Bøker av Allen A. Debus

Nostalgic in tone, this book scours the meaning of Kong and Godzilla as planetary saviors - titanic protectors of a theoretical 'living Earth' Gaia - defending the globe from a prehistoric plague of adversaries symbolic of a self-destructive Medean entity.

Over centuries, discoveries of fossil bones spawned legends of mythological monsters such as giants and dragons. This study examines how these beasts morphed in the public imagination into mythical, powerful engines of destruction, taking their place in popular culture, film, and literature as symbols of 'lost worlds' where time stands still.

This new book, greatly expanded from the 1995 first edition, describes detailed, step-by-step procedures for sculpting, molding and painting original prehistoric animals. It emphasizes the use of relatively inexpensive materials including oven-hardening polymer clay and wire. Additional tips are offered on how to build distinctive dino-dioramas and scenes involving one's own original sculptures that you will learn how to conceive and build. This book will appeal to a new generation who would like to break into the industry of paleosculpture. Techniques range from "basic" to "advanced." The authors also discuss what it means to be a "paleoartist."

From the first illustrated edition of Jules Verne's Journey to the Center of the Earth in 1867, dinosaurs and prehistory have fascinated readers. Writers would time and again come back to dinosaurs as an element of fantastic fiction, often using these creatures--through the venue of the written word--to reflect the world of the writers' own time. This literary survey examines how ""paleoliterature"" originated, developed and matured to the present day. Also discussed are the ways in which dinosaur fiction mirrors contemporary ideas about subjects such as geology, the Cold War, environmentalism, time travel, evolution and bioengineering. Featured authors include Ray Bradbury, H.G. Wells, and Poul Anderson, among others. In select cases, the novelizations of movie scripts are also examined. An appendix provides brief summaries of deserving dinosaur texts.