Bone Sharps, Cowboys, and Thunder Lizards
Encyclopedia
Bone Sharps, Cowboys, and Thunder Lizards: A Tale of Edward Drinker Cope, Othniel Charles Marsh, and the Gilded Age of Paleontology (2005) is a graphic novel
written by Jim Ottaviani
and illustrated by the company Big Time Attic. The book tells a slightly fictionalized account of the Bone Wars
, a period of intense excavation, speculation, and rivalry which led to a greater understanding of dinosaur
s in the western United States. This novel is the first semi-fictional work written by Ottaviani; previously, he had taken no creative license with the characters he depicted, portraying them strictly according to historical sources.
Bone Sharps follows the two scientists Edward Drinker Cope
and Othniel Marsh as they engage in an intense rivalry for prestige. Ottaviani has Cope and Marsh interact and meet many important figures of the Gilded Age
, from P. T. Barnum
to U.S. Grant, as the two scientists pursue their hotheaded and sometimes illegal acquisitions of fossils. Unlike in his previous books, "the scientists are the bad guys this time". Upon release, the novel received praise from critics for its exceptional historical content, although some reviewers wished more fiction had been woven into the story.
was drawn to the subject of paleontologists Edward Drinker Cope
and Othniel Charles Marsh
after reading a book about the Bone Wars
while working at the University of Michigan Library in Ann Arbor. Ottaviani had previously written books and comics on scientific figures, but had never written a work of historical fiction. While Ottaviani was putting his ideas together, he met Zander Cannon
at the 2004 San Diego Comic Convention. Cannon and associates were forming a new production studio, "Big Time Attic"; Ottaviani mentioned he had a proposal he wanted to show them. Referring to Big Time Attic, Ottaviani stated in an interview that "A newly formed studio taking on a 160-page graphic novel is ambitious" and that he was lucky to have had the book published. Even the format—the book is wider than it is tall—was a departure for Ottaviani, but he explained that since the story was talking about "wide expanses of territory" and the American West, the artists at Big Time Attic wanted a more non-traditional landscape page design.
and New Haven, where he first meets the showman Phineas T. Barnum. While showing Marsh the Cardiff Giant
(or rather a copy of it), which he cheerfully admits is a fraud when Marsh points this out, he refers with irritation about a "little cuss" of a professor who outbid him for some Mexican antiquities. An angry Marsh reveals he is that "little cuss" and he fully intends to write an article exposing the Giant as a fraud before Barnum can advertise it.
is introducing artist Charles R. Knight
to Edward Drinker Cope, a paleontologist whose entire house is filled with bones and specimens. Cope is commissioning a painting, something to "catch the spirit" of the sea creature Elasmosaurus
(but has unwittingly mistaken its neck for a tail). Cope then leaves for the West, as the official scientist form the U.S. Geological Survey. On the way, he meets Othniel Charles Marsh, a fellow paleontologist, and shows him his dig site at a marl
pit in New Jersey; after Cope leaves, Marsh talks to the owner of the land and pays him off to gain exclusive digging rights. At Fort Bridger, Wyoming
, Cope meets Sam Smith, a helper to the USGS. During excavations, Cope finds some of the richest bone veins ever. Sending back carloads of dinosaur bones east by train, Cope encounters Marsh, who is heading out west as well. Marsh travels in style, lounging in coach while the rest of his team travels third class—Marsh even berates them for playing cards, saying it is "low class" and that Yale
graduates should look more presentable. At Fort McPherson, Nebraska
, Marsh meets "Buffalo” Bill Cody, who serves as their guide, along with the native American Indian tribe. Marsh discovers many new fossils, and promises to Chief Red Cloud
that he will talk to the President of the United States
about the situation of the Native Americans—they have been given spoiled food in exchange for their land.
Back East, Knight has finished his reconstruction of Elasmosaurus. He and Knight return to the marl pits of New Jersey, but are forced away. Cope becomes furious and storms away when he learns Marsh has bought the digging rights, and published a paper revealing his interpretation of Elasmosaurus flawed.
is backing out of paying his share of a card game by drawing his revolver. He has taken to gambling, as Marsh, who employs him as a bone hunter, is not providing him with enough funds. Meanwhile Marsh is lobbying to the Bureau of Indian Affairs on behalf of Red Cloud, but also visiting with the Geological Survey and President U.S. Grant, insinuating that he would be a better leader of the USGS than Cope. After learning about Sam Smith's attempted sabotage of Cope and once again receiving no payment from Marsh, Hatcher leaves the employ of Othniel. Marsh, now representing the survey, heads west with wealthy businessmen, scoffing at the financial misfortunes of Cope, whose investments have failed.
Cope travels with Knight to Europe; Knight with the intention of visiting Paris zoos, Cope with the intent of selling off much of his bone collection. Cope has also spent much of his money buying The American Naturalist, a paper in which he plans to attack Marsh's dealings. Hatcher arrives in New York to talk about the find Laelaps
; in his speech, he subtly hints at the folly of Marsh's elitism and backstabbing as well as Cope's collecting obsession. Cope and James Gordon Bennet, Jr, arrive in Washington later to discuss Marsh; Marsh arrives later, and is chastised for the bad press and expense he is bringing to the survey by pursuing his "birds with teeth" theory.
Knight and his wife Annie discuss the feud, something they view as utterly ridiculous and becoming consumed with pointless point-scoring. As he discusses the feud, Knight is working on his famous painting Leaping Laelaps: two Dryptosaurus
locked in unrelenting combat. Cope, meanwhile, returns to the west for more fossils, alone and at the severe expense of his health.
Later, Marsh is attending a conference on telephony hosted by Alexander Graham Bell
; it is here he learns that his USGS expense tab (to which he had been charging drinks) has been withdrawn, his publication has been suspended, and the fossils he found as part of the USGS are to be returned to the Survey. His colleagues now shun him, the Bone War feud having alienated them, and he is forced to go to Barnum to try and obtain a loan, with the very Mexican antiquities he'd outbid Barnum on before as collatoral. Barnum has no money to spare, and asks Marsh whether he hasn't got enough fossils yet: Marsh, in an unguarded moment, says he'll never have enough before trying to cover it up.
At the same time, Osborn and Knight arrive at Cope's residence; Cope has died of illness. The funeral is markedly pitiful, with only a few Quakers and the two friends in attendance. Cope has bequeathed his remains to science, and requested to have his bones considered for the Homo sapiens lectotype
. Back at Marsh's "wigwam
", Marsh rejoins his guest, Chief Red Cloud, who is examining Marsh's luxuries, including a telephone, a chimney, and various bones and antiquities. Red Cloud's interest is piqued by a long tusk from a Mastodon
, which the Shawnee
call Yakwawi'ak. The Shawnee have an ancient legend, which Marsh relates. At one time there were giant men proportionate to the mastodons. However, when the great men grew few, the Great Spirit decided to destroy the Yakwawi'ak himself. All but one bull was killed; this last mastodon fled north, where he remains to modern times. In exchange for the loss of the Mastodon, the Great Spirit created the cranberry
, a bitter reminder of the blood spilled.
Chief Red Cloud remarks that it is a true story, but Marsh rebukes him, saying that science tells modern man that his ancestors were smaller, not larger, than him. Red Cloud, on his way out, responds, "It is not a story about science. It is about men."
. Knight, well-known to the staff, is visiting the closed-off areas to have a look at the new mammoth specimens: the girl, however, is eager to see more of her grandfather's paintings. During this, the staff are finally getting round to sorting out Marsh's long-neglected collection of fossils. Two of the workers discover Knight's Leaping Laelaps has been accidentally left in the storeroom yesterday. The painting is taken back downstairs while the workmen unknowingly leave Cope's skeleton and Marsh's parts behind: "The rest of this stuff is stayin' put for who knows how long, but we don't want that to get buried."
earlier into the story than was originally intended in early drafts. In real life, Knight did not meet Cope until only a few years before Cope's death; In addition, Knight's autobiography states that it was reporter William Hosea Ballou who introduced the two, not Osborn. There is also no evidence Marsh and Knight ever met. On Knight's role in the story, Ottaviani wrote:
After Knight's granddaughter forwarded him a copy of Knight's autobiographical manuscript, Ottaviani made Knight's role more prominent. Ottaviani's interest in Knight eventually led to his company G.T. Labs publishing Knight's autobiography, with notes by Ottaviani and forewords by Ray Bradbury
and Ray Harryhausen
. Other character relationships were fictionalized as well; editor James Gordon Bennet, Jr. never lobbied with Cope, and never exposed Marsh's will. Cope's bones also never made it to New York.
Some conversations, due to their private nature, were fictionalized; Ottaviani makes up Marsh's lobby to Congress and what happened during his meeting with President Grant, and P.T. Barnum never told off Marsh the way he did in the novel. Ottaviani also wove the story Marsh tells about the Mastodon
from several different versions of the legend.
A key plot point is fabricated for the purposes of dramatic irony: in the book, Marsh has his agent Sam Smith leave a Camarasaurus skull for Cope to find and mistakenly put on the wrong dinosaur. Instead, Hatcher finds it; Smith tries to keep an unwitting Marsh from getting it, but due to Marsh's obnoxious manner he lets him after all. As a result, Marsh mistakenly classifies the (non-existent) Brontosaurus. Ottaviani admits in the book he invented this, as "the literary tradition of hoisting someone up by his own petard was too good to pass up".
Todd Klein
recommended the book to his readers, stating that the novel was able to convey the depths of Cope and Marsh's rivalry and "we can only wonder how much more could have been accomplished if [Cope and Marsh] had only been willing to team up instead". Klein's complaints focused on the somewhat stiff art and the difficulty in telling some characters apart, but said these shortcomings did not affect the flow and reading. Johanna Carlson of ComicsWorthReading.com found Bone Sharpss central message, "the question of whether promotion is a necessary evil (to gather funds through attention) or a base desire of those with the wrong motivations", still relevant to today's society; Carlson also lauded the flow of the novel and some of the intricate details in the story and setting. Other reviewers praised Ottaviani's inclusion of notable historical figures, and the educational yet entertaining feel of the work.
In addition to minor issues with the art, some reviewers, including Entertainment Weekly
, felt that more fiction could have been used in the mostly non-fiction writing. Due to the historical background of the book, Bone Sharps has been used in schools, as part of a study testing the effects of using comic books to educate young children. Since the release of the graphic novel, Ottaviani has published other slightly fictionalized historical stories, including Levitation: Physics and Psychology in the Service of Deception and Wire Mothers: Harry Harlow and the Science of Love.
Graphic novel
A graphic novel is a narrative work in which the story is conveyed to the reader using sequential art in either an experimental design or in a traditional comics format...
written by Jim Ottaviani
Jim Ottaviani
Jim Ottaviani is the author of several comic books about the history of science. His best-known work, Two-Fisted Science: Stories About Scientists, features biographical stories about Galileo Galilei, Isaac Newton, Niels Bohr, and several stories about physicist Richard Feynman...
and illustrated by the company Big Time Attic. The book tells a slightly fictionalized account of the Bone Wars
Bone Wars
The Bone Wars, also known as the "Great Dinosaur Rush", refers to a period of intense fossil speculation and discovery during the Gilded Age of American history, marked by a heated rivalry between Edward Drinker Cope and Othniel Charles Marsh...
, a period of intense excavation, speculation, and rivalry which led to a greater understanding of dinosaur
Dinosaur
Dinosaurs are a diverse group of animals of the clade and superorder Dinosauria. They were the dominant terrestrial vertebrates for over 160 million years, from the late Triassic period until the end of the Cretaceous , when the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event led to the extinction of...
s in the western United States. This novel is the first semi-fictional work written by Ottaviani; previously, he had taken no creative license with the characters he depicted, portraying them strictly according to historical sources.
Bone Sharps follows the two scientists Edward Drinker Cope
Edward Drinker Cope
Edward Drinker Cope was an American paleontologist and comparative anatomist, as well as a noted herpetologist and ichthyologist. Born to a wealthy Quaker family, Cope distinguished himself as a child prodigy interested in science; he published his first scientific paper at the age of nineteen...
and Othniel Marsh as they engage in an intense rivalry for prestige. Ottaviani has Cope and Marsh interact and meet many important figures of the Gilded Age
Gilded Age
In United States history, the Gilded Age refers to the era of rapid economic and population growth in the United States during the post–Civil War and post-Reconstruction eras of the late 19th century. The term "Gilded Age" was coined by Mark Twain and Charles Dudley Warner in their book The Gilded...
, from P. T. Barnum
P. T. Barnum
Phineas Taylor Barnum was an American showman, businessman, scam artist and entertainer, remembered for promoting celebrated hoaxes and for founding the circus that became the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus....
to U.S. Grant, as the two scientists pursue their hotheaded and sometimes illegal acquisitions of fossils. Unlike in his previous books, "the scientists are the bad guys this time". Upon release, the novel received praise from critics for its exceptional historical content, although some reviewers wished more fiction had been woven into the story.
Background
Author Jim OttavianiJim Ottaviani
Jim Ottaviani is the author of several comic books about the history of science. His best-known work, Two-Fisted Science: Stories About Scientists, features biographical stories about Galileo Galilei, Isaac Newton, Niels Bohr, and several stories about physicist Richard Feynman...
was drawn to the subject of paleontologists Edward Drinker Cope
Edward Drinker Cope
Edward Drinker Cope was an American paleontologist and comparative anatomist, as well as a noted herpetologist and ichthyologist. Born to a wealthy Quaker family, Cope distinguished himself as a child prodigy interested in science; he published his first scientific paper at the age of nineteen...
and Othniel Charles Marsh
Othniel Charles Marsh
Othniel Charles Marsh was an American paleontologist. Marsh was one of the preeminent scientists in the field; the discovery or description of dozens of news species and theories on the origins of birds are among his legacies.Born into a modest family, Marsh was able to afford higher education...
after reading a book about the Bone Wars
Bone Wars
The Bone Wars, also known as the "Great Dinosaur Rush", refers to a period of intense fossil speculation and discovery during the Gilded Age of American history, marked by a heated rivalry between Edward Drinker Cope and Othniel Charles Marsh...
while working at the University of Michigan Library in Ann Arbor. Ottaviani had previously written books and comics on scientific figures, but had never written a work of historical fiction. While Ottaviani was putting his ideas together, he met Zander Cannon
Zander Cannon
Alexander "Zander" Cannon is an American comics writer and artist, known for his work on books such as Top 10 and Smax.-Early life:Cannon was born in Boston, Massachusetts. He graduated from Grinnell College in 1995 with a B.A...
at the 2004 San Diego Comic Convention. Cannon and associates were forming a new production studio, "Big Time Attic"; Ottaviani mentioned he had a proposal he wanted to show them. Referring to Big Time Attic, Ottaviani stated in an interview that "A newly formed studio taking on a 160-page graphic novel is ambitious" and that he was lucky to have had the book published. Even the format—the book is wider than it is tall—was a departure for Ottaviani, but he explained that since the story was talking about "wide expanses of territory" and the American West, the artists at Big Time Attic wanted a more non-traditional landscape page design.
Plot summary
The novel is broken into three sections, with each titled after a portion of the novel's title: "Bone Sharps", "Cowboys", and "Thunder Lizards." The narrative is not continuous; there are significant gaps of time between each section.Prologue
The novel begins with Othniel Charles Marsh on a steam train between New York CityNew York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
and New Haven, where he first meets the showman Phineas T. Barnum. While showing Marsh the Cardiff Giant
Cardiff Giant
The Cardiff Giant was one of the most famous hoaxes in United States history. It was a tall purported "petrified man" uncovered on October 16, 1869 by workers digging a well behind the barn of William C. "Stub" Newell in Cardiff, New York. Both it and an unauthorized copy made by P.T...
(or rather a copy of it), which he cheerfully admits is a fraud when Marsh points this out, he refers with irritation about a "little cuss" of a professor who outbid him for some Mexican antiquities. An angry Marsh reveals he is that "little cuss" and he fully intends to write an article exposing the Giant as a fraud before Barnum can advertise it.
Bone Sharps
In Philadelphia, Henry Fairfield OsbornHenry Fairfield Osborn
Henry Fairfield Osborn, Sr. ForMemRS was an American geologist, paleontologist, and eugenicist.-Early life and career:...
is introducing artist Charles R. Knight
Charles R. Knight
Charles Robert Knight was an American artist best known for his influential paintings of dinosaurs and other prehistoric animals...
to Edward Drinker Cope, a paleontologist whose entire house is filled with bones and specimens. Cope is commissioning a painting, something to "catch the spirit" of the sea creature Elasmosaurus
Elasmosaurus
Elasmosaurus + σαυρος sauros 'lizard') is a genus of plesiosaur with an extremely long neck that lived in the Late Cretaceous period , 80.5 million years ago.-Description:...
(but has unwittingly mistaken its neck for a tail). Cope then leaves for the West, as the official scientist form the U.S. Geological Survey. On the way, he meets Othniel Charles Marsh, a fellow paleontologist, and shows him his dig site at a marl
Marl
Marl or marlstone is a calcium carbonate or lime-rich mud or mudstone which contains variable amounts of clays and aragonite. Marl was originally an old term loosely applied to a variety of materials, most of which occur as loose, earthy deposits consisting chiefly of an intimate mixture of clay...
pit in New Jersey; after Cope leaves, Marsh talks to the owner of the land and pays him off to gain exclusive digging rights. At Fort Bridger, Wyoming
Wyoming
Wyoming is a state in the mountain region of the Western United States. The western two thirds of the state is covered mostly with the mountain ranges and rangelands in the foothills of the Eastern Rocky Mountains, while the eastern third of the state is high elevation prairie known as the High...
, Cope meets Sam Smith, a helper to the USGS. During excavations, Cope finds some of the richest bone veins ever. Sending back carloads of dinosaur bones east by train, Cope encounters Marsh, who is heading out west as well. Marsh travels in style, lounging in coach while the rest of his team travels third class—Marsh even berates them for playing cards, saying it is "low class" and that Yale
Yale University
Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...
graduates should look more presentable. At Fort McPherson, Nebraska
Nebraska
Nebraska is a state on the Great Plains of the Midwestern United States. The state's capital is Lincoln and its largest city is Omaha, on the Missouri River....
, Marsh meets "Buffalo” Bill Cody, who serves as their guide, along with the native American Indian tribe. Marsh discovers many new fossils, and promises to Chief Red Cloud
Red Cloud
Red Cloud , was a war leader and the head Chief of the Oglala Lakota . His reign was from 1868 to 1909...
that he will talk to the President of the United States
President of the United States
The President of the United States of America is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president leads the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces....
about the situation of the Native Americans—they have been given spoiled food in exchange for their land.
Back East, Knight has finished his reconstruction of Elasmosaurus. He and Knight return to the marl pits of New Jersey, but are forced away. Cope becomes furious and storms away when he learns Marsh has bought the digging rights, and published a paper revealing his interpretation of Elasmosaurus flawed.
Cowboys
Some time later, John Bell HatcherJohn Bell Hatcher
John Bell Hatcher was an American paleontologist and fossil hunter best known for discovering Torosaurus.-Biography:...
is backing out of paying his share of a card game by drawing his revolver. He has taken to gambling, as Marsh, who employs him as a bone hunter, is not providing him with enough funds. Meanwhile Marsh is lobbying to the Bureau of Indian Affairs on behalf of Red Cloud, but also visiting with the Geological Survey and President U.S. Grant, insinuating that he would be a better leader of the USGS than Cope. After learning about Sam Smith's attempted sabotage of Cope and once again receiving no payment from Marsh, Hatcher leaves the employ of Othniel. Marsh, now representing the survey, heads west with wealthy businessmen, scoffing at the financial misfortunes of Cope, whose investments have failed.
Cope travels with Knight to Europe; Knight with the intention of visiting Paris zoos, Cope with the intent of selling off much of his bone collection. Cope has also spent much of his money buying The American Naturalist, a paper in which he plans to attack Marsh's dealings. Hatcher arrives in New York to talk about the find Laelaps
Dryptosaurus
Dryptosaurus was a genus of primitive tyrannosaur that lived in Eastern North America during the middle Maastrichtian stage of the Late Cretaceous period. Although largely unknown now outside of academic circles, a famous painting of the genus by Charles R...
; in his speech, he subtly hints at the folly of Marsh's elitism and backstabbing as well as Cope's collecting obsession. Cope and James Gordon Bennet, Jr, arrive in Washington later to discuss Marsh; Marsh arrives later, and is chastised for the bad press and expense he is bringing to the survey by pursuing his "birds with teeth" theory.
Thunder Lizards
Dryptosaurus
Dryptosaurus was a genus of primitive tyrannosaur that lived in Eastern North America during the middle Maastrichtian stage of the Late Cretaceous period. Although largely unknown now outside of academic circles, a famous painting of the genus by Charles R...
locked in unrelenting combat. Cope, meanwhile, returns to the west for more fossils, alone and at the severe expense of his health.
Later, Marsh is attending a conference on telephony hosted by Alexander Graham Bell
Alexander Graham Bell
Alexander Graham Bell was an eminent scientist, inventor, engineer and innovator who is credited with inventing the first practical telephone....
; it is here he learns that his USGS expense tab (to which he had been charging drinks) has been withdrawn, his publication has been suspended, and the fossils he found as part of the USGS are to be returned to the Survey. His colleagues now shun him, the Bone War feud having alienated them, and he is forced to go to Barnum to try and obtain a loan, with the very Mexican antiquities he'd outbid Barnum on before as collatoral. Barnum has no money to spare, and asks Marsh whether he hasn't got enough fossils yet: Marsh, in an unguarded moment, says he'll never have enough before trying to cover it up.
At the same time, Osborn and Knight arrive at Cope's residence; Cope has died of illness. The funeral is markedly pitiful, with only a few Quakers and the two friends in attendance. Cope has bequeathed his remains to science, and requested to have his bones considered for the Homo sapiens lectotype
Lectotype
In botanical nomenclature and zoological nomenclature, a lectotype is a kind of name-bearing type. When a species was originally described on the basis of a name-bearing type consisting of multiple specimens, one of those may be designated as the lectotype...
. Back at Marsh's "wigwam
Wigwam
A wigwam or wickiup is a domed room dwelling used by certain Native American tribes. The term wickiup is generally used to label these kinds of dwellings in American Southwest and West. Wigwam is usually applied to these structures in the American Northeast...
", Marsh rejoins his guest, Chief Red Cloud, who is examining Marsh's luxuries, including a telephone, a chimney, and various bones and antiquities. Red Cloud's interest is piqued by a long tusk from a Mastodon
Mastodon
Mastodons were large tusked mammal species of the extinct genus Mammut which inhabited Asia, Africa, Europe, North America and Central America from the Oligocene through Pleistocene, 33.9 mya to 11,000 years ago. The American mastodon is the most recent and best known species of the group...
, which the Shawnee
Shawnee
The Shawnee, Shaawanwaki, Shaawanooki and Shaawanowi lenaweeki, are an Algonquian-speaking people native to North America. Historically they inhabited the areas of Ohio, Virginia, West Virginia, Western Maryland, Kentucky, Indiana, and Pennsylvania...
call Yakwawi'ak. The Shawnee have an ancient legend, which Marsh relates. At one time there were giant men proportionate to the mastodons. However, when the great men grew few, the Great Spirit decided to destroy the Yakwawi'ak himself. All but one bull was killed; this last mastodon fled north, where he remains to modern times. In exchange for the loss of the Mastodon, the Great Spirit created the cranberry
Cranberry
Cranberries are a group of evergreen dwarf shrubs or trailing vines in the subgenus Oxycoccus of the genus Vaccinium. In some methods of classification, Oxycoccus is regarded as a genus in its own right...
, a bitter reminder of the blood spilled.
Chief Red Cloud remarks that it is a true story, but Marsh rebukes him, saying that science tells modern man that his ancestors were smaller, not larger, than him. Red Cloud, on his way out, responds, "It is not a story about science. It is about men."
Epilogue
Knight and his wife, many years later, are taking their granddaughter Rhoda to the American Museum of Natural HistoryAmerican Museum of Natural History
The American Museum of Natural History , located on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City, United States, is one of the largest and most celebrated museums in the world...
. Knight, well-known to the staff, is visiting the closed-off areas to have a look at the new mammoth specimens: the girl, however, is eager to see more of her grandfather's paintings. During this, the staff are finally getting round to sorting out Marsh's long-neglected collection of fossils. Two of the workers discover Knight's Leaping Laelaps has been accidentally left in the storeroom yesterday. The painting is taken back downstairs while the workmen unknowingly leave Cope's skeleton and Marsh's parts behind: "The rest of this stuff is stayin' put for who knows how long, but we don't want that to get buried."
Characters
- Edward Drinker CopeEdward Drinker CopeEdward Drinker Cope was an American paleontologist and comparative anatomist, as well as a noted herpetologist and ichthyologist. Born to a wealthy Quaker family, Cope distinguished himself as a child prodigy interested in science; he published his first scientific paper at the age of nineteen...
– An American paleontologist, Cope spent nearly all his money in attacking Marsh and financing further digs for bones out west; he dies destitute. - Othniel Charles MarshOthniel Charles MarshOthniel Charles Marsh was an American paleontologist. Marsh was one of the preeminent scientists in the field; the discovery or description of dozens of news species and theories on the origins of birds are among his legacies.Born into a modest family, Marsh was able to afford higher education...
– Rival to Cope, Marsh was a YaleYALERapidMiner, formerly YALE , is an environment for machine learning, data mining, text mining, predictive analytics, and business analytics. It is used for research, education, training, rapid prototyping, application development, and industrial applications...
-educated scholar who disdained what he called "the publicization of science". His sizable fortune granted him favor and status in politics and society. By the end of Bone Sharps, Marsh is seen to have lost face with the science world at large for his excessive means to acquire fossils; nonetheless, he "defeated" Cope by discovering more new species of dinosaur. - Charles R. KnightCharles R. KnightCharles Robert Knight was an American artist best known for his influential paintings of dinosaurs and other prehistoric animals...
– A famous painter of the twentieth century who created numerous paleontological pieces (the dinosaurs on the cover are based on Knight's painting Leaping Laelaps). Ottaviani introduces Knight to Cope earlier than historically recorded. - P.T. Barnum – American showman, famous for his hoaxHoaxA hoax is a deliberately fabricated falsehood made to masquerade as truth. It is distinguishable from errors in observation or judgment, or rumors, urban legends, pseudosciences or April Fools' Day events that are passed along in good faith by believers or as jokes.-Definition:The British...
es and for founding the Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey Circus later in life. Barnum's Cardiff GiantCardiff GiantThe Cardiff Giant was one of the most famous hoaxes in United States history. It was a tall purported "petrified man" uncovered on October 16, 1869 by workers digging a well behind the barn of William C. "Stub" Newell in Cardiff, New York. Both it and an unauthorized copy made by P.T...
is exposed as a fraud by Marsh, who later comes to the entertainer begging for money. - Henry Fairfield OsbornHenry Fairfield OsbornHenry Fairfield Osborn, Sr. ForMemRS was an American geologist, paleontologist, and eugenicist.-Early life and career:...
– paleontologist and geologistGeologistA geologist is a scientist who studies the solid and liquid matter that constitutes the Earth as well as the processes and history that has shaped it. Geologists usually engage in studying geology. Geologists, studying more of an applied science than a theoretical one, must approach Geology using...
, Osborn joined the US Geological Survey in 1890, and on one fossil-hunting trip to the West met Cope. He described numerous well-known dinosaur genera, including OrnitholestesOrnitholestesOrnitholestes was a small theropod dinosaur of the late Jurassic of Western Laurasia . To date, it is known only from a single partial skeleton, and badly crushed skull found at the Bone Cabin Quarry near Medicine Bow, Wyoming, in 1900...
, TyrannosaurusTyrannosaurusTyrannosaurus meaning "tyrant," and sauros meaning "lizard") is a genus of coelurosaurian theropod dinosaur. The species Tyrannosaurus rex , commonly abbreviated to T. rex, is a fixture in popular culture. It lived throughout what is now western North America, with a much wider range than other...
, and VelociraptorVelociraptorVelociraptor is a genus of dromaeosaurid theropod dinosaur that existed approximately 75 to 71 million years ago during the later part of the Cretaceous Period. Two species are currently recognized, although others have been assigned in the past. The type species is V. mongoliensis; fossils...
. - Bill Cody – Commonly known as "Buffalo Bill", this western showman makes a brief appearance in Part II.
- Ulysses S Grant – 18th President of the United States of America, Marsh uses his connections to lobby directly to Grant.
Fact and fiction
While the majority of Bone Sharps is true and all of it is based on history, the author acknowledged several differences between real events and certain artistic license taken. One instance of Ottaviani using creative license was to transport artist Charles R. KnightCharles R. Knight
Charles Robert Knight was an American artist best known for his influential paintings of dinosaurs and other prehistoric animals...
earlier into the story than was originally intended in early drafts. In real life, Knight did not meet Cope until only a few years before Cope's death; In addition, Knight's autobiography states that it was reporter William Hosea Ballou who introduced the two, not Osborn. There is also no evidence Marsh and Knight ever met. On Knight's role in the story, Ottaviani wrote:
As I was reading about Cope and Marsh, I ran across Knight as something of a bit player in their lives. As I got further into the Cope and Marsh story, and I liked the two less and less as people—which is different from liking them as characters, of course—I wanted to have a character in the book for the readers to root for, and neither of the scientists could fill that role. When I found out that Knight had met Cope just before Cope died, I became convinced that he was the character I needed.
After Knight's granddaughter forwarded him a copy of Knight's autobiographical manuscript, Ottaviani made Knight's role more prominent. Ottaviani's interest in Knight eventually led to his company G.T. Labs publishing Knight's autobiography, with notes by Ottaviani and forewords by Ray Bradbury
Ray Bradbury
Ray Douglas Bradbury is an American fantasy, horror, science fiction, and mystery writer. Best known for his dystopian novel Fahrenheit 451 and for the science fiction stories gathered together as The Martian Chronicles and The Illustrated Man , Bradbury is one of the most celebrated among 20th...
and Ray Harryhausen
Ray Harryhausen
Ray Harryhausen is an American film producer and special effects creator...
. Other character relationships were fictionalized as well; editor James Gordon Bennet, Jr. never lobbied with Cope, and never exposed Marsh's will. Cope's bones also never made it to New York.
Some conversations, due to their private nature, were fictionalized; Ottaviani makes up Marsh's lobby to Congress and what happened during his meeting with President Grant, and P.T. Barnum never told off Marsh the way he did in the novel. Ottaviani also wove the story Marsh tells about the Mastodon
Mastodon
Mastodons were large tusked mammal species of the extinct genus Mammut which inhabited Asia, Africa, Europe, North America and Central America from the Oligocene through Pleistocene, 33.9 mya to 11,000 years ago. The American mastodon is the most recent and best known species of the group...
from several different versions of the legend.
A key plot point is fabricated for the purposes of dramatic irony: in the book, Marsh has his agent Sam Smith leave a Camarasaurus skull for Cope to find and mistakenly put on the wrong dinosaur. Instead, Hatcher finds it; Smith tries to keep an unwitting Marsh from getting it, but due to Marsh's obnoxious manner he lets him after all. As a result, Marsh mistakenly classifies the (non-existent) Brontosaurus. Ottaviani admits in the book he invented this, as "the literary tradition of hoisting someone up by his own petard was too good to pass up".
Reception
The book was generally well-received upon release. Comic book lettererLetterer
A letterer is a member of a team of comic book creators responsible for drawing the comic book's text. The letterer's use of typefaces, calligraphy, letter size, and layout all contribute to the impact of the comic. The letterer crafts the comic's "display lettering": the story title lettering and...
Todd Klein
Todd Klein
Todd Klein is an American comic book letterer, logo designer, and occasional writer, primarily for DC Comics.- Early career:Todd Klein broke into comics in the summer of 1977, hired by DC Comics as a staff production worker...
recommended the book to his readers, stating that the novel was able to convey the depths of Cope and Marsh's rivalry and "we can only wonder how much more could have been accomplished if [Cope and Marsh] had only been willing to team up instead". Klein's complaints focused on the somewhat stiff art and the difficulty in telling some characters apart, but said these shortcomings did not affect the flow and reading. Johanna Carlson of ComicsWorthReading.com found Bone Sharpss central message, "the question of whether promotion is a necessary evil (to gather funds through attention) or a base desire of those with the wrong motivations", still relevant to today's society; Carlson also lauded the flow of the novel and some of the intricate details in the story and setting. Other reviewers praised Ottaviani's inclusion of notable historical figures, and the educational yet entertaining feel of the work.
In addition to minor issues with the art, some reviewers, including Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly is an American magazine, published by the Time division of Time Warner, that covers film, television, music, broadway theatre, books and popular culture...
, felt that more fiction could have been used in the mostly non-fiction writing. Due to the historical background of the book, Bone Sharps has been used in schools, as part of a study testing the effects of using comic books to educate young children. Since the release of the graphic novel, Ottaviani has published other slightly fictionalized historical stories, including Levitation: Physics and Psychology in the Service of Deception and Wire Mothers: Harry Harlow and the Science of Love.
External links
- Bone Sharps, Cowboys, and Thunder Lizards Preview at G.T. Labs