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"Genesis"
Jurassic Park #0 (Topps Comics)
Written by Walter Simonson
Pencils by Gil Kane
Inks by Mike DeCarlo
Cover by
Gil Kane |
Millionaire industrialist John Hammond plays his ace to convince
his backers that his over-budget, behind schedule, secret new
theme park is worth funding.
Story Summary
A few years before the events of the
Jurassic Park movie, John Hammond and lawyer Donald
Gennaro stand on a hill on Isla Nublar, overlooking a fleet of
bulldozers which are clearing land for the building of the
coming theme park. Although the investors have been let in on
Hammond's secret, Gennaro is still in the dark and bemoans the
fact that Hammond's secret project is already behind schedule
and starting to go over budget.
In an attempt to allay Gennaro's fears, Hammond drives him in a
Jeep back to the temporary building acting as construction
headquarters. There, he shows the jittery lawyer a film spool of
clips from old dinosaur and monster movies with the best special
effects of their time. But the dull Gennaro is not impressed and
is confused by Hammond's decision to waste his time with it.
Then Hammond drives him to another location, a laboratory that
has been built on the island, filled with the latest and most
expensive scientific equipment. Gennaro is introduced to Dr.
Henry Wu, who announces that the first hatchling is about to
emerge. They walk to an incubator filled
with large eggs and one of them does indeed hatch, a small
lizard-like creature emerging. Gennaro is grossed out by the
little thing. Hammond tells him it
will grow huge, for it is a Tyrannosaurus rex. But
Gennaro remains unimpressed and wonders if Hammond is just
taking his investors to the cleaners. "Personally, I wouldn't
walk out of a men's room to see something like this!"
"Someday, this little fellow may surprise you!" Hammond answers.
THE END
Didja Know?
The story opens on Isla Nublar, the island 120 miles west of
Costa Rica that will become, in a few years, the site of
Jurassic Park. "Isla Nublar" is Spanish is for "Cloud Island".
This is, of course, a fictional island not existing in the real
world.
On page 1, John Hammond refers to the work his crew is doing on
Isla Nublar to prepare the dinosaurs' living area as "terraforming".
Presumably, he means making what is to become Jurassic Park's
wilderness areas habitable and safe for dinosaurs, but the term
really is meant only to apply to the hypothetical process of
artificially modifying an extraterrestrial planet to be
Earth-like.
Didja Notice?
The cover of this comic appears to be a scene from one of the
movie clips Hammond shows Gennaro.
On page 2, artist Gil Kane draws the open mouth of a tractor arm
to look representative of a slavering carnivorous dinosaur.

Hammond shows Gennaro a spool of film clips from old dinosaur
and monster movies. On page 3, the first clip is said to be from
The World Unknown from the mid-50s. There is no such
film but it may have been inspired by the 1957 film, The
Land Unknown. However, unlike the description in the comic
stating that The World Unknown has brilliant
stop-motion animation, The Land Unknown contains no
stop-motion, the special effects being cheesy, low-budget
puppets, men in suits, and monitor lizards with extra claws,
horns, and scales glued to them in an attempt to make them look
like their gigantic ancestors.
The film spool continues on page 4 with scenes from The
Leviathan Strikes (possibly meant to represent
Behemoth, the Sea Monster or Gorgo), The King
of Monster Island (King Kong) and Siegfried
and the Golden Fleece (representing the film Jason and
the Argonauts, substituting the character of Siegfried from
the Germanic opera
Siegfried by Richard Wagner).
The dinosaur born on page 7 is a tyrannosaur, evidenced by the
two-clawed hands and later identified on page 8. Quite possibly
this depiction is intended to be the birth of the T. rex
later seen in the movie
Jurassic Park.
When Gennaro sees the hatchling dinosaur, he isn't impressed
and wonders if Hammond is just taking his investors to the
cleaners. Ironically, he says, "Personally, I wouldn't walk out
of a men's room to see something like this!" A few
years later, in the
Jurassic Park movie, Gennaro is killed by
a T. rex (probably this same one, grown up) while sitting on a toilet, hiding in a JP men's room.
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