Xenozoic Tales
Kitchen Sink Comix
1987 - 1996
Cadillacs and Dinosaurs is an interesting tale of pop culture history. Unlike numerous toy lines out there which began as a result of a cartoon, C&D has a little more depth to it than your average story. While it would eventually lead to the animated series, which would in turn segue into the toy line, the birth of the "franchise" started in black and white form in the pages of Kitchen Sink Comix Xenozoic Tales.
The series ran sporadically for fourteen issues between 1987 and 1996 before ending mid-story arc. This was not only disappointing to fans back in 1996, but remains one to this day as the story has yet to be finished.
It's interesting to note that its cancellation wasn't due to the books being poorly received. In fact, this was quite the opposite. Xenozoic Tales won a total of four Harvey Awards during the 90's. Unfortunately, issues just got further and further apart in publication, and then seemingly ceased overnight.
No reason has ever been given as to why the series ended abruptly. In fact, Flesk Publications had a deal in the works with series creator Mark Schultz for an additional 80-page treatment which would have concluded the current story arc. Sadly, the last mention of this was back in 2013 when Flesk released the massive 352 page trade paperback, Xenozoic.
Between 1990 and 1991, Marvel Comics picked up the license to the series, and under their Epic banner released reprints of the series. With all new covers, color printing and the title changed to Cadillacs and Dinosaurs, it was the hope of many that the series would find a strong foothold and be the new home for the books. Unfortunately, only the first six issues ever came to fruition.
Topps Comics began publishing a second volume of books in 1994, but sadly this too proved futile. Rather than continue the current story, Shultz used the Topps banner to produce stories which filled in the gaps which were left after issue ten. However, after three story arcs and nine issues, the series went on hiatus just before the printing of Xenozoic Tales number 13.
Cadillacs And Dinosaurs
Game Designers' Workshop
1990
In 1990, Cadillacs and Dinosaurs was converted into a pen and paper roleplaying game by Game Designers' Workshop. The core of the game was designed around the popular Twilight: 2000 rules, which first began publication in 1984.
The publication of the book / game must have sold enough that a second edition was considered and even advertised in 1993. However, much like the comic book series, it's unknown as to what happened with its release. Overnight, it too vanished into obscurity, and with that, nothing was ever heard from the roleplaying world again about the game.
Cadillacs And Dinosaurs
Tyco
1993
With the comic book still, somewhat, in publication, this leads the story of Cadillacs and Dinosaurs to 1993 where CBS Kids airs the cartoon. If you hadn't seen this coming, the television series didn't last very long either. It ran for a mere thirteen episodes between 1993 and 1994.
To coincide with the series, Tyco procured the rights to produce a series of action figures, dinosaurs and vehicles. For a company which typically specializes in toy cars, they surprisingly did a pretty good job with the line.
The six figures produced each featured five points of articulation and a slew of launching projectile accessories.
To add a little extra "oomph" to the line, each card back was also individually designed to feature artwork of the character inside. Though it certainly adds to the production costs of any line, I have to admit, this little added "love" shown by toy manufacturers really adds that something extra to the line.
Tyco produced two types of dinosaurs. These smaller carded versions were definitely more wallet friendly than the larger ones, but couldn't hold a candle in the cool factor to them.
The Kentrosaurus and Triceratops were beast! Not only for the dinosaurs they were, but their plastic sizes.
Tyco also produced three vehicles for the line. Of course, you can't have Cadillacs and Dinosaurs without producing Jack Tenrec's cadillac. It's as iconic to the series as he himself is.
The animated series wasn't limited to the action figure line for promotions. There were also a handful of video games, which included the arcade cabinet, a Sega CD game and a handful of PC ones. Believe it or not, the video games are actually much more scarce than the toy line, and command some pretty high prices. Especially the arcade cabinet - Not that those are cheap to begin with.
Cadillacs and Dinosaurs is definitely a series which holds a lot of interesting history to it. It's not one of those fly by night cartoons of the 80 / 90's where the toy line came first, then the cartoon to promote it and so on. With its great storytelling in the pages of comic books, and an already established fan base, it seemed like it would have been destined to succeed. Too bad everything related to the "franchise" seemed to be abandoned over time.
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