Line #38 ComicBook/XenozoicTales


1	[[quoteright:250:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/XenozoicTalesDarkHorse01small.jpg]]
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3	->''In the 26th century, mankind faces an epic struggle for survival. The forces of nature have spun wildly out of control. Mighty cities have crumbled, and the dinosaurs have returned to reclaim the earth. In this savage land, one man stands alone: Jack Tenrec. Defending humanity in a world gone mad. A world where only the strong survive. A world of... [[TitleDrop Cadillacs and Dinosaurs]]!''
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5	In 2020, the Earth is shaken by upheavals and disaster. Mankind retreats underground, hiding in shelters, waiting for the end, kept alive by the mechanics working on the machines. So dependent are the survivors on the mechanics that they become a cult, a religion.
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7	450 years later, mankind emerges to find a world that should not exist, filled with animals and plants from all ages of Earth's history. A world where dinosaurs hunt sabertooth cats and pterosaurs wheel above oceans filled with trilobites. Welcome to the Xenozoic age.
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9	The world first appeared in ''Death Rattle'' #8 in a short story called ''Xenozoic!'' which introduced the characters and concepts. This was rapidly spun off into its own series under the name ''Xenozoic Tales'', which premiered in February, 1987 and ran through issue 14, published in October 1996. Never officially canceled, creator Mark Schultz (not the Christian singer ''or'' the [[Film/{{Foxcatcher}} wrestler]]) still insists he'll be getting issue 15 out at some point. Don't hold your breath. Issue 14 didn't show up until two years after issue 13, largely due to the lushly detailed artwork Schultz drew. It's somewhat better known under the label "'''Cadillacs and Dinosaurs'''", which was the title of the first trade and rapidly supplanted the actual title in the minds of many fans.
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11	The series focused on Old Blood Mechanic Jack Tenrec, who seeks to protect mankind against another catastrophe by working with the environment instead of against it. He also enjoyed working on classic cars, buried in the underground chambers with humanity during the long retreat from the surface. He lives in the City In the Sea (the remains of New York, now mostly submerged), protecting people from dinosaurs and dinosaurs from people and driving his precious ancient cars (modified to run on dinosaur guano) around the nearby deserts.
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13	Alternately working with and against Jack is Hannah Dundee, ambassador from the city of Wassoon (Washington, D.C.), who has come to the City In The Sea for hidden reasons. While Jack is the NatureHero, Hannah is the pragmatic type, believing in scientific explanations. Together, they struggle against poachers, corrupt politicians, and the wilderness while coming ever closer to understanding the mysteries of their world, including the sentient, reptilian Grith, who apparently knew far more than they ever let on.
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15	The series was popular enough to have several [[SpinOff spin-offs]], usually under the ''Cadillacs and Dinosaurs'' label, including a Saturday morning cartoon by Creator/{{Nelvana}}[[note]] and animated by Creator/{{APPP}}[[/note]] (now [[https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLBZNlAa1UKF5bib4r8hP43CZOgCqOFdKr available on Youtube]] in its entirety), an RPG setting, two video games (an arcade beat 'em up ''VideoGame/CadillacsAndDinosaurs'' by Creator/{{Capcom}} and a visual novel ''The Second Cataclysm'' for the Platform/SegaCD), and even comics published by other companies during the lengthy gaps between issues of the main title.
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17	In 2015, Mark Schultz released '''''Storms At Sea''''', an illustrated novella which is not directly connected with ''Xenozoic Tales'' and is set in what appears to be an alternative twentieth century. But in a trope of RecursiveCanon, the characters in ''Storms'' find a prediction warning of the world becoming exactly as shown in ''Xenozoic'', including the causes of this dire future to come.
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19	----
20	!!Contains examples of:
21	* AfterTheEnd: The basic setting. Civilization has collapsed, nature (and primordial beasts) have reclaimed the land, and mankind lives in secluded settlements attempting to exist in balance with nature.
22	* AmazonBrigade: Big Red and her all-female biker crew in "The Wild Ones". Subverted in that the reason it's all-female is because a mystery DeadlyGas wiped out the men in their population when they were still underground as opposed to them actively shunning men. Not that this keeps Big Red and her crew seeing the men they do encounter (i.e. Jack and co.) as the weaker gender and expendable breeding stock.
23	* AnimatedAdaptation: It's based on a comic book, it's got dinosaurs, what better to do with it than put it on Saturday Morning?
24	* AppliedPhlebotinum: The world's random mix of wildlife from all different stages of earth's history is seemingly explained by [[spoiler:a mysterious substance found in some meteorites that [[EvolutionaryLevels "speeds up evolution"]].]]
25	* ArtEvolution: Mark Schultz' skill at drawing improves dramatically between the first ''Death Rattle'' story and the last issue of the series. Unfortunately, there's an inverse relationship between his skill drawing and the length of time between issues.
26	* ArtisticLicensePaleontology: It has to be admitted. Not because Schultz didn't know better, but because he very consciously chose to discard it to make a better story. Schultz dinosaurs, at least in the later issues, are actually very well-researched and as accurate as he could make them.
27	* AttackOfThe50FootWhatever: That's the second biggest [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harvestmen harvestman]] I've ever seen.
28	* BarbieDollAnatomy: Used in the dream sequences when Hannah ends up unclothed. Jack gets the SceneryCensor treatment.
29	* BarbarianHero: Hannah has elements of this, she's a master tracker and hunter with a spear - she's generally more skilled outdoors than eco-extremist Jack. But while she's not a scientist as in the cartoon ''Cadillacs and Dinosaurs'', her and her people are very well educated despite looking like inhabitants from a JunglePrincess comic.
30	* BehemothBattle: Issue #8 features a bonus comic titled ''King of Beasts'' that's all about a fight between a ''Tyrannosaurus'' and a mammoth. [[spoiler: Both end up killing each other.]]
31	* BelligerentSexualTension: Between Jack and Hannah. Argue LikeAnOldMarriedCouple? Check. Have sex with each other in several issues? Check. Go back to old-married couple mode in the issue following--if not just a few panels later in-- the one they just had sex in? Check.
32	* BettyAndVeronica: Very thinly implied with Jack as the Archie caught between Hannah and Gov. Dahlgren. Who is the Betty and who is the Veronica depends on which woman's point of view you take. There's also the briefly explored but much clearer love triangle between Hannah (Archie), current partner Jack (Betty) and ex-lover Lord Baclutha (Veronica).
33	** The Topps Comics storyline entitled "The Wild Ones" toys with this between Jack (Archie), Hannah (Betty), and Big Red (Veronica).
34	* BigBad: Scharnhorst, an ambitious Mole who gradually grows into a populist leader who takes over the City In The Sea.
35	* BizarreAlienPsychology: The Grith are benevolent, but they still don't think like humans and most humans struggle to communicate with them. They minimize contact for that reason.
36	* BothSidesHaveAPoint: While Jack is correct in that over reliance on industry and technology will simply repeat the errors made that caused the Cataclysm in the first place and that generally make the Earth a toxic place to live in any case if allowed to progress unchecked, his over reliance on nature to the point of fanaticism and completely shunning technology designed to make human survival easier is called out as having the potential to be just as bad in the opposite direction.
37	* CallARabbitASmeerp:
38	** Different names have developed for the dinosaurs (slithers), which makes sense if you assume that dinosaur books weren't a priority inclusion in the underground shelters. Examples include ''Tyrannosaurus'' (shivats), ''Allosaurus''/''Deinonychus'' (cutters), ''Triceratops'' (macks), and pterosaurs (zekes). Inexplicably, every isolated city seems to have independently used the same names. Averted in the case of mammoths and sharks, which are called, respectively, mammoths and sharks.
39	** Hermes, Jack's pet "cutter". In the comics and the cartoon, he's portrayed as an adolescent ''Allosaurus''; in the toy line and the video game he's a ''Deinonychus'', probably to cash in on the ''Franchise/JurassicPark'' raptor's popularity.
40	* CoolCar: Modified to run without gasoline. on dinosaur droppings, no less! Any car that has to outrun a charging mammoth, ''Brontotherium'', or ''Styracosaurus'' is automatically cool.
41	* CoolVsAwesome: In the ''Maneater'' story arc, Jack's pet juvenile ''Allosaurus'' Hermes pulls a BigDamnHeroes moment against a ''T. rex'', that's more than twice his size and has chameleon-like camouflaging abilities and a NighInvulnerable hide. And he gets some decent hits in before it turns into a CurbStompBattle that Jack narrowly saves him from. For comparison, ''Xenozoic Tales'' featured a ''normal'' ''T. rex'' taking down a fully grown ''Allosaurus'' without breaking a sweat.
42	* CorruptPolitician: Gorgostamos and Scharnhorst. Nock, already questionable, becomes more of one after Scharnorst is elected. Hannah forewarns Jack when he seeks Wassoon asylum that her own leaders are constantly power-playing against each other and shouldn't be trusted. Sure enough, they're shown to be not much better than Jack's own rulers. Averted with Dahlgren, who sympathizes with the Old Bloods, and Toulouse, who simply wants what's best for the City and its people but is easily manipulated because of this.
43	* CrouchingNiceGuyHiddenJerkass: Gov. Nock starts out as a nice enough fellow, but gradually shows his opposition to Jack, Hannah's presence, and the Machinatio Vitae as the series goes on, to the point that he sycophantically sides with everything Scharnhorst says and does. ''Everything''.
44	** Likewise, Gov. Gorgostamos seems [[AffablyEvil sympathetic]] to helping Hannah reach a peaceful resolution with Jack by meeting privately with him. It's a ploy to get Gorgostamos close enough to assassinate the mechanic.
45	* DreamingOfThingsToCome: Well, dreaming of things that are currently happening, but which the characters are unaware of, at least.
46	* DreamSequence: Used at least twice. It's also how the Grith communicate with Jack and Hannah long distance.
47	* DumbDinos: Hermes is frequently a victim of this, being either nearly untameable except for Jack(sometimes) in the comic or simply behaving like a giant, dim-witted pet iguana until the situation requires otherwise in the cartoon.
48	** Wild dinosaurs don't fare much better, particularly the large herbivores which makes them easy victims for poachers.
49	* EgomaniacHunter: Lord Balclutha, to Jack's chagrin.
50	* EnemyMine:
51	** Jack and Baclutha end up realizing mid-duel that they've been set against each other by Wassoon's rulers… so they team up instead in order to pressure them into helping Jack out.
52	** The Terhunes, realizing that Scharnhorst legalizing their trade has saturated the poaching/hunting market to the point that they can barely make a living off of it anymore, start working alongside the Old Blood resistance to overthrow her.
53	* EvilPoacher: The primary antagonists for the early part of the series and in the cartoon, especially the Terhune family.
54	* FatBastard: Gorgostamos, Scarnhorst and Hammer Terhune are prominent villains, and all morbidly obese. I sense AnAesop about overconsumption...
55	* FieryRedhead: Big Red from "The Wild Ones". Notable because nearly every Caucasian woman portrayed in the series is an AloofDarkhairedGirl, Hannah notwithstanding on the aloof part.
56	* FromCataclysmToMyth: Whether the Old Blood Mechanics story of what caused the end is true or not is a matter of debate.
57	* FurBikini: Hannah wears a fur-one-piece swimsuit at one point. It is, however, a swimsuit, not her typical clothing.
58	* GaiasVengeance: What the Old Bloods believe the Cataclysm was, hence their focus on maintaining the Balance between nature and civilization. Whether they're correct is unclear, but once Scharnhorst takes power and begins actively destroying the Balance, things go downhill ''fast''…
59	* GoodGunsBadGuns: As described below, nearly everyone are wearing revolvers throughout. The total number of times that semiautomatic pistols appear in the entire series can be counted on one hand, and were only used by the nastiest of bad guys.
60	** Also, all the rifles are strictly bolt-action models, and absolutely no automatic weapons (assault rifles, machine guns, etc.) appear anywhere, with the closest thing being a prosthetic arm attachment wielded by a big game hunter with a score to settle against Jack in ''Maneater''.
61	* GreenAesop: Talk to an Old Blood Mechanic, any Old Blood Mechanic.
62	* HeelFaceTurn: The Terhunes, kinda. They still hate Tenrec and everything he stands for, but they hate Scharnhorst and her bureaucratizing even more because it's hurting their poaching business and so begin fighting her alongside the resistance.
63	* HerosClassicCar: Jack is a mechanic who enjoys restoring classic Cadillacs (which by this point are over 400 years old) and uses a red 50s era one to get around a dinosaur infested jungle.
64	* HuntingTheMostDangerousGame: Hannah's jealous ex-lover, Lord Baclutha, plays this with Jack as the prey.
65	* {{Hypocrite}}: Jack openly opposes nearly all technology, seeing it as an evil that endangers the natural balance. However, he has no problem resurrecting mid-20th century gas guzzling cars that certainly contributed to pre-Cataclysmic Earth's pollution for his own enjoyment. To be fair, he's refurbished them to run on "slither guano", as in dinosaur excrement, of all things. Hannah even points it out to him, [[HypocrisyNod though Jack is aware of his hypocrisy]].
66	--> '''Hannah''': Hmmm... Strange that someone so '''concerned''' with balance would be working with machines that helped ignite the Great Cataclysm.
67	--> '''Jack''': Well, we '''all''' have our little quirks...
68	* InterfaithSmoothie: The Old Bloods religion is best described as a fusion between pagan animism/nature-worship and Daoism.
69	* ITakeOffenseToThatLastOne: Hannah is particular about how she is insulted. Not that reminding her about the rest of the insult is a good idea.
70	* ItWorksBetterWithBullets: On one of Jack's trips into the wasteland, one of his passengers turns out to be a poacher who came along to try and bag some game. After repeated warnings to stop are ignored, Jack resorts to sneakily switching the bullets from the poacher's gun with blanks. The poacher [[TooDumbToLive tries to go hunting again]] without realizing… and is promptly mauled to death by a pissed off cave bear after he gives away his position by trying to shoot it with his blank-loaded gun.
71	* LaserGuidedKarma: Jack figures out that a T-Rex has been attacking a mining town because one of the miners shot it in the eye attempting to poach it for some extra cash, only for the Rex to survive and began attacking people in a feral rage. After putting it down, Jack tells the miner in question where it's corpse is… knowing he'll most likely be attacked while harvesting the body by the Rex's ''mate'' when it inevitably finds the body. That's exactly what happens.
72	* LicensedGame: Both an RPG and two video games, one of which was an arcade side scrolling BeatEmUp by good ol' Creator/{{Capcom}} and is considered a classic in its genre. The other is a visual novel for the Platform/SegaCD is which less well remembered.
73	* LizardFolk: The Grith, who apparently have been living in hiding beneath Earth's surface since the Mesozoic Era.
74	* LostTechnology: Less advanced than most lost technology, but still lost, including an atomic bomb...
75	* LowerDeckEpisode: The backup stories not only allowed the comic to be filled-in with a faster artist, but gave some screen time and subplots to people besides the main characters (both minor and just new).
76	* ManipulativeBitch: How Scharnhorst goes from being a lowly Mole(not [[TheMole that kind]], but a person who keeps the ancient literature and artifacts safely tucked away in underground vaults) to being one of the City's governors.
77	* MisplacedWildlife and MisplacedVegetation: Justified by the AppliedPhlebotinum. As long as [[BellisariosMaxim you don't think about it too hard]].
78	* MotherNatureFatherScience: Hannah and Jack both invert and subvert this.
79	%% * MysteriousProtector: The Grith, to Hannah.
80	* MythArc: Scharnhorst's efforts to conquer the City, the political schemings of the Wassoon, and Jack's efforts to hold everything together in the face of those things.
81	* NatureHero: Jack Tenrec has some elements of this, as do most of the other Old Blood Mechanics.
82	* NiceJobBreakingItHero: When attempting to speak on Mustapha's behalf during the gubernatorial election, Jack lets his temper get the better of him and launches into an angry tirade against Mustapha's less than scrupulous competitor, [[TyrantTakesTheHelm Scharnhorst]] and how the city is bringing their problems on themselves by not respecting the Balance… ''right after a tropical storm has torn through the City and killed a number of people''. Unsurprisingly, this ends up swaying the other three governors and the city's populace to elect Scharnhorst, which in turn leads to Jack being incarcerated (and forced to seek asylum in Wassoon after he's sprung) and Scharnhorst calling open season on the City's Old Blood population.
83	* NoCelebritiesWereHarmed: According to WordOfGod, Jack and Hannah have been designed with slight inspiration from classic Hollywood stars Creator/BurtLancaster and Creator/BarbaraStanwyck, respectively.
84	* NoNewFashionsInTheFuture: And don't ask where Hannah gets pants that fit her that well.
85	* OrphanedSeries: sniff As of the last issue, we see Jack forced to seek asylum in Wassoon where he plots with its leaders to retake the City in the Sea by force, while the other Old Bloods organize a resistance to Scharnhorst's environmentally destructive policies.
86	* PulpMagazine: Not an actual pulp adventure, but clearly influenced by them.
87	* RagnarokProofing: Miles and miles and miles of Earth have been wiped clean of any sign humanity ever existed, continents have been reshaped, and the sea level has risen. But New York's skyscrapers are still standing, despite having all the lower levels soaked.
88	* RaisedByWolves: Hannah finds a child who was raised by the Grith and doesn't understand other humans.
89	* TheResistance: After Scharnhorst's rise to power, the Old Bloods form this to slow down her agenda of wiping them out and attempting to conquer nature, which they fear could lead to a second cataclysm.
90	* RetroUniverse: Yes, it's the 26th century and humans have just come out their vaults not too long ago, but rather than the late '80s technology from when the comics were first written, the comic instead uses styles and technology from the late '50s and early '60s.
91	* RevolversAreJustBetter: Lovingly emphasized are the large holsters with large revolvers worn on nearly everyone's hip all the time.
92	* RuleOfCool: Oh, come on, Cadillacs AND dinosaurs! In the future! After the apocalypse!
93	* SacrificialLion: The dog from one of the early back-up strips returns after Scharnhorst's rise to power… to be shot dead as a symbol of how the Balance is being destroyed by her and her goons.
94	* SceneryPorn: Mark Schultz drawing style is so detailed by the end of the series it can take several minutes to absorb each panel.
95	* SchizoTech: Justified in that the 20th century technology is recovered from the vaults.
96	* ScienceIsBad: Jack's opinion. Hannah disagrees in a good way, Scarnhorst disagrees in a bad way.
97	* SolarPunk: Potentially the UrExample. Set in a post-apocalyptic and primordial but [[WorldHalfFull ultimately pretty okay]] SchizoTech world with themes of balance between nature and technology, combatting tyranny, and spirituality.
98	* ATragedyOfImpulsiveness: Jack ends up destroying his own argument, turning the City against the Old Bloods, and handing Scharnhorst her victory in the election on a plate when he ends up going on an impulsive rant about how nobody in the City except him is following the Balance. Right after a tropical storm wrecked the City.
99	* TyrantTakesTheHelm: After Scharnhorst takes control of the City in the Sea through the gubernatorial election, she quickly becomes a tyrant and begins pushing the city to expand with zero regard for the Balance, bringing exactly the sort of destruction Jack feared, while crushing any dissent.
100	* UnresolvedSexualTension: Hannah and Jack, the cartoon series, yes. In the comic… well, the unresolved part doesn't last long. The nature of their relationship is messy and undefined, but the sex certainly isn't. And Baclutha isn't happy about that…
101	* UnspecifiedApocalypse: What exactly caused the Cataclysm goes unrevealed, though a lot of hints and theories are dropped.
102	* TheVoiceless: The Grith do not speak, but communicate with humans using Scrabble tiles. It's also implied they have some kind of telepathy. Neither does the human child they raised.
103	* WantingIsBetterThanHaving: Once Scharnhorst seizes power, the Terhunes are initially overjoyed to have Jack out of their hair and be able to poach freely as they always wanted… until they realize that poaching being legal under Scharnhorst means their profession is being bureaucratized; they not only need to be licensed to do it but they no longer have a stranglehold on the market and are being outcompeted into financial ruin. Soon enough, they're helping the resistance fight her out of sheer spite.
104	* WhatTheHellHero: Aduwa Steptoe, the Wassoon Old Blood, rips into Jack and gives him more than one TapOnTheHead from her walking stick, for his childish and reductive view of the Balance and how it's caused all the problems afflicting the City in the Sea, particularly by helping Scharnhorst gain power.
105	* {{Xenofiction}}: One backup story is told from the perspective of a domesticated dog on a farm as he defends his owner's property from a RaptorAttack.
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Context ComicBook / XenozoicTales