Cadillacs and Dinosaurs

<span class="SFPTagline"> From SCIFIPEDIA </span>

Cadillacs and Dinosaurs The CBS animated series of this name was based on the comic book Xenozoic Tales by artist and writer Mark Schultz (b. 1955). Set in a post-apocalyptic world 600 years in the future where dinosaurs have been reborn and transportation is limited to restored, souped-up classic American cars, the comic began when Schultz’s submission was picked out of the unsolicited manuscripts or slush at Kitchen Sink Press by editor Dave Schreiner and publisher Denis Kitchen. After the introductory story was published in the horror anthology comic Death Rattle no. 8 in 1986, Schultz was given his own series, starting in February 1987. The stories star unique action hero Jack Tenrec, a mechanic who’s part shaman, and Hannah Dundee, a politically savvy ambassador whose pin-up good looks are balanced by her brains and courage. Schultz’s crackling adventure short stories combine the intelligence of EC Comics with the headlong pace and inventiveness of Edgar Rice Burroughs and Robert E. Howard, while making room for explorations of alternate history, political intrigue, and even the workings of evolution, particularly in his stories about the Grith, the humanoid, intelligent descendants of dinosaurs. Inspired by EC Comics adventure artists like Al Williamson and Frank Frazetta, Schultz’s art also incorporates the gravitas and depth of strip masters like Alex Raymond (Flash Gordon) and Hal Foster (Tarzan, Prince Valiant). Schultz’s work on Xenozoic Tales, with its inventive anatomy, striking character design, and environmental and historical awareness is not so much a revival of classic comic art as an index of what comics could have become without the repression of the Comics Code and the death of the adventure strip. Xenozoic is Schultz’s term for the geologic age in which his future history is set, but when it was optioned for an animated series, a more popular title was needed, and Kitchen coined Cadillacs and Dinosaurs (GM licensed the Cadillac name for this use). The series, which kept at least some of the ecological awareness and character-driven qualities of the comics, had 13 episodes broadcast on CBS in 1993-94, and a toy line from Tyco. Ratings data showed that too many girls were watching the series, and since they were not considered a market for action toys, it was canceled after one season. The comic book continued for fourteen issues, with later issues including back up stories by Underground and SF artist Steve Stiles. The Xenozoic stories were collected in three anthology volumes by Kitchen Sink Press, and Schultz’s Xenozoic stories were reprinted in two volumes by Dark Horse Comics in 2003. Kitchen Sink released a variety of Xenozoic collectibles, including candy bars in a cigar-type box and a boxed portfolio in 1998, and Clayburn Moore created a cold cast statue of Hannah Dundee and a saber-tooth from a drawing by Schultz. Schultz’s painstaking attention to detail in his art eventually led him to produce one comic book every eighteen months, and since the demise of Kitchen Sink Press in 1999, he has turned more of his attention to writing, and he is developing Xenozoic Tales as a novel or series of novels.

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