed by Smithsonian Magazine[29], the Torontoist[30] and Comic Book Resources.[31] Dinosaur Comics updates are available on Facebook[14], Twitter[15], Tumblr[16] and LiveJournal[17] in addition to the Qwantz.com homepage as of August 2013.

Reception

Parodies

A number of other webcomic artists have emulated the Dinosaur Comics art style for their own blogs as well as guest strips on Qwantz including the artists of Wondermark[19], Sam and Fuzzy[20], Obohemia[21] (shown below, left), xkcd[22] (shown below, right) and Hark! A Vagrant.[23]


People ase olvsoys asking me, Join a Symphn? TEACH? (Noooo...) There feally ase hove derided to uçe m "hhot are you goina to do when youlre done schcol? (Noooe POwERz in on entre and totlly betes wy 'm going to be an OBCE NINJA Ons music degree, though, REALLY ? An oboe...ninja? Knockina my vichms MN Swet oboe SOUNDS Ninjas are MADE OF AWESOME ACTUALLYd rothe be a pir ate, but oboes I could hiie mself out to I would hink owstras everolare, OSTENSIBLY all the oboe to play second, but really eauipnt afen ae ase" cf bad conductors. meat for would he hialh NEVER)uld get Seas 丶way, T-Rex Avast ye Hiah reeds ahead taking "Con때 Black" wholo now level Tharks o Noh at Diosaur Comics ht+p://www.qwontz. com But isn't that terrible gr THINGS I AM UPPITY ABOUT "They" as a third-person singular gender-free pronoun armar? I'm all for it! Only by recent convention! It's been in use that way for centuries, and it's already wi dely accepted! ALSO: This lets us avoid ridiculous constructs like "he/she", "s/he", "xe" or "hirs"! T-Rex, 1 . . . ag ree· Normally I'd jump in with an objection, IN A WORLD WHERE THERE IS STILL but I think your point makes sense. A LAD BRIDGE BETHEEN ASIA AND NORTH AMERICA FOR SOME REASONE What? That sounds good to me! Could it be that the rift in our author 's mind has finally -onscious? healed? Is he no longer locked in perpetual war with the self- doubt that ALSO HOW ABOUTIN THIS WDRLD EVERYONE IS BICURIOUS lurks in his subc

Machine of Death

In the December 5th, 2005 Dinosaur Comics strip[32] (shown below), T-Rex tells his friends he is going to write a story about a world where everyone knows how to they're going to die due to a machine that spits out a vague word associated with the cause of their death. Two years later, North began soliciting stories about this machine from unknown authors via message board.[33] In late 2010, after being unable to find a publisher for their completed anthology, he and co-editors Matthew Bennardo and David Malki ! of Wondermark decided to self-publish the book titled Machine of Death.


You can go in to a doctor and he takes a I 'm going to write the best story evēr. It's called - okay, I don't know what it's called a fantastic premise! I s a wor ld blood tešt, and then his machine spits out ere everyonela piece of paper that says "exploded" or drowned" or "poisoned apple" and that's knows hoW they' re going to die! . But I have it. No dates, no details! And so people who are to die from drowning spend the rest of their lives avoiding Swimm7ng p00s, but they end up drowning anyway. Part of the fun would be seeing how! I quess the only safe one would be This story sounds pretty morbid, T-Rex!if the paper It wOuld also work on said "old age" Nope, cause then you could be ki1led by an old guy! This machine delight in animals, but a11 the ones for cows would say "made into delicious cheeseburger". Morbidly INTERESTING! True! ironically Vaque deaths. 、Not that the cows could understand! "Natural causes"? Hit on the Friggin cheeseburgers! head by aV falling koala bear! C) 2005 Ryan North ww.qwantz. com

The editors encouraged fans to purchase the book on October 26th, 2010 in effort to make it Amazon's #1 bestseller that day.[34] It was successful[35], despite them not spending any money on marketing materials. In November 2010, the group launched a free podcast[38] featuring audio stories from the book, which continued through September 2012. In February 2013, they launched a Kickstarter[36] to create a party game inspired by the stories in the anthology, which raised $556,596, 2420% of its $23,000 goal. In July 2013, a second Machine of Death anthology[37] was released.

To Be or Not To Be

In November 2012, Ryan North created a Kickstarter campaign[39] to fund a choose-your-own-adventure book based on William Shakespeare's Hamlet. In less than a week, the project raised six times more than its $20,000 goal, finishing at 2900% of that, or $580,905, making it the most-funded publishing campaign of all time.



Traffic

As of August 2013, Qwantz.com has an Alexa[13] rank of 30,354 in the United States and 109,990 globally.

Search Interest

External References

[1] Dinosaur Comics – Home

[2] Twitter – @ryanqnorth

[3] Wizard – North By T-rex / 06/19/2006

[4] Reddit – qwantz's answer to "What does 'qwantz' mean?"

[5] Comix Talk – Ryan North's Dinosaur Comics, reviewed by Justin

[6] Questionable Content – It turns out that Ryan North of Dinosaur Comics is even taller than I am, and a hell of nice guy to boot.

[7] Questionable Content – For those of you still stuck at a 9 to five, why not go read Dinosaur Comics after reading QC?

[8] Warren Ellis – My Favourite Webcomics: Dinosaur Comics

[9] BoingBoing – Web Zen: Comics Zen

[10] Wikiquote – Dinosaur Comics

[11] About.com – Web Cartoonists Choice Awards 2005

[12] NewsRex – Archive from November 24th, 2005

[13] Alexa – Qwantz.com Site Info

[14] Facebook – Dinosaur Comics

[15] Twitter – @dinosaurcomics

[16] Tumblr – qwantzfeed

[17] LiveJournal – Dinosaur Comics (syndicated)</a.

[18] Wooo!pedia – Dinosaur Comics Timeline

[19] Dinosaur Comics – guest comic by david malki ! of wondermark!

[20] deviantART – ~samandfuzzy: Dinosaur Comics Guest Strip

[21] Obohemia – 'Dinosaur Comics' Tribute

[22] xkcd – Parody Week: Dinosaur Comics

[23] Hark! A Vagrant – Captain My Captain

[24] Reddit – Search Results for "ryan north" in /r/IAmA

[25] Comic Vine – Web Comic Spotlight: 5/30/12: Dinosaur Comics

[26] Think Progress – Dinosaur Comics and Strong Internet Ties

[27] Newgrounds – Dinosaur Comics Thread

[28] Comic Book Resources – The Top 5 Greatest Dinosaur Comics Ever!

[29] Smithsonian Mag – Interview With Ryan North, Creator of Dinosaur Comics

[30] Torontoist – Tall Poppy Interview: Ryan North of Dinosaur Comics

[31] Comic Book Resources – IN-DEPTH: RYAN NORTH

[32] Dinosaur Comics – 12/05/05

[33] Truth and Beauty Bombs – THE MACHINE OF DEATH (predicting)

[34] Machine of Death – MOD-day

[35] ABC News – Indie anthology defies literary odds

[36] Kickstarter – Machine of Death: The Game of Creative Assassination

[37] Goodreads – This Is How You Die: Stories of the Inscrutable, Infallible, Inescapable Machine of Death

[38] Machine of Death – Podcast

[39] Kickstarter –

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