Dinosaur Comics is a web comic created by Ryan North. Its archive of strips goes all the way back to February 2003, and has been updated almost daily since.
I first found the series a few years ago while personalizing a Google page. The comic drew me in with its mixture of light-hearted comedy, over-the-top characters, and, of course, dinosaurs. But there is much more to North's comic than just the stomping green Tyrannosaur.There are only a handful of characters which permeate the long list of comics. Tyrannosaurus (or T-Rex... or whatever other slang the others may refer to him as in a particular day) is the main focus of the piece, and he is assisted by Dromiceiomimus, Utahraptor, and, occasionally even God, himself. Additional characters may sometimes show up, but, like God, remain off-panel.
T-Rex is a sort of wild card, always coming up with some crazy plan or idea, which he then bounces off of his two friends. Domiceiomimus is the only recurring female of the cast, and she normally is more likely to play around with T-Rex's ridiculous shenanigans. Utahraptor, on the other hand, is the most level-headed of the group, and this often leads him into confrontation with his best friend.
What is most interesting to notice about this work, though, is its repetitive nature. After reading only a few strips, one likely wouldn't notice the pattern (truth be told, it took me several weeks of following to catch on). But the genius in North's work is that he has only needed to draw up one set of panels. Sure, dialog and such change from entry to entry, but the keen observer will note that there is always the same cycle of pictures: T-Rex by himself, Headshot of T-Rex, T-Rex stomping a house with Domiceiomimus, T-Rex stomping a human while talking with Utahraptor, T-Rex and Utahraptor alone, and a final scene of T-Rex, by himself again.This is quite interesting to note, and makes it apparent that, while the author may just be taking the easy way out, he is also emphasizing the importance of his narrative over the visual context in his genre.
The artist also employs the same typeface for each character throughout his works. Every comic strip employs a rather bland and stark font, much like that used in the Notepad application or in HTML script. While this takes away from the raw personality of a hand-written style, it still adds some character to the words. It is interesting to note how the reader can still feel T-Rex's pure excitement and joy or Utahraptor's disdain, despite the generic text used for everyone involved. Again, North is taking advantage of what we as readers initially take from such aesthetic choices, and turns them against us, showing that his characterization can shine even through a stock font.
Often times, multiple characters will be speaking in the same box, and even occasionally they will not make a visual appearance on the page, as noted earlier. Yet still, North does not employ any sort of word or thought bubbles. Instead, a single line leads from character to voice, which, in itself, is not out of the ordinary. But with such small frames, and no room to move his characters about, it can sometimes be confusing when this overlapping dialog occurs, namely when it shows up in the third panel.
