During the 2010s, science fiction's immortal adversaries King Kong and Godzilla, representing our conflicts per Carl Sagan's "dream dragons" analogy, made comebacks in American cinema. The blockbuster Kaiju resurged onto the screen, depicting these protectors of an Earth plagued by mankind's hubris and folly. With Earth's future hanging in the balance, their climactic 2021 staging settled a score between the two giant monsters, resolving Toho's classic 1963 film King Kong vs. Godzilla. As formidable creatures emerging from Time's Tomb on Mother Earth, metaphorical Kong and Godzilla are considered here in light of new millennial environmentalism's stark reality. This book, nostalgic in tone, explores the meaning of Kong and Godzilla as planetary saviors-titanic protectors of a theoretical "living Earth" Gaia-defending the globe from a prehistoric plague of adversaries.

With the first illustrated edition of Jules Verne's Journey to the Center of the Earth, 1867, readers began a fascination with the concept of dinosaurs and prehistory. Although rudimentary paleo-fiction had actually gotten its start decades earlier, it was the partnership of Verne and illustrator Edouard Riou which gave dinosaurs a visual life and essentially set the stage for their artistic and literary depiction. Over the next century or so, writers would time and again come back to dinosaurs as an element of fantastic fiction, often using these creatures--through the venue of the written word--to reflect the world of the writers' own time. From Jules Verne to Michael Crichton, this literary survey examines how paleoliterature originated, developed and matured from its inception in the 1820s to the present day. It follows historical trends on the crafting of classic dinosaurs, investigating the enlivened figurative and metaphoric meaning of fictional dinosaurs and related prehistoria. Also discussed are the ways in which dinosaur fiction mirrors contemporary ideas about subjects such as geology, the Cold War, environmentalism, time travel, evolution and bioengineering. Texts included are limited to those which are available in English and which emphasise dinosaurs, although other favoured pseudo-dinosaurs are sometimes discussed. Featured authors include Ray Bradbury, H.G. Wells, and Poul Anderson, among others. In select cases, the novelisations of movie scripts are also utilised. An appendix provides brief summaries of deserving dinosaur texts, organised alphabetically by author. Illustrations and an index are also included.

From their discovery in the 19th century to the dawn of the Nuclear Age, dinosaurs were seen in popular culture as ambassadors of the geological past and as icons of the ""life through time"" narrative of evolution. They took on a more foreboding character during the Cold War, serving as a warning to mankind with the advent of the hydrogen bomb. As fears of human extinction escalated during the ecological movement of the 1970s, dinosaurs communicated their metaphorical message of extinction, urging us from our destructive path. Using an eclectic variety of examples, this book outlines the three-fold ""evolution"" of dinosaurs and other prehistoric monsters in pop culture, from their poorly understood beginnings to the 21st century.

A new book, expanded from the 1995 first edition, describing detailed, step-by-step procedures for sculpting, molding and painting original prehistoric animals, emphasising the use of relatively inexpensive materials including oven-hardening polymer clay and wire. Additional tips are offered on how to build distinctive dino-dioramas and scenes involving one's own original sculptures that you will learn how to conceive and build. This book will appeal to - and inspire - the latest generation of prospective prehistoric animal lovers who would like to break into the industry of paleosculpture. Techniques range from the ""basic"" to ""advanced."" The authors also discuss what it means to be a ""paleoartist,"" both in the past and present.

Over centuries, discoveries of fossil bones spawned legends of mythological monsters such as giants and dragons. As the field of earth sciences matured during the 19th century, early fossilists gained appreciation for prehistoric creatures such as Tyrannosaurus, Triceratops and Stegosaurus. This historical study examines how these genuine beasts morphed in the public imagination into mythical, powerful engines of destruction and harbingers of cataclysm, taking their place in popular culture, film, and literature as symbols of 'lost worlds' where time stands still.