Space Dinosaur

"Could CAPTAIN RAPTOR be lost FOREVER?!"

What could be better than Dinosaurs in space?  They are at least as enticing as mutant zombie ninja cowboys... or viking vampire sharks...or alien samurai dragons...or....

Last night, my older son reminded us of the excellence of the "Captain Raptor" books.  There are two books in the series by Kevin O'Malley and illustrated by Patrick O'Brien that combine the little boy favorites of large talking reptiles with astronauts, spaceships, weapons and pirates:
"Captain Raptor and the Space Pirates" and "Captain Raptor and the Moon Mystery."

My sons were never particularly Dinosaur obsessed, but they certainly appreciate a big reptile with a big gun. The books are written in a pulpy, somewhat arch style that is perfect both for fatigued bedtime book reading parents who enjoy the irony, and kids who embrace the hyperbole. Every time Captain Raptor encounters deadly aliens like the "OCTOCOLOSSUS," the narrator asks, "Could this be the end of CAPTAIN RAPTOR?!"

Or at least that is how I remember it.

We are completely buried under a deluge of kids books at our house.  This is completely my fault. My blameless husband makes things like wooden bookcases for a living, but cannot possibly keep up.  (Not that he is able to even try most of the time, because, you know, shoemakers' children have no shoes, and woodworkers' children's mothers have to buy cheap bookcases from Pottery Barn)

But the upshot is that despite a specific request and quite a bit of shelf excavation, I could not find the Captain Raptor books last night.  Today's napkin is somewhere at a mid point between my memories of Patrick O'Brien's very fine illustrations and the space suited dinosaur character in the more recent and also excellent "Midas Flesh" comic series.

Archer suggested that I should just buy a couple more copies of Mr. O'Malley and O'Brien's books.
Definitely not. We already run the risk of an appearance on "Hoarders" without intentionally acquiring more than one copy of anything.  And we will need space to shelve the "Midas Flesh" TPB after we finish it.