Age Of Reptiles: Ancient Egyptians #4 - Dark Horse Comics

AGE OF REPTILES: ANCIENT EGYPTIANS No. 4, September 2015

“Ricardo Delgado’s latest tale of survival and the cycle of life in Cretaceous Africa” begins with an incredibly ruthless confrontation between a bull Paralititan and a “lone, deadly Spinosaurus Aegyptiacus”... Then frankly doesn’t stop in its graphic depiction of Prehistoric savagery and mutilation until towards the end of this twenty-four page periodical, when the series’ victorious protagonist seemingly bids farewell to his nesting mate and stalks off into the treeless wastes beyond the Baharija Formation.

Such unrelenting brutal barbarity genuinely proves an incredibly tiring experience for the reader, especially when each of the production designer’s bloodily animated panels are so overly-packed with all many of details that it frequently becomes necessary to just stop and study each and every drawing for a few minutes. Indeed it is almost as if the Costa Rican author has purposely tried to exhaust his audience in a similar manner to that employed by the plethora of combative carnivores who eventually wear down their colossal-sized prey. It is certainly very easy to understand why the “second largest known creature ever to walk on Earth” ruinously resigns himself to a ghastly fate after being so mercilessly badgered by page after page of vicious bites and clawing attacks…

However those bibliophiles fatally fatigued by such remorseless storytelling have genuinely missed as dramatically atmospheric an Antediluvian conflict as any dinosaur fan could want, courtesy of the Tidal Giant's vicious injuries “drawing the attention of the entire ecosystem” surrounding the combatants. In fact such is the ferocity of the Carcharodontosaurus, Rugops and Deltadromeus’ maw-sized attacks that the meat-eaters actually start to get in one another’s way as they repeatedly launch themselves at the ever-weakening, mortally-wounded Sauropod.

All of this guts and gore, including the odd stomach-turning picture drawn from inside the Titanosaur whilst his intestines are devoured by primeval crocodiles, is both incredibly well pencilled by Delgado and competently coloured by Ryan Hill. Although some may question the necessity to depict the once mighty Paralititan being literally pulled to pieces by swarms of hungry carnivores across the length of several pages before the title’s creator finally ends the ravaged cadaver's woes with a grisly sketch of a Pterosaur plucking out one of the herbivore’s sightless eyes…

Story, Art and Dinosaur Color Concepts: Ricardo Delgado, and Colors: Ryan Hill