Flesh, Book One, Part 9

NAME
Flesh, Book One, Part 9

FIRST PUBLISHED
2000 A.D. Prog 9

DATELINE
23 Apr 77

PAGE COUNT
5

REPRINTS
Judge Dredd Megazine 4.06, Scavengers 15 and Flesh: The Dino Files.

SYNOPSIS
Time travelling holidaymakers enter the fray.

FIRSTS & LASTS
First appearance of the Dino-Express.

INFORMATION
Fun-City is an establishment on the Moon. Children are not chastised in the 23rd century.

In addition to other time travel operations, Trans-Time Holiday operates the Dino-Express, a train equipped with a Dinopuncher to deflect dinosaurs and a horn that sounds like a bellowing Tyrannosaur.

EARL REAGAN
He can recognise the difference between the sound of Tyrannosaur and the horn on the Dino-Express. He knows how to drive a train and manages to drive the Dino-Express until Old One Eye traps it with an avalanche.

JOE BRONTOWSKI
He mans the guns on the Dino-Express.

OLD ONE EYE
Upon hearing the Dino-Express horn she assumes another Tyrannosaur is on her territory, climbs out and heads after the sound. She attacks the Dino-Express and causes an avalanche with her tail, trapping it. Old One Eye eats Orville Wainwright.

OTHER CHARACTERS
CLAW CARVER
He mans the guns on the Dino-Express and kills a Tyrannosaur.

SLICK PARSONS
A Trans-Time Holidays Tour Courier, he does not take kindly to Earl Reagan telling him what to do.

ORVILLE WAINWRIGHT
A holidaymaker from the Twenty-Third Century, his father saved for two years to afford to take his family on a Trans-Time Holiday. He isn't enjoying it. Old One Eye bites him.

DEATHS
Three. At least two Dino-Express passengers are eaten by Tyrannosaurs and Claw Carver manages to shoot and kill a Tyrannosaur.

BEST LINES
Orville Wainwright: "You smell, Mister."

WORST LINES
Slick Parsons: "Don't you find the idea of being back in prehistoric times exciting, Orville? After all, many children from the Twentieth Century would be only too glad to be in your shoes."

CATCHPHRASES
None.

CONTINUITY & CROSSOVERS
None.

INFLUENCES & REFERENCES
Ouranosaurus is a herbivorous dinosaur that lived during the early Cretaceous Period about 110 million years ago in what is now Africa. Every other species of dinosaur seen in Flesh so far has been from North America and Ouranosaurus fossils have been exclusively found in Afica, but that's not to say that time travelling rangers didn't transplant them from one continent to the other.

MISTAKES
How does Old One Eye cause an avalanche ahead of a train moving away from her at speed? Also, the first page (see above) features the little Dan Dare icon in the corner instead of Flesh's own little symbol.

RETROSPECT
None.

NOTES
None.

CREDITS
There are no credits on the original strip itself, these are from Barney.

Script: Studio Giolitti
Artist: Boix
Letters: Jack Potter

REVIEW
The juxtaposition of the Holidaymakers and the Rangers works well here and the artwork of the train in the opening splash, the Ouranosaurus and the panel of Claw Carver shooting Tyrannosaurs are magnificent. Orville Wainwright has it coming from the moment you see him and it's a shame that a 100G nervous system was deemed necessary to view his demise.

Orville Was The First...Just The First...