Dinosaur Comics is a webcomic by Canadian writer Ryan North. It is also known as "Qwantz" because of the site's alternate domain name qwantz.com. It has been online since February 1, 2003, though there were early prototypes[2]. Dinosaur Comics has also been printed in two collections and in a number of newspapers. ^[1] An example of an early dinosaur comic, in which the T-Rex points out the failures of others. ... Authorship redirects here. ... Ryan North is the creator and author of Dinosaur Comics, and co-creator of Whispered Apologies. ... A website (alternatively, Web site or web site) is a collection of Web pages, images, videos and other digital assets that is hosted on one or several Web server(s), usually accessible via the Internet, cell phone or a LAN. A Web page is a document, typically written in HTML... is the 32nd day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2003 (MMIII) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... The webcomic genres are the types of themes a webcomic can take. ... Webcomics, also known as online comics and internet comics, are comics that are available to read on the Internet. ... Ryan North is the creator and author of Dinosaur Comics, and co-creator of Whispered Apologies. ... is the 32nd day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2003 (MMIII) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

Comics are posted on most weekdays, each comic using the same artwork, with only the dialogue changed (there are occasional deviations from this, such as several episodic comics[3]). It has been compared to David Lynch's "The Angriest Dog in the World" comic, and also made reference to it. [4] The strips take on topics not usually covered by other webcomics, including ethical relativism[5], the nature of happiness, the secret to being loved, and so forth. For other persons named David Lynch, see David Lynch (disambiguation). ... The Angriest Dog in the World is a comic strip created by film director David Lynch. ... In philosophy, moral relativism is the position that moral or ethical propositions do not reflect objective and/or universal moral truths, but instead make claims relative to social, cultural, historical or personal circumstances. ... For other uses, see Happiness (disambiguation). ...

Cast

Main cast

The character names are each dinosaur's genus (with the notable exception being "T-Rex", an abbreviation of the tyrannosaurus' full binomial name). Although other dinosaurs have been mentioned in the strip, they have never been shown. For other uses, see Genus (disambiguation). ... Species T. rex (type) Osborn, 1905 Synonyms Manospondylus Cope, 1892 Dynamosaurus Osborn, 1905  ?Nanotyrannus Bakker, Williams & Currie, 1988 Stygivenator Olshevsky, 1995 Dinotyrannus Olshevsky, 1995 Tyrannosaurus (IPA pronunciation or , meaning tyrant lizard) is a genus of theropod dinosaur. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... Television shows and stage plays sometimes include continuing characters — characters who are currently in frequent interaction with the other characters and who influence current story events — who are never seen or heard by the audience and only described by other characters. ...

• T-Rex is the main character and considers himself knowledgeable on many subjects, but is frequently shown up as ignorant (although he does sometimes offer genuinely interesting insights). He is good-hearted, but occasionally shows signs of selfishness. In spite of this, his friends tolerate him. T-Rex is about 25 years old and is a large green Tyrannosaurus Rex.
• Utahraptor, T-Rex's comedic foil, appears in the fourth and fifth panels of the comic. He often refutes whatever point T-Rex made in the first half, but T-Rex rarely takes any notice. He is almost always portrayed as T-Rex's intellectual superior.
• Dromiceiomimus appears in the third panel. Although she is generally friendly to T-Rex — answering either neutrally or with mild, friendly criticism, in contrast with the more adversarial and skeptical Utahraptor — her replies may also be parsed as mocking, perhaps highlighting T-Rex's general lack of understanding of and success with the opposite sex. She is also a Nautical Engineer.^[2]

Species T. rex (type) Osborn, 1905 Synonyms Manospondylus Cope, 1892 Dynamosaurus Osborn, 1905  ?Nanotyrannus Bakker, Williams & Currie, 1988 Stygivenator Olshevsky, 1995 Dinotyrannus Olshevsky, 1995 Tyrannosaurus (IPA pronunciation or , meaning tyrant lizard) is a genus of theropod dinosaur. ... Binomial name Utahraptor ostrommaysorum Kirkland, Gaston & Burge, 1993 Utahraptor (Utah thief) is the largest known member of the theropod dinosaur family Dromaeosauridae, and dates from the upper Barremian stage of the Lower Cretaceous period (126 million years ago). ... A straight man is a role in a comedy double act where a performer works with a comedian by setting up the situations or feeding the lines that allow their partner to make a joke. ... Species (Parks, 1926) Dromiceiomimus (IPA: ; meaning Emu mimic) was a swift bipedal dinosaur from the late Cretaceous period, about 80 to 65 million years ago. ...

Supporting cast

In a mirror universe, there is a set of characters that portray the evil side of the protagonist main characters. The only visual difference is that they are all seen with drawn in goatees, and are facing the opposite direction.[6] This is in reference to the Star Trek Mirror Universe, where an evil Mr. Spock wore a goatee.^{[citation needed]} The late Waylon Jennings with a goatee in 1999. ... The current Star Trek franchise logo Star Trek is an American science fiction entertainment series and media franchise. ... In the Star Trek television series, the Mirror Universe is an alternate reality. ...

Seen characters

• Batman is brought to life by T-Rex's imagination in comic 1068, and appears as a tiny Batman head floating around T-Rex in the sixth panel. He appears to T-Rex again in comic 1069, much to the scorn of Utahraptor, and thanks T-Rex for making him real, "if only for a little while".

Batman (originally referred to as the Bat-Man and still referred to at times as the Batman) is a DC Comics fictional superhero who first appeared in Detective Comics #27 in May 1939. ...

Unseen characters

• God and the Devil make frequent appearances in the strip, speaking from off the tops and bottoms of the panels respectively, in bold and capitalized letters and with the Devil's font in red. They also speak with little or no punctuation and can be heard only by T-Rex. Topics of conversation between T-Rex and God vary, but the Devil and T-Rex mostly discuss video games and Dungeons & Dragons.
• T-Rex's neighbors: families of raccoons and cephalopods who talk to T-Rex in unsettling tones, with capitalized italics.
• Professor Science, a mortarboard-wearing diplodocus, who has only been alluded to in the comics, but is depicted on a merchandise t-shirt.
• "Fictional Jimbo Wales" appears in comic 816. He supports T-Rex's apparent vandalism from the Wikipedia page on evil to "Irish Evil." He also appears in comic 879, supporting T-Rex's idea to vandalize only the Wikipedia article about chickens, leaving all other articles unvandalized.
• Morris, a "tiny bug" on T-Rex's nose, is first alluded to in comic 673, is more formally introduced in comic 674, reappears in comic 935and again in comic 942. The latter appearance is the first time Morris is not actually on T-Rex's nose.
• 19th-century poet Edgar Allan Poe appears in comics 805 and 806 as a needy, annoying friend of T-Rex's, following T-Rex around and only wanting to talk about their relationship with each other.
• Playwright and poet William Shakespeare appears in "Literary Technique Comics" 958, 959, 960, 983, and 1018.

This article discusses the term God in the context of monotheism and henotheism. ... The Devil, on the central gate of Notre-Dame de Paris, 1225, France. ... “Computer and video games” redirects here. ... This article is about the role-playing game. ... Type species Procyon lotor Linnaeus, 1758 Species Procyon cancrivorus Procyon insularis Procyon lotor This article is about genus Procyon. ... Orders Subclass Nautiloidea †Plectronocerida †Ellesmerocerida †Actinocerida †Pseudorthocerida †Endocerida †Tarphycerida †Oncocerida †Discosorida Nautilida †Orthocerida †Ascocerida †Bactritida Subclass †Ammonoidea †Goniatitida †Ceratitida †Ammonitida Subclass Coleoidea †Belemnoidea †Aulacocerida †Belemnitida †Hematitida †Phragmoteuthida Neocoleoidea (most living cephalopods) ?†Boletzkyida Sepiida Sepiolida Spirulida Teuthida Octopoda Vampyromorphida The cephalopods (Greek plural (kephalópoda); head-foot) are the mollusk class... Graduation portrait of Linus Pauling, 1922 The square academic cap, very commonly called a mortarboard (from the French mortier, a type of toque), is an item of academic headgear consisting of a horizontal square board fixed upon a skull-cap, with a tassel, or liripipe, attached to the centre. ... Species (type) Hatcher, 1901 (Gillette, 1991) Lucas et al. ... Jimmy Wales in Paris, France Jimmy Donal Jimbo Wales (born August 7, 1966) is the co-founder of Wikipedia. ... Wikipedia (IPA: , or ( ) is a multilingual, web-based, free content encyclopedia project, operated by the Wikimedia Foundation, a non-profit organization. ... For other uses, see Evil (disambiguation). ... This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ... Edgar Allan Poe (January 19, 1809 – October 7, 1849) was an American poet, short story writer, playwright, editor, literary critic, essayist and one of the leaders of the American Romantic Movement. ... Wikipedia does not yet have an article with this exact name. ...

Scenery characters

These supporting characters never say much. Often, they are simply part of the scenery of the strip, and most later strips very rarely even acknowledge them, despite their regular appearance. They all appear in the strip while T-Rex is about to stomp on them. These characters are:

• The tiny house (occupied in at least one strip)
• The tiny car (possibly occupied)
• The tiny woman

Easter eggs

Every comic contains three hidden comments (easter eggs). One is accessed by holding the cursor over the strip and waiting for the title text tooltip to pop up (this can also be accessed through the image file's properties menu for browsers with a length limit). The second, which began appearing with the fifth comic, is found in the subject line of the "Comments" e-mail address. The third is found in the RSS feed of the comic and the archive page, being, essentially, the comic's title. Some comics have additional easter eggs, an example being the URL to God's ringtone (the Téléfrançais theme) hidden in the watermark of comic #399([7]) A virtual Easter egg is a hidden message or feature in an object such as a movie, book, CD, DVD, computer program, or video game. ... An -mail address identifies a location to which e-mail messages can be delivered. ... For RSS feeds from Wikipedia, see Wikipedia:Syndication. ... Téléfrançais is a French language childrens television show, produced by TVOntario in 1985 and 1986. ...

Also, the image at the bottom of the webpage displaying the tiny woman and house changes according to the current season.

Awards

Dinosaur Comics was named one of the best webcomics of 2004 and 2005 by The Webcomics Examiner. In 2005, it won "Outstanding Anthropomorphic Comic" in the Web Cartoonist's Choice Awards[8]. Soon after, in August 2005, Dinosaur Comics was accepted into the Dayfree Press. Year 2004 (MMIV) was a leap year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday (link displays full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday (link displays full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... The Web Cartoonists Choice Awards (WCCA) is an annual event, since the summer of 2001, in which online cartoonists nominate and select outstanding webcomics in a variety of categories. ... Dayfree Press is an online webcomic syndicate. ...

Japan English class

Dinosaur Comics has been used by an English teacher in Japan for creative writing exercises. The project is similar to Penny Arcade's "Remix Project." The teacher, Patrick, who was a friend of Ryan, the strip's author, used blank templates of the comic and had his students fill in dialogue. The results of this activity have been posted to the Dinosaur Comics fanart page. Penny Arcade is a webcomic and blog written by Jerry Holkins and illustrated by Mike Krahulik. ...

See also

• Whispered Apologies
• Attitude 3: The New Subversive Online Cartoonists (includes material from Dinosaur Comics)

Ryan North owns several other domain names, all redirecting to www.qwantz.com, and chosen for comic effect. These include: Whispered Apologies is a webcomic started on April 25th, 2005. ...

• http://www.chewbac.ca
• http://www.dinosaurcomics.com
• http://www.exotica.ca
• http://www.poo.ca
• http://www.dromiceiomim.us

References

1. ^ Such as the Portland Mercury[1] see also an interview with North: "Q: Is Dinosaur Comics printed anywhere else off the Internet? A: It was in a few papers, but they tended to go bankrupt, so that was the end of that." from the interview "North By T-Rex: Dinosaur Comics' Ryan North talks about bringing up his dino-baby in the world of webcomics"
2. ^ http://qwantz.com/index.pl?comic=928

The Portland Mercury is an alternative weekly newspaper published in Portland, Oregon. ...

External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to:

Dinosaur Comics

• qwantz.com- official homepage
• Dinosaur Comics Japanese English Student Version - The results of Japanese English students writing dialogue for Dinosaur Comics.
• Webcomics Examiner interviews Ryan North
• A Greasemonkey user script that displays the three usual easter eggs