What makes the best comic book covers? It’s a great topic for debate. For us as individuals there is no wrong answer, of course. It’s purely subjective. But with a little thought it is frequently possible to explain what it is about a particular image that grabs you. The best ones are the ones that make you stop and check out something you weren’t previously going to purchase – and in some cases, you even end up picking up a title you’ve never even heard of before.

Who doesn’t love a good dinosaur cover on a comic book?

American Mythology Production’s brand new update of Edgar Rice Burroughs’ classic The Land That Time Forgot fully captures the rip-roaring adventure of the original. On top of that, each of the first two issues has featured some pretty impressive dinosaur and action covers. Which keeps the title in the fine tradition of excellent cover art matching the work of Burroughs.

Two issues into the series and fans are taking notice that writer-artist Mike Wolfer and artist Giancarlo Caracuzzo have created an engaging, modern and exciting new version of a stone-classic.

Wolfer, who both writes and does the general release, adventure-themed covers, comes to the project with a deep love of Burroughs. With second, painted covers featuring dinosaurs by artist Chris Scalf, the series holds one foot in tradition and the other firmly planted in the 21st century.

Which is perfect, as the work of Burroughs has traditionally held some of the best cover art ever seen in pulps and publishing. When The Land That Time Forgot was bound for publication in 1924 with its two sequels The People That Time Forgot and Out of Time’s Abyss, the book featured cover art by one of the greats of the day, James Allen St. John.

The first edition of the title also included four original sepia-toned plates by St. John. The three books are collectively known as The Caspak Trilogy and are often published together under the name of the first story.

Considered by many to be “The Godfather of modern fantasy art,” the artist built an unrivaled world of adventure in the first half of the 20th century by creating numerous covers for magazines, pulps, and book publishers.

St. John’s work for the 1924 title featured a dinosaur standing triumphantly over a mastodon that he apparently just killed. When Ace Paperbacks chose Roy G. Krenkel to create the covers for their reprints in 1963, the new artist updated the image.

First, he went with placing a sabretooth tiger over the body of a mastodon. Just for good measure, right behind the sabretooth victory, stand a couple of larger dinosaurs fighting it out amongst themselves. Behind the action the light orange and blue and barely red hills rise into the clouds creating a strangely warm tone for such violent action.

As a student, Krenkel studied with Frank Frazetta, Joe Orlando, and others. He then did work for EC on titles such as Weird Fantasy and Weird Science-Fantasy, but many remember him for his peerless cover work on Ace Books line of sci-fi and adventure reprints.

Over the years, Krenkel has credited St. John as influence numerous times. His cover art for the 1963 edition even seems to pay tribute to the warm colors that St. John used in his original book jacket.

For the modern, 2016 comic book update by American Mythology, Wolfer, interior artist Caracuzzo, and cover artist Chris Scalf are creating art that not only fits perfectly in with the world of Burroughs, but pays respect to the work that has preceded it.

A long-time fan of Burroughs, Wolfer has brought the story into the modern age by approaching the series as a direct sequel. In the original, Bowne J. Tyler was an American passenger on a British tugboat when, after being sunk twice in the English Channel, finds himself on a German U-33 submarine.

In 2016, Bowen’s great-great-great-granddaughter Abby launches an expedition to prove to the world that her relative’s adventures were real. Wolfer’s cover for the second issue shows Ms. Bowen and her friends fighting off a wrath of pterodactyls as they hang perilously from the side of a mountain. See-Ta, a native to the island of Caspak, is throwing caution to the wind as she jumps from the side of the cliff to attack one of the winged predators.

The action rises from what looks to be a yellow, pink, and slightly blue sunrise or sunset. While the cover is packed with detail, the warm coloring seems to harken back to the feel of Krenkel’s work on the 1963 Ace paperback. Wolfer throws a lot at the reader but he is meticulously organized in the construction of the image.

Abby is trying valiantly to just hang on to the side of a mountain as she reaches out to keep the island native See-Ta from jumping off the side of the mountain to kill a pterodactyl. Below her a male companion is also struggling as he looks up in terror while trying to absorb the unbelievable action mere inches away from him.

Follow the line of flying reptiles that Wolfer has circle out from the bottom to loosely frame the action featuring humans over on the left. The line brings you right back to See-Ta at the center. Everywhere your eyes land on this cover, the art naturally leads you back to the center.

There is a strange calm found at that center. See-Ta’s expression is so focused that it is easy for the reader to not only slip into her mind as she flies off the mountain into the air, but for a second, you almost forget the million other things happening around her.

A second cover, painted by Chris Scalf, is so terrifying that it almost makes you leap back in your chair. That T-Rex is coming straight at you and, judging from the look in his eyes, he currently sees you as a plate of lasagna. My goodness, if See-Ta looked focused determined on Wolfer’s cover, Scalf puts an unholy and vengeful blind desire into the look of this ancient terror. 

Wolfer and company’s version of The Land That Time Forgot does the memory of Edgar Rice Burroughs proud. With imaginative writing coupled with strong interior art and covers, American Mythology’s newest series from the world of Mike Wolfer can easily sit next to the original by Edgar Rice Burroughs on your shelf.