Jurassic Park: Raptor #1&2 (2023 Comic Book & Graphic Novel Reading Challenge)

Topps Comics was an experiment from the beloved baseball card manufacturer Topps. Seeing the potential of comics due to the ominous presence of speculators, Topps joined the already crowded comic book marketplace. Marvel veteran Jim Salicrup was selected as the company editor in chief. His clout helped to recruit an impressive roster of talent including Steranko, Jimmy Palmiotti, and Tony Isabella. 

Topps pulled off a coup securing rights to a number of impressive franchises. The Kirbyverse was a number of quasi-interconnected books based on abandoned ideas and projects created by the King, Jack Kirby. Salicrup was able to obtain the rights to produce new adventures of beloved titles like Cadillacs and Dinosaurs as well as classic characters such as Zorro. Being able to obtain the much coveted rights to adapt Francis Ford Coppola's version of Dracula really put Topps Comics on the radar of the comics industry.

Once Bram Stoker's Dracula was secure, Topps Comics was able to draw in popular franchises such as The X-Files, Friday the 13th's hockey mask wearing antagonist Jason and a comic book reboot of Topps' notorious Mars Attacks trading card set! Eventually Topps managed to secure the rights to publish works based on the most movie of the year 1993, Steven Spielberg's Jurassic Park.

Topps Comics first released a 4-issue adaptation of the film. Walt Simonson scripted. Pencils were by Gil Jane with George Perez inks. A special edition issue #0 was a prequel to the movie, exploring how the dinosaurs of Isla Nublar were created.

Immediately after the success of the film, movie viewers demanded a sequel. Fans of the 1990 novel were already begging author Michael Crichton for a second volume. Spielberg's movie magic added millions of voices to that request. While Crichton would agree to begin writing the official sequel novel in 1994, Topps Comics beat the Jurassic Park creator to an officially authorized comic book with 1993's Jurassic Park: Raptor.

The 2-part Raptor takes place just 3 days after the events of the film. With the help of the United States military, Dr. Alan Grant and Dr. Ellie Sattler are wrangling up the dinosaurs that escaped their enclosures during the tropical storm. Officials are convinced that all of the raptors have been killed by the park's T-Rex. But Alan Grant isn't so sure. 

Not finding any evidence of a raptor nest, Grant is convinced that some of the raptors escaped their pen and laid eggs elsewhere on the island. So the paleontologists travel to a less populated area. The perfect spot is a series of caves that are protected by high tides. Along with finding the missing baby raptors, Grant and Sattler discover an expert poacher is on scene, hired by an unknown entity to capture the infant reptiles.

Jurassic Park: Raptor was the first of a miniseries of trilogies that continues the saga of Jurassic Park. Jurassic Park: Raptors Attack and Jurassic Park: Raptors Hijack finish out the official comic book sequel. The trilogy was written by Steve Englehart, spanning a total of 10 issues. Issue #2 of Jurassic Park: Raptor ends with a 'to be continued blurb' which is really confusing as the cover proclaims that the second book is the last chapter of a 2-parter. Eventually, Topps Comics would release Jurassic Park Adventures, which would collect all 10 chapters of the Raptor Trilogy into a single, sequential series.

Pencils for issues #1&2: Armando Gil.

Inks by Dell Barras.

Covers by Michael Golden.

Worth Consuming!

Issue #1: Rating 10 out of 10 stars.

Issue #2: Rating 8 out of 10 stars.

Completing this review completes Task #42 (Comic Book Starting With the Letter J) of the 2023 Comic Book and Graphic Novel Reading Challenge.