Trivia / Flesh

• Accidentally-Correct Writing: This comic contains arguably the first ever mention of "feathered" dinosaurs in popular fiction, in the form of furry tyrannosaurs living to the north of the TransTime base.
• Referenced by...: Hitman (1993) had an arc that was essentially a Whole-Plot Reference to Flesh, with hunters traveling back in time to kill dinosaurs, and a scarred tyrannosaur antagonist who is referred to as a "hag monster". Hitman creator Garth Ennis had written for 2000 AD in the past.
• Science Marches On: The comic has not aged well in respect to its portrayal of dinosaurs and other prehistoric life. To wit:
  • Old One-Eye is stated to be 120 years old. We now know that T. rex didn't usually make it past 30.
  • While the comic does get credit for introducing feathered tyrannosaurs, the Deinonychus are still scaly. They are also shown using their giant claws to slash instead of to stab.
  • There's a brief mention of "terrible hand" dinosaurs (presumably Deinocheirus) in Old One-Eye's carnivore army. They look like tyrannosaurs with giant hands. We now know, of course, that Deinocheirus actually looked more like a weird bird than anything else.
  • Phobosuchus is now called Deinosuchus.
  • The tyrannosaurs are usually shown in the outdated "tripod" pose, with their tails on or near the ground, rather than having their backs held horizontally. This was rectified when Satanus was brought back in Judge Dredd.
  • Spinosaurus briefly appears, and is portrayed as a quadrupedal "carnosaur" rather than the crocodile-headed aquatic creature we now know it to be. Ironically, Big Hungry the Nothosaurus in Book 2 more closely fits what is thought to be the Spinosaurus's accurate physical appearance.
  • The "furry tyrannosaurs" manage to be both this and Accidentally-Correct Writing. While the comic did correctly predict the discovery of dinosaurs with feathers, it's now believed that very big dinosaurs—such as tyrannosaurs—would not have been so heavily feathered, for the same reason large mammals like elephants have very little hair. That said, Flesh's furry tyrannosaurs are implied to live somewhere very cold, which might explain their thick plumage.
    • The notion of large (although not T-rex sized), feathered tyrannosauroids has since been proven to be more accurate than not with the discovery of Yutyrannus.
  • The mosasaurs shown in the Chronocide arc have long, flat, eel-like tails, as opposed to the shark-like tail fins that they actually had. They also do not have forked tongues.