Cacciatori di ossa: L'età dell'oro della paleontologia

by Jim Ottaviani (Testi), Zander Cannon (Illustrazioni), Kevin Cannon (Illustrazioni)

Il Far West è stato nel corso della storia lo scenario di famose battaglie, ma la sparatoria all'O.K. Corral non è nulla in confronto alla celebre "guerra delle ossa". Nel tardo 1800 i neo Stati Uniti iniziarono a scavare, a creare tunnel e a provocare esplosioni per collegare il paese fino all'Oceano Pacifico, portando alla luce rocce seppellite da milioni di anni e, con queste, reperti ossei.

Cacciatori di ossa è la storia di Edward Drinker Coper e Othniel Charles Marsh, due scienziati che hanno trovato ossa di dinosauro ingaggiando in seguito una vera e propria guerra per appropriarsi del bizzarro bottino.

Per rendere questo graphic novel ancora più sbalorditivo, l'artista Charles R. Knight è riuscito nell'impresa di riportare in vita, per questa storia, i dinosauri. Quest'incredibile racconto ad opera di Jim Ottaviani e Big Time Attic, è entrato in nomination per sei Eisner Award, vincendone due; due Ignatz Awards; e un Harvey Award.

Genres: Science, Graphic Novels, History, Nonfiction, Comics, Dinosaurs, Palaeontology

102 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 2005

About the author

I've worked at news agencies and golf courses in the Chicagoland area, nuclear reactors in the U.S. and Japan, and libraries in Michigan. When I'm not staying up late writing comics about scientists, I'm spraining my ankles and flattening my feet by running on trails. Or I'm reading. I read a lot.

Reviews

[s.penkevich [hiatus-will return-miss you all] · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you’ve not heard the tumultuous tales of the Bone Wars, settle in friend because do I have a story for you. The utterly batshit rivalry between paleontologists Edward Drinker Cope and Othniel Charles Marsh in the late 1800s was a whirlwind of theft, bribery, bombings, spies and more that led to tarnished reputations but also sparked the public interest in dinosaurs and fossil recovery and unlocked a wealth of knowledge on prehistoric life as the two men cataloged over a hundred new species of dinosaurs. Chronicling this bizarre and comically epic rivalry of the Gilded Age of Paleontology is this lovely graphic novel, Bone Sharps, Cowboys, and Thunder Lizards by Jim Ottaviani with illustrations by Big Time Attic that opens up just how wild the Wild West was during this period. With an excellent aim to balance history and fun, the graphic novel takes great care to deliver the stranger-than-fiction story and ends with a “fact or fiction” segment to further delve into the most offbeat facts while also giving justification to the several fictional elements that were incorporated or streamlined from true events in order to tell a more compelling narrative. A lot of fun and quite the bizarre tale, lets take a look at the Bone Wars.

At the start, Cope and Marsh had an amicable professional relationship. They even named species after each other like young lovers who, eventually because of rather conflicting personalities and a desire to be the best, would have quite a break-up where instead of throwing the other’s clothes out onto the street they were throwing whole ass dinosaur skeletons around and blowing up explosives to destroy any leftover fossils lest the other get ahold of them. The Bone Wars really kicked off in 1877 with the discovery of the Morrison Formation—a section of sedimentary rock from the Upper Jurassic period that has been the most fertile ground for finding dinosaur fossils in all of North America—when the man who discovered it alerted Marsh but also sent specimens to Cope after Marsh was slow to respond. Perturbed by Cope getting an upper hand, Marsh went west as well and the two frantically dug and published in order to be the center of attention and get their names on the most discoveries. These big egos lead to big discoveries but also to some big scandal where supposedly Marsh once stole a train full of dinosaurs, bribed Cope’s crew to work for him as double agents and even hired spies to collect intel on Cope. Some seriously divorced dick energy here.

Marsh (left) and Cope (right)

Before these two began their one-upmanship of shade and scandal, only 9 dinosaurs had been discovered and named. By the end of the Bone Wars, Cope and Marsh had named 144 dinosaurs. Unfortunately most of these dinosaurs are no longer considered valid. Part of this is due to Cope being over eager to publish and rushing out studies that may not have been fully accurate, which any of us who have ever submitted a college essay at 11:59pm can probably relate to. Between 1879 and 1880 he published 76 academic papers for instance with over 1400 articles to his name during his lifetime and its a shame we can’t have him and Alexander Hamilton compete in some speed-essay contest. Marsh also just occasionally tossed skulls from other dig sites onto bodies found elsewhere and called it good, which was how we briefly thought the Brontosaurus wasn’t real (good news, after being declared a made-up dinosaur, a 2015 study has reinstated the belief that the Brontosaurus was real) and its possible both of them recombined bones just to get a leg up on the competition. Which is kind of hilarious toddler behavior, just mixing shit up and being like yep totally new beast!

Wanting to ensure their rivalry was public, both men attacked each other in the press, such as Cope publishing an article of Marsh’s own employees grievances about him and both of them slandering the other like the tabloids. Marsh was given a position with the U.S. Geological Survey’s paleontology department, but after all the slander and scandal congress decided to cut their funding and kick Marsh to the curb. Cope didn’t get to laugh about it long though because his own reputation sucked so badly nobody would buy his dinosaurs and he soon died at the age of 56. Marsh would die two years later at the age of 67, probably pissy that Cope could claim first to die as a victory or something. Their rivalry was a mess but it really bolstered our knowledge of dinosaurs and that is cool. Except scientists have had to spend years figuring out which of their discoveries was legit and which was just tomfoolery.

This is a fun graphic novel that chronicles the events of the Bone Wars and also incorporates some really cool cameos by people like P.T. Barnum, Buffalo Bill and Alexander Graham Bell. Bone Sharps, Cowboys, and Thunder Lizards is as educational as it is entertaining and a great look at one of my favorite bizarre moments of history.

4/5

[Ed Erwin · Rating 2 out of 5]

Interesting subject (frauds and feuds among early paleontologists) but the story is hard to follow. I'm not exactly sure what went wrong, but it just didn't work for me. Lovely images, though. Interesting fact: all three of the paleontologists here supported the "dinosaurs are basically birds" idea, but kept that idea mostly quiet because their funders couldn't accept it.

[Josh · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's been almost ten years between reads but as good as I remembered it. Really interesting tale of Marsh and Cope, two prominent late-19th-century fossil hunters and the scientific and popular feud between them. Also covers Charles Knight, the artist who developed early conceptions about what dinosaurs looked like. The paleontologists had the bones, but it took the right kind of artist to add the flesh and the life. Jim Ottaviani does his usual mountain of research here to put it all together. We learn a lot about the people, but it's also clear what is fact and what is speculation (or outright fiction) that serves the higher story. I'm still calling it non-fiction: most of the made-up stuff is either specifics of conversations no one wrote down, meetings that probably didn't happen but the effect is the same, or (my favorite) the choice to show Cope with a more minimal facial hair style he didn't actually have until later in life (to avoid confusion between his appearance and Marsh's full beard).

I also love the presentation in this one. Terrific sepia-toned art throughout that manages to capture the period and the people. Also NBD just some staggeringly ambitious re-creations of Knight's dinosaurs throughout.

First read November 2006, re-read September 2015.

[Dani · Rating 3 out of 5]

hard for me to understand bc of all the white men with beards

[Skjam! · Rating 4 out of 5]

It is the Gilded Age, a time of prosperity for some, and the advancement of knowledge. Science is making great steps forward, but so is entrepreneurship, seeking any way to make a fast buck. Professor O.C. Marsh, a paleontologist, and showman P.T. Barnum, an entertainer, meet on a train. Barnum shows off his newest acquisition, the “Cardiff Giant.” Marsh is not impressed, as he knows this is a copy, and he is convinced the original giant was a fake to begin with. Not that this is going to stop Barnum one little bit.

But Barnum’s antics are a sideshow here. The meat of the story is the rivalry between Professor Marsh and Professor Edward Drinker Cope as they competed for the best fossil finds, and the funding and recognition of the scientific community of the late Nineteenth Century. The story also delves a bit into the career of artist Charles R. Knight, whose pictures helped shape the way we see dinosaurs to this day.

This includes the story of the brontosaur, a dinosaur accidentally created when the wrong skull was placed on a skeleton due to the need for hasty publishing to ensure staying in the public eye. (“Publish or perish” indeed!)

As this is a comic book rather than a full scholarly history, some events have been invented to move the story along, and others tied up more neatly than they were in real life. But the medium of choice allows this to be a fast-paced telling, and there are stunning sequences rendering two Native American legends about the ancient bones. (Professor Marsh thinks one of these stories is not true because it contradicts scientific fact. Chief Red Cloud realizes that it is true in a different way.)

There are notes in the back indicating where liberties have been taken with known history.

Overall, this is an excellent graphic novel for science-minded dinosaur fans from middle school on up who can take the bitter history with the sweet pictures of prehistoric beasts. (Note: some period racism towards Native Americans, even if the people doing it are well-meaning.)

[Stefano · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastico. Sembra un film western. Ottima la storia e l'impostazione grafica.

[Laura · Rating 2 out of 5]

I don’t know much about the bone wars. In fact I realized I’ve never given much thought at all to the early days of finding dinosaur/prehistoric mammal fossils. Now I have a ton of questions and will need to seek out another source of information on this period in history. This graphic novel was incredibly difficult to follow, which is unusual for a graphic novel. Usually the reason for that is difficulty in distinguishing the characters, but that wasn’t my issue here. I just kept getting totally lost on the plot. Why was paleoartist Charles R Knight sorta the the main character even though nothing really happened to him and it wasn’t like the story was generally being told through his perspective. I am curious about how he studied the bones anatomy and the anatomy of currently living creatures to produce his paintings, so he’s another person I’m going to have to look into.

This is pretty fascinating material: two scientists, Edward Drinker Cope and Othniel Charles Marsh had a huge rivavlry/race to see who could collect the most fossils. They resorted to shady business to get digging rights. Spies, sabotage, planting fake samples in hopes of tricking the other into writing a scientifically shoddy article, etc. Many famous figures from the time period appear here, like PT Barnum, Buffalo Bill Cody, and Ulysses S. Grant. I couldn’t imagine congress today caring so much about the minutiae of a scientist’s spat, but I guess the US was still in the process of expanding into the interior at this time. All three of the main men, Cope Marsh and Knight, suspected that dinosaurs looked like huge chickens instead of formidable lizards. Why then did I only find out about them being feathered rather than scaly when I was in like middle school? Who decided that we had to keep the feathers under wraps?

The portions with Chief Red Cloud were fascinating. There’s the use of land for fossil digging and how Chief Red Cloud tried to parlay the geological survey into a better deal for his people. He shares with one of the dudes, Marsh or Cope, idk I don’t have the book with me, the legends and myths that fit with the scientific discoveries of the fossils. I am always fascinated by the truth of myth and other ways of understanding. I want to know more about how long humans have known about dinosaurs.

Anyway this certainly sparked a lot of curiosity and I’m gonna have to find a long book about the subject, but the execution of this story was lacking. I can’t even put my finger precisely on why, I just felt confused the entire time. Maybe I was hungry, but I’m comforted to see many reviews with the exact same complaint.

[Soobie has fog in her brain · Rating 1 out of 5]

Forse 1,5 stelline, arrotondate per difetto.

L'ho trovato estremamente difficile da seguire. Da un lato non conoscevo i due tipi, dall'altro è noto che la sottoscritta ha tantissimi problemi a distinguere un personaggio dall'altro. Quindi, per me, i due erano praticamente intercambiabili. Ho letto ma ho fatto tanta fatica perché mi perdevo spesso tra i vari avvenimenti e i passaggi che non erano menzionati nel testo.

Non so, magari per chi conosce i due soggetti la lettura è più facile. Tutto sommato, la valutazione di questo romanzo grafico è piuttosto buona.

I disegni mi piacciono, soprattutto perché ci sono tanti grigi. E io adoro i grigi.

Vediamo cosa ci riserva l'ultimo volume della collana I grandi della scienza a fumetti.

[TheBookDragon'sReview · Rating 2 out of 5]

Edward Cope and Othniel Marsh were rival paleontologist during the 1800 Bone Rush. Both men coveted fame, dinosaur bones, and riches. Constantly trying to discredit one another and gain the upper hand both men stepped on, cheated, and destroyed themselves and their reputations all in the name of dinosaurs. This is their story.

I love dinosaurs. I know almost nothing about them. I certainly didn't know about Cope and Marsh during the Bone Rush of the 1800s. I also happen to love the old west. So naturally I couldn't pass up the change to read this graphic novel. It was a little underwhelming to be honest. It's disjointed and bounces around a lot and can be a little hard to follow sometimes. So it might be something you have to ready more than once to fully get everything.

[Scott Summerton · Rating 1 out of 5]

I'd wanted to read this ever since getting the Free Comic Day preview issue nearly 10 years ago. The idea was fascinating, it being true even more so, and I'm a sucker for silly titles and this had that in spades.

What it also had though are lots of similarly bearded men in suits talking about dinosaurs in probably the most densely bloated and yet meandering nothingness of a graphic novel I can recall.

There is a lot that happens in this book, in spurts, so that you're never left thinking there's no progression, and yet in between those spurts are moments of literally wandering and nothing as it plods along. I honestly cannot think of another comic or graphic novel that has been such a go nowhere mess while overstuffing its corners.

I cannot recommend this at all, and that's a shame after the story being such an interesting one. Just the absolute wrong execution and it has me wondering if the medium could even do it justice.

[Tony Laplume · Rating 3 out of 5]

If I hadn't already read Michael Crichton's posthumous Dragon Teeth, which covers the same story, I might have enjoyed Bone Sharps more, but as it is, I was pulled out of the narrative by Ottaviani's flimsy storytelling too much. He clearly has a grasp of his sources and the basic facts, but there's no real sense of why I should care other than Marsh and Cope seemingly as interested in their rivalry as dinosaur fossils, which is itself fascinating history, or that Knight was supposed to be the de facto lead character rather than merely someone who keeps popping up...So I would much more strongly recommend Crichton's book.

[Ronan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I already knew a bit about the Bone Wars going in, and found this book to be an intriguing romp through the fossil fields of the Wild West, interspersed with scenes of the interpersonal politics at the intersection of science and government and the founding of the USGS. The graphic novel distills the rivalry between Marsh and Cope into one short story, also emphasizing the accomplishments of paleoartist Charles R Knight, whose paintings I was familiar with, but I otherwise didn’t know much about.

I appreciated the appendix section at the back, which clarifies which bits of the comic were fictional, or adjusted to make the story flow, and which bits were entirely factual.

[Jon Nakapalau · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a combination fact/fiction account of the (in)famous Bone Wars that pitted (primary) Edward Drinker Cope and Othniel Charles Marsh against each other in their drive to discover, name and categorize fossils found after the Civil War. This competition became personal; both men spending equal amounts of time discrediting each other, ultimately having a detrimental effect on both of their discoveries. A lesson on scientific discoveries and ego which (I would argue) still has applicable lessons for today.

[Erik · Rating 2 out of 5]

A great concept and neat art but unfortunately the story reads like a series of brief looks into the lives of Marsh and Cope chosen at random; there is no common thread, the characters motivations and relationships are unclear and there's no satisfactory ending.

[RebeccaReads · Rating 3 out of 5]

Turns out graphic novels aren't my thing. A quick read.

[Anita · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm familiar with the history of the Bone Wars, but this telling was too hard to follow.

[Mike · Rating 5 out of 5]

Magnificent look at the golden age of paleontology. Engaging story, engrossing art. A perfect intro into comics for a dinosaur lover and an intro into the science of dinosaurs for comic lovers.

[Graham Bradley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great blend of fact and fiction for a stimulating narrative. The F&F section at the back was additionally illuminating.

[Madisyn Manzella · Rating 4 out of 5]

Actual Rating: 3.75

[Benjamin Chandler · Rating 3 out of 5]

This graphic novel tells the story of the rivalry between paleontologists O.C. Marsh and Edward Drinker Cope during the gilded age, when dinosaurs were still a fairly new thing and the bone beds out west were just being discovered. Both men compete to find and name the most dinosaurs, as well as discredit each other's work. As the battle rages on, paleoartist Charles R. Knight (he's the one who did the dinosaur murals in the Field Museum) tries to produce the most accurate representations he can. [As it turns out, Cope is all for Knight's work as it makes the dinosaurs come alive in the public's eye. Marsh on the other hand felt that the public had no business seeing fossils or paintings of the living things.:]

The artwork is simple, stripped down and clear. (The cover art was by Mark Schultz, who's old-school illustration style is not representative of the style inside.) The writing is nice, and there are a few great lines. The creators provide several pages at the end explaining what was "fact" and what was "fiction" in their retelling of this true rivalry.

Still, the book never really amounts to more than what it is: a comic about rivalry and paleontology in the late 1800s. And that's fine.

[Michael Smith · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ottaviani has good ideas and an interesting narrative sense, and his attempts to bring to popular notice via graphic novels some of the less well-known people in the recent history of science are certainly laudable, but his execution never seems to be up to his intentions. Here he recounts the history of the infamous “Bone Wars” of the late 19th century between rival American paleontologists Othniel Marsh and Edward Drinker Cope, which greatly entertained and greatly annoyed their colleagues (and sold lots of papers for James Gordon Bennett). The competition was virulent, with vituperative personal attacks, “salting” of scientific digs, bribery of workers, spying, and violations of Indian lands. Marsh, the first American professor of paleontology (at Yale), could be brilliant, but also was capable of dynamiting sites to keep other researchers from exploring them. Cope, probably the better scientist of the two, was also brash, melodramatic, and a bit paranoid. Together, the two men gave American paleontology a bad reputation elsewhere in the world that took several generations to undo. Ottaviani’s story isn’t nearly that clear, however. The book would have benefitted from a dramatis personae at the front, to give the reader a sporting chance at following things.

[Jeneé · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is such a unique and awesome graphic novel. It has a great mix of historical facts and humour. The true story itself is pretty comical, the rivalry between Cope and Marsh was a embarrassing time in paleotological history but I think it's good that people know about it because of the dispute of Brontosaurus. I think it was terrible that they knew Brontosaurus wasn't a real dinosaur after the whole thing happened, but the reason they couldn't change it was because Marsh was held a high position in the USGS. I also like that at the end of the book there is a fact and fiction section telling what they added to make the story more exciting and what was actually true which makes the whole story so much more interesting. This is a hard book to find but deffinitly check it out, expecially if you are interested in the history of paleontology.

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

Educational, fun, well drawn, and all under that great Mark Schultz cover!
++++++
This book is the true-life adventure of two of the earliest scientists to excavate, catalog and research dinosaur bones. Although one scientist is an opportunistic s.o.b. and the other an irresponsible s.o.b., Ottaviani does a good job drawing you in with humor and compelling supporting characters. The painter who envisioned dinosaurs from the early fossils gets a plum role as well, and he's a much more relatable character.

Ottaviani keeps things light and engaging, even when we're seeing a panel of scientists debate the ethics of our protagonists. The variety of settings gives Big Time Attic (Zander Cannon and Kevin Cannon) plenty of opportunities to show their stuff - Europe, New York, the old west, dinosaurs, bandits, fine paintings, congress - it's all there, and all terrifically illustrated.

[Ryan Ailts · Rating 4 out of 5]

Incredibly brilliant art and who else would tell the true, Chabonish story of two fueding fossil hunters in the Wild West? Actually, that sounds a lot cooler when I say it that way. Maybe I should give it a 5 based on my own one sentence review.

To be honest, the story itself had some failings: Ottaviani took some unneccessary deviations from history (which, restoring my faith in him, he actually lists in the very end every single fact he flubbed - classier than Hollywood biopics ladies and gents) and some moments are very unclear. Certain characters look similar and start to swell together. It gets confusing at times, but moreso it actually ends dully in my opinion, putting a weak emphasis on the tertiary character.

[Lorraine M. Thompson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bravo Mr. Ottaviani! I liked this book and look forward to reading others in the series. Who said science and scientist have to be dry and boring? In fact, and what this book shows, scientists--who oftentimes profess to be rational and factual--can be obsessed and passionate about their ideas/findings. Maybe it is that passion and conviction that enables them to continue their work despite ridicule, adversity etc (hmmm much like an artist who slaves away at her paintings or a writer who has to write--or as Mabanckou said--i am paraphrasing here--has a worm that eats away from the inside out---hmmm

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

While the artwork and writing is beautiful, the story is difficult to track, as it races and leaps across the US and even into Europe. The characters are introduced quickly in the beginning, then disappear for pages on end, only to make minor cameos later. The story is one peopled by a diverse wellspring of caricatures, making it understandably difficult to cut any of them out, but it would have made the story easier to follow. A story of hubris and jealousy, this is a wonderful book for those who love the more arcane parts of American history.

[Lindy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Two 19th century paleontologists, Edward Cope and Othniel Marsh, battled for scientific supremacy in the field of dinosaurs. The story is told in black and white comics with lively dialogue. The addition of a "Fact or Fiction?" section at the end clarifies where events were fudged a bit to make a better story, but the truth is often strange enough on its own. I preferred Ottaviani's biography of Niels Bohr, Suspended in Language, but Bone Sharps is accessible to a younger audience (meaning teens) and is more entertaining.

[Julie]

The art and design of this book is amazing. The story itself, however, I found difficult to follow and would imagine the same to be true for even the most savvy of young adult readers. The concept is interesting, and the appearance of folks like P.T. Barnum and Chief Red Cloud make the historical aspect interesting, but the main male protagonists all look similarly and became rather indistinguishable to me. Still worth a look though...especially for the art aspect.

[Kristen · Rating 3 out of 5]

A compelling narrative, but I often found myself getting lost because a lot of the characters looked alike (I have this problem a lot with graphic novels, so it may not be the illustrators' fault). The story has a stranger than fiction quality and some of the panels evoked a really strong pathos - for instance, one when of the main characters dies with only his pet turtle looking on.

[Elle Kay · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another fascinating graphic from Ottaviani where you find yourself learning a little history as you read. This book covers The Bone Wars which was a time in American history when two determined paleontologists competed with each other to find the most dinosaur bones and stopped at nothing to discredit the other in the process.