In my last post, I talked about Nelson S. Bond’s “Exiles of the Dawn World” (Action Stories, December 1940) and how it used cavemen & dinosaurs in a Pulp magazine story. That Pulp was published by Fiction House, one of the top producers of comic books, with Jumbo Comics, Jungle Comics and Planet Comics. So it should be no surprise that there were comics using the same idea.
In fact, comics had been using a scenario of prehistoric humans living with dinosaurs since before Arthur Conan Doyle exploded the idea on the world in 1912’s The Lost World. Here are some comics that picked up the idea for one story. There were long-running comics that were based on Cavemen & Dinosaurs, like the comic strip Alley Oop, Westerns’s Turok Son of Stone, frequent Edgar Rice Burroughs comics usually featuring Tarzan, Joe Kubert’s Tor, Devil Dinosaur and later cartoons like The Flintstones. I’m not interested in the big game here, just one story found among other types of tales. Because of this, we will find several funny animals like Bugs Bunny and Mickey Mouse. (And Bob Hope, he’s a funny animal.)
Cartoons got in on the Cavemen & Dinosaur fun with prehistoric episodes like Daffy in “Daffy Duck and the Dinosaur” (1939), Fantasia‘s dinosaur segment (1940), Superman in “The Arctic Monster” (1942), Popeye in “Prehystical Man” (1948), Bugs in “Pre-Hysterical Hare” (1958), and more recently Primal. With the earliest of these being 1939, their creation happens just a little earlier than most of these comics. Of course, dinosaurs had been in some of the earlier cartoons like 1914’s “Gertie the Dinosaur”. So animation was well ahead of comics but the two complement each other nicely.
There is even a comic here that mimics Nelson Bond’s “Exiles of the Dawn World” but we’ll get to that later. The comics below all include time travel or lost worlds of some sort. The dinosaurs and cavemen don’t always appear together.
Golden Age
“A Thousand Years a Minute” (All-American Comics #7-12, October 1939-March 1940) was adapted from the novel by Carl Claudy. After the adventure on Mars, our intrepid explorers , Ted Dolliver and Alan Kane, go time traveling in Dr. Lazar’s new invention. Lazar drops dead but his Chinese servant helps out and the two go on a time trip. Claudy has cavemen and dinosaurs together in the past, which surprised me a little. I thought he was more scientific. But why let facts get in the way of a good story?
“Land of Long Ago” (Mickey Mouse comic strip, December 23, 1940-April 12, 1941) was written by Floyd Gottfredson and Merrill de Maris. Mickey and Goofy fly in a remote control plane to a volcanic island where cavemen and dinosaurs still live. Professor Dustibones has brought them there to see his discoveries. He has “tamed” the cavemen but they revolt and the trio flee. Dustibones has amnesia and can’t remember the entire existence of the island.
“Kaanga” (Jungle Comics #62, February 1945) was written by Frank Riddell. Jungle girl Ann and Kaanga have a martial spat. She storms off and gets captured by cavemen. Kaanga and N’Gesso follow, avoiding a dinosaur and killing a sabertooth. Meanwhile, Ann discovers Professor Gordon and his party have also been taken by the cavemen. The pterodactyls are used to escape. This is the only Fiction House story here. I used a bunch of others before so for more Jungle Comics dinosaurs, go here.
Silver Age
“Bugs Bunny on the Isle of Hercules” (Four Color #266, February 1950) was written by an unknown author. This is the comic that seems to borrow from our good Mr. Bond. Bugs and Porky start off exploring a haunted house . The ghosts turn out to be fake and a test for truly heroic individuals. Bugs and Porky are sent to the Isle of Hercules where very caveman-like heroes take on dinosaurs. It’s a mixed bag so it might just be a coincidence. When you have to write thirty pages of Bugs you’re going to tack a lot of things together to fill pages.
“Prehistoric Hysterics” (Four Color #725, September 1956) was written by an unknown author. Elmer Fudd wants to earn some cash for a vacation so he gets a job at a museum. The owner has a time machine and sends Fudd back in time to gather exhibits for the museum. Crooks find out and are also sent back to prehistoric times. By the end of both cavemen and dinosaurs, Elmer has a head full of lumps. He is too exhausted to go on another trip. He becomes an exhibit in the museum so he can rest.
“We Were 20th Century Cavemen!” (My Greatest Adventure #26, January 1959) was written by an unknown author. Jim and Nora are working on a remote island for a scientist who is creating a rejuv-ray, to make people younger. It turns out to be an devolution ray, turning a lizard into a dinosaur. The device explodes changing all the animals on the island. Jim and Nora are reduced to acting like cavemen to survive. There aren’t any devolved humans. For an entire post on DC’s Cavemen capers, go here. For more DC Dinosaurs, go here.
“Kooky Kavemen” (The Three Stooges #12, April 1963) was written by an unknown author. In search of new customers, the salesmen Stooges go a remote village in Outer Messovania, where humans are primitive and dinosaurs still exist. The trio need to find an old plane to get out of this antediluvian world.
“The Pre-Hysteric Man!” (The Adventures of Bob Hope #88, August-September 1964) was written by Arnold Drake. Bob gets into trouble with a gang of crooks and ends up in the secret lab of a mad scientist. A time machine sends him back to the prehistoric age where cavemen and dinosaurs exist together. The crooks force the scientist to send them back too, while Bob is waging a war against a giant caveman.
“Back to the Stone Age” (Dynamo #1, August 1966) was written by Tim Brent and revised by Wally Wood and Dan Adkins. The evil Demo and the mad scientist, Dr. Sparta, escape prison thanks to attacking dinosaurs. Dynamo pursues but gets sent back in time. Sparta makes Dynamo’s life hard, sending dinosaurs and cavemen at him. The superhero befriends the cavefolk and together they recapture the criminals.
“Captives of the Time-Stone!” (Tales of the Unexpected #96, August-September 1966) was written by an unknown author. The time capsule sends beings from the past against the researchers: a dinosaur, a giant sloth, cavemen and finally Mongol warriors. This one doesn’t have dinosaurs and humans living together. The time device pulls them from separate time periods.
Bronze Age
“The Time Machine” (Richie Rich Zillionz #1, October 1976) was written by an unknown author. Cousin Reggie wants to join the Adventurers’ Club but he lacks Richie’s ability for daring-do. A scientist has left his time machine with the Riches. The boys are sent back in time. Cadbury notices and follows. He saves the two from a T. rex. and then a sabertooth. Adventures with cavemen before Reggie tries to use a dinosaur to get into the Adventurers’ Club. Too bad the scientist has taken the time machine apart.
“Making History” (Richie Rich Vaults of Mystery #44, February 1982) was written by an unknown author. Professor Keenbean creates a time machine that Richie and Dollar accidentally use to go back in time. They encounter cave people who are fighting. After an incident with a dinosaur they find out that two of the cavefolk are actually aliens disguised as cavemen. The alien ship uses gold for fuel, which Dollar supplies. They fly away and Richie and Dollar return to our time.
Conclusion
“Prehistoric Traffic Problem” (Richie Rich #210, January 1982) and Everything’s Archie #144, August 1989 show an odd trend that happened in the 1980s. Well-established series presented Flintstones-style prehistoric versions of their usual fare. Mr. Lodge is now wearing a tiger skin but he still thinks Archie is an idiot. Mr. Rich is still a Capitalist swine even though money hasn’t been invented yet. I guess when you’ve been producing comics about these characters since the 1940s, you have to find a way to keep going. No need for time machines or lost worlds. You simply look back to a past that never existed. Cavemen & dinosaurs!
