Topps, usually known for baseball cards, expanded into the new world (at least to them) of comic books from 1993 to 1998.
One of its biggest properties besides X-Files, Mars Attacks, Dracula, Xena and Zorro was the licensed adaptations of Jurassic Park (and it's sequel, The Lost World: Jurassic Park) and a few original series based on this world of Michael Crichton's!
Jurassic Park
The first series of
Jurassic Park comics with 4 issues that came out in June, 1993 to August, 1993, and was an adaptation of the movie written by
Walt Simonson and drawn by
Gil Kane and
George Perez, and covers for the first two issues by
Kane and
Perez (and a variant on issue #2), and the last two covers were by
Dave Cockrum.
Topps also provided "collector's editions"...
....that came polybagged, and had 3 collector's cards with them (hey, it was Topps after all, cards were how they made their living for decades)...
...and they even polybagged a tradepaperback collection of these 4 issues (with a zero issue, and more cards as well!).
Well, it was the 1990s, and bagging and selling comics as collectibles was the rage!
Jurassic Park: Raptor
First up in their original comics were two issues of
Jurassic Park: Raptor as the "Official Continuation of the Hit Movie" by
Steve Englehart and
Armando Gil (with covers by
Michael Golden) in November and December, 1993 (just the two issues)...
...and of course, bagged with 3
William Stout trading cards!
Jurassic Park: Raptors Attack
The next original series up was
Jurassic Park: Raptors Attack from March to June, 1994 with stories by
Steve Englehart, and art by
Chaz Truog, and covers by
Michael Golden for 4 issues as "the biggest Blockbuster ever continues!".
Still more adventures of Dr. Alan Grant and Dr. Ellie Sattler facing off against dinosaurs!
Really neat, and reprinted in Topps'
Jurassic Park Adventures #3-6, while
Jurassic Park Adventures #1 and
#2 had
Jurassic Park: Raptor #1 and
#2.
Jurassic Park: Raptors Hijack
After the dinosaurs attacked, then they'd hijack, and that was the following mini-series of 4 issues by
Steve Englehart and
Neil Vokes...
Jurassic Park: Raptors Hijack #1 to
#4 from July to November, 1994.
Hmm...it does seem like they are just cloning these books as they go along (but, go with it, as cloning dinosaurs was the theme of the movie....), and these tales were reprinted in
Jurassic Park Adventures #6 to
#10.
Jurassic Park Annual
Jurassic Park had it's one and only annual (with
Jurassic Park Annual #1) in May of 1995, with 2 all-new stories and art by
Bob Almond,
Neil Garrett Jr.,
Michael Golden,
Ed Murr,
Andrew Pepoy,
Claude St. Aubin and
Renee Witterstaetter...
...and, at this time, the writing was beginning to show up on the cave walls....
...but, never count a Velociraptor or a Tyrannosaurus Rex out at any time, as they return more than Jason did in
Friday the 13th (also a property used by Topps Comics!).
Return To Jurassic Park
A slightly new title was made to the new series of
Return To Jurassic Park that started in April of 1995 and ran nine issues until February of 1996.
Issues
#1 to
#4 of
Return to Jurassic Park were done by
Steve Englehart and
Joe Staton,
Return to Jurassic Park #5 through
#8 were by
Tom & Mary Bierbaum and
Armando Gil with the storyline of "Heirs To Thunder"...
...then
Return to Jurassic Park #9, the final issue of this run of the series, which came out in February, 1996, was a "Jurassic Jam" issue, featuring work by writers
Keith Giffen,
Renee Witterstaetter and
Dwight Zimmerman and a dinosaur-sized set of talented artists including
Aaron Lopresti,
Adam Hughes,
Brian Stelfreeze,
Cully Hammer,
George Perez,
Jason Pearson,
Jeff Butler,
John Byrne,
June Brigman,
Kelly Freas,
Kerry Gammill,
Kevin Maguire,
Mike Docherty,
Mike Zeck,
Mitch O'Connell,
Pat Broderick,
Paul Chadwick,
Paul Gulacy,
Rafael Kayanan,
Ron Lim, and
Walter Simonson and a cover by
John Bolton!
The Lost World: Jurassic Park
Jurassic Park had a sequel in 1997 called
The Lost World: Jurassic Park, set four years after the original movie, and it dealt with more dinosaurs (as well as the return of Ian Malcolm) to deal with the mistakes made when John Hammond unleashed these cloned dinosaurs on the world as the Bowman family dealt with new threats off the coast of Central America (and Peter Ludlow, the nephew of John Hammond), tried to take over InGen (the parent company that started this mess) and the dinosaurs.
This time around, for the comic series of
The Lost World: Jurassic Park (May to August, 1997),
Walt Simonson provided the covers,
Don McGregor did the comic writing, and the art was provided by
Jeff Butler for
The Lost World: Jurassic Park #1 and
#2, and by
Claude St. Aubin for
The Lost World: Jurassic Park #3 and
#4.
Also added this time around were photo cover variants for the issues....but, soon after this, Topps Comics was as dead as the dinosaurs.
IDW To The Rescue
Still, IDW Publishing got the rights to
Jurassic Park, and it made tradepaperback collecting these series...
Classic Jurassic Park #1 has
Jurassic Park #1 to
#4,
Classic Jurassic Park #2: Raptors Revenge has
Jurassic Park #0,
Jurassic Park; Raptor #1 and
#2, and
Jurassic Park: Raptors Attack #1 to
#4,
Classic Jurassic Park #3: Amazon Adventure! has
Jurassic Park Annual #1, and
Jurassic Park: Raptors Hijack #1 to
#4,
Classic Jurassic Park #4: Return to Jurassic Park Part 1 has
Return to Jurassic Park #1 to
#4, and
Classic Jurassic Park #5: Return to Jurassic Park Part 2 has
Return to Jurassic Park #5 to
#9.
IDW has even made its own adaptations as well, continuing on the work started by Topps, and continuing the hard work to resurrect dinosaurs, with its own 5 issue
Jurassic Park series from June to October, 2010 (by
Bob Schrek and
Nate Van Dyke), 5 issues of
Jurassic Park: Dangerous Games from September, 2011 to January, 2012 (by
Erik Bear and
Jorge Jimenez), and 4 issues of
Jurassic Park: The Devils In The Desert from January to April, 2011 (by
John Byrne) ....when will they ever learn not to clone things from left behind DNA?
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