Bone Sharps, Cowboys, and Thunder Lizards

Bone Sharps, Cowboys, and Thunder Lizards.
Bone Sharps, Cowboys, and Thunder Lizards (2005) is a graphic novel written by Jim Ottaviani and illustrated by the company Big Time Attic. It tells a slightly fictionalized account of the Bone Wars, a period of intense rivalry over the excavation of dinosaur fossils in the western United States. The novel is the first semi-fictional work written by Ottaviani; previously, he had taken no creative license with the characters he depicted, portraying them strictly according to historical sources. Bone Sharps follows two scientists, Othniel Charles Marsh and Edward Drinker Cope (pictured), as they pursue their hotheaded and sometimes illegal acquisitions of fossils. Along the way, they encounter P. T. Barnum, Buffalo Bill, Alexander Graham Bell, Ulysses S. Grant, and other figures of the Gilded Age. Upon release, the novel was praised by critics for its historical content, although some reviewers were disappointed by the fictional elements.