A
visual survey |
| |
|
| |
DINOSAUR ISLAND |
| Later
known as Mystery Island and Monster Island |
| |
|
First appearance: Star-Spangled War Stories #90
Author/Creator: Robert Kanigher,
Ross Andru and Mike Esposito
Media: Comic
Year: 1960
Located: South Pacific Island
Plot/Premise: Dinosaur Island is a mysterious uncharted island located
somewhere in the South Pacific. As its name suggests,
the island is known for supporting animal life that
would otherwise be extinct in the normal world - most
notably, its high population of dinosaurs. It is believed
that Dinosaur Island is in someway connected, either
physically or mystically, to the Inner-Earth realm
known as Skartaris. It is on this island that members
of the U.S. Armed Forces found themselves -- armed
only with standard issue weapons against the deadliest
predators ever to roam the Earth.
In the Star Spangled War Stories #90: The War
that Time Forgot when a reconnaissance patrol
fails to return from Mystery Island (as it is then known), the Question
Mark Patrol is parachuted in and discover that an
earthquake has released dinosaurs from suspended animation.
It is kept top secret and over the years many patrols
stumble upon the island and its secret.
Sequels/Other
appearances: Batman: The Brave and the
Bold: Revenge of the Reach! (Comic); Batman:
The Brave and the Bold: Revenge of the Reach! and Terror on Dinosaur Island! (Comics);
DC: The New Frontier Vol 1 3 (Comic); Guns
of the Dragon Vol 1 1-4 (Comic); Superman/Batman
Vol 1 46 (Comic); War That Time Forgot Vol
1 1-12 (Comic); Batman: The Brave and the
Bold: "Terror on Dinosaur Island" (TV); Challengers of the Unknown: "Revenge
of the Reach" (TV); Justice League: The New
Frontier (Direct to video film)
|
|
| |
Fauna |
|
| |
| Explore |
Comic Vine: Dinosaur
Island
DC Database: Dinosaur
Island
Don Markstein's Toonpedia: The
War That Time Forgot
Scott Shaw's Oddball Comics: Star
Spangled War Stories
Wikipedia: Dinosaur
Island and The
War that Time Forgot
Dinosaur Tracking: From
the Comic Books: The Secret Dinosaur War
Atomic Surgery Blog: The
War That Time Forgot: Medal For A Dinosaur!
Vonshollywood: Tales
from the PTO (Prehistoric Theatre of Operations)
|
| |
|
| |
| |
PLANET OF STORMS |
| |
|
| |
First
appearance: Planeta Bur (Planet
of Storms)
Author/Creator: Aleksandr Kazantsev,
Pavel Klushantsev
Media: Film
Year: 1962
Located: Venus
Plot/Premise: Three spacecraft set
out for Venus, two arrive, one remains in orbit while the third lands. Exploring with their robot
John and a hovercar they find a steamy, tropical world
populated by dinosaurs, carnivorous plants and the remnants
of an ancient civilization.
Adaptations: Women of the Prehistoric
Planet (Film, 1966); Voyage to the Planet
of Prehistoric Women (Film, 1968)
|
|
| |
Fauna |
| |
|
|
The
cosmonauts and John the robot fight off small, bipedal
exosaurs
|
| |
|
|
|
Small
bounding dinosaurs
|
"Brontosaurus"
|
| |
|
|
|
Carnivorous
plant
|
Bizarre pterosaur-like
creature
|
Explore
Wikipedia: Pavel
Klushantsev
Black Hole: Planeta
Bur - Russian retro space adventure
Veoh video: Planet
of Storms or YouTube: The
Planet of Storms
1000 Misspent Hours: Planet
of Storms / Cosmonauts on Venus / Planeta
Burg / Planeta Bur
|
| |
| |
SAVAGE LAND |
| |
|
| |
First
appearance: X-Men #10
Author/Creator: Stan Lee and Jack Kirby
Media: Comic
Year: 1965
Located: Antarctica
Plot/Premise: The Savage Land is a
tropical region surrounded by volcanoes deep in Antarctica,
created over 200 million years ago by the alien Nuwali
as one of several planetary "game preserves"
for the mysterious godlike Beyonders. The Nuwali stocked
the Land with Earthly life of the era, most notably
dinosaurs; as Earth's flora and fauna changed over succeeding
millions of years, they supplemented their preserve
with prehistoric mammals and early hominids, or "Man-Apes." |
| |
|
| |
Sequels/Other
appearances: "The Hunter and the Hunted" (Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends Spider-Man TV Show, 1981); X-Men (TV series, 1992); "Stranger From a Savage Land" (The Super Hero Squad Show TV show, 1981); Next Avengers: Heroes of Tomorrow (Video film, 2008); X-Men: Children of the Atom (Video game, 1994); Genesis X-Men (Video game, 1993) X-Men 2: Clone Wars (Video game, 1995); X-Men Legends II: Rise of Apocalypse (Video game, 2005); Marvel Super Hero Squad (Video game, 2009) |
| |
|
| |
| Explore
Wikipedia: Savage
Land
Comic Vine: Savage
Land
Transformers Wiki: Savage
Land
Marvel Universe Wiki: Savage
Land
Marvel Directory: Savage
Land and Savage
Land Races
|
| |
|
| |
| |
FORBIDDEN VALLEY |
| |
|
| |
First appearance: The Valley
of Gwangi
Author/Creator: Willis H. O'Brien,
Ray Harryhausen, James O'Connolly, William E. Bast
and Julian More
Media: Film
Year: 1969
Located: Deep in the Mexican desert
Plot/Premise: The Forbidden Valley
is an almost impenetrable valley deep in the Mexican
desert where dinosaurs (through very few plants) still
flourish. Chief among its inhabitants is the huge
carnivorous dinosaur dubbed "Gwangi" which
escapes and wreaks havoc when it is captured in a
travelling Wild West show.
Sequels/Other appearances: "Gwango's Lonesome Trail" (Children's book, 2006)
Adaptation: Dell Comic, 1969
|
| |
|
| |

|
 |
| |
Fauna |
| |
|
|
Pteranodon |
Ornithomimus |
| |
|
|
|
Styracosaurus |
Gwangi
("Allotyrannus") |
| |
Explore
YouTube: The
Valley of Gwangi
Wikipedia: The
Valley of Gwangi
Eccentric Cinema: The
Valley of Gwangi
The Seventh Voyage: Valley
of Gwangi
Bad Movie Planet: The
Valley of Gwangi
B Movie Film Vault: The
Valley of Gwangi
The Realm of Ryan - Movie
review: The Valley of Gwangi
The Fantastic Films of Ray Harryhausen: The
Valley of the Gwangi
|
| |
| |
SOMEWHERE IN AFRICA |
| |
|
| |
First appearance: The Mighty
Gorga
Author/Creator: David L. Hewitt,
Jean Hewitt
Media: Film
Year: 1969
Located: Remote African plateau
Plot/Premise: A circus manager leads
an expedition to a remote African plateau inhabited
by dinosaurs and a giant ape. The
explorers are captured and slated to become human
sacrifices when the towering title primate shows up
and destroys everything. The explorers escape and
find safety in an enormous cave that proves to be
filled with priceless jewels.
Explore
Teleport City: Mighty
Gorga
YouTube: Mighty
Gorga Trailer
B-Movie Central: Mighty
Gorga
Eccentric Cinema: Mighty
Gorga
Internet Movie Database: Mighty
Gorga
Jabootu, the Bad Movie Dimension: Mighty
Gorga (1968)
|
| |
| |
COMET |
| |
|
| |
First
appearance: Na Komete ( On the
Comet)
Author/Creator: Karel Zeman
Media: Film
Year: 1970
Located: Outer Space
Plot/Premise:
In 1888, just as two men in French Algeria are about
to duel, a comet collides with the earth, ripping
off their corner of the planet and carrying it into
space. Dinosaurs inhabit the comet (apparently picked
up in an earlier collision) and the inhabitants must
work together to survive. However another collision
occurs restoring everything and everyone to its original
state. Before long the people return too to their former
bigoted and violent ways. Also filmed as Valley
of the Dragons (1961) with "slurpasaurs"
from One Million B.C. (1940). |
|
Fauna |
| |
|
|
| |
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
Explore
 Darkstrider.net
Karel
Zeman Filmography
Karel
Zeman: Genius (Czech)
Czechs in History: Karel
Zeman (Czech)
Jules
Verne Movies and Movie Collectibles
YouTube: The
Special Effects of Karel Zeman
Wikipedia: Off
on a Comet and Karel
Zeman
Internet Movie Database: Na
komete and Karel
Zeman
The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia: Karel
Zeman
Voyages Extraordinaires: The
Special Effects of Karel Zeman
Film Festival Zlín: About
the Famous Wandering Pterodactyl and ...
Czech-Slovak film Database: The
Comet (particularly the gallery) and Karel
Zeman
TCM's Classic Movie Blog: A
Strange Introduction to Karel Zeman - The Czech Visionary
Andreas Fehrmann's Collection Jules Verne: Travel
through the solar system - The Comet and Menu:
Karel Zeman (German)
|
| |
|
| |
| |
LAND OF THE LOST |
| |
|
| |
First
appearance: "Land of the Lost"
Author/Creator: Sid and Marty Krofft
Media: TV series
Year: 1974
Located: Pocket universe |
| |
|
| |
Plot/Premise: The Land of the Lost is a very small, closed pocket
universe that consists of a valley surrounded by mountains.
A traveler attempting to pass over the mountains will
find himself reentering the valley from the other
side; at one point the Marshalls climb a mountain
peak and using binoculars are able to see far enough
across the valley to observe themselves from behind.
There is one major river flowing through the Land,
forming a similarly closed loop; it flows into a cave
at one end of the valley and comes out as a waterfall
at the other end.
|
| |
|
| |
Sequels/Other
appearances: "Land of the Lost" (TV
series, 1991), Land of the Lost (Film, 2009)
Adaptations: "Valley
of the Dinosaurs" (a Hanna-Barbera cartoon
with a virtually identical premise) |
| |
Fauna: 1974 TV series |
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
| |
|
Fauna: 2009 film |
| |
|
|
| |
|
|
|
| |
Explore
Land
of the Lost Online
Pop Apostle: "Land
of the Lost"
Internet Movie Database: "Land
of the Lost"
Wikipedia: "Land
of the Lost" (1974 TV series)
|
| |
| |
SKARTARIS
Also known as Agartta |
| |
|
| |
First appearance: The
Warlord 1st Issue Special #8
Author/Creator: Mike Grell
Media: Comic
Year: 1975
Located: Earth's interior,
later an extradimensional realm |
| |
|
| |
Plot/Premise: Skartaris is essentially a translation of Edgar Rice
Burroughs' Pellucidar into the graphic medium, with
elements of Jules Verne and half a dozen other fictional
Hollow Earth settings, and the admixture of magic
and the Atlantis myth. In Grell's concept, as in Burroughs',
the Earth is a hollow shell with Skartaris as the
internal surface of that shell. Skartaris is accessible
to the surface world via a polar opening allowing
passage between the inner and outer worlds. There
are also various tunnels connecting the interior world
with the surface. Skartaris is lit by a miniature
sun suspended at the center of the hollow sphere,
so it is perpetually overhead wherever one is in Skartaris.
Skartaris is overrun by a variety of prehistoric creatures
from all geological eras, notably dinosaurs. Skartaris is named after the volcano through which Jules Verne's adventurers made their Journey to the Center of the Earth. Skartaris was retconned into being Another Dimension. It cannot actually exist within the DC Universe's Earth, which isn't hollow.
Sequels/Other appearances: Suicide Squad: Raise the Flag (2007); "The Land of Summer's Twilight" (The Books of Magic issue #3)
Adaptations: "Battle at the Earth's Core" (Super Friends, TV animation, 1973); "Chaos at the Earth's Core" (Justice League Unlimited, TV animation, 2004)
|
| |
|
| |
Fauna |
| |
|
Explore
Wikipedia: Skartaris
DC Nation: Skartaris
DC Database: Skartaris
Toonpedia: The
Warlord
Fanzing: Welcome
to the Lost World
ComicBook Bin: Return
to the Lost World of The Warlord
|
| |
|
| |
| |
THROUGH THE BERMUDA TRIANGLE PORTAL |
| |
|
| |
First
appearance: Skull the Slayer #1
Author/Creator: Marv Wolfman and Steve Gan
Media: Comic
Year: 1975
Located: Alternate Earth |
| |
|
| |
Plot/Premise: This unnamed lost world is accessed via a powerful transdimensional vortex found surrounding the Bermuda Islands and which has become known as the Bermunda Triangle. The portal and the world to which it links was built by the 'Scorpians' a race of extraterrestrials. They created it as an experiment and populated it with dinosaurs and other life indigeneous to Mesozoic Earth. The Scorpians also built The Tower of Time, a massive spiral tower in which each level simulated different periods from Earth's history.
|
| |
|
| |
Fauna |
| |
 |
|
| T-rex |
Stegosaurus |
 |
|
Plesiosaur |
Pterosaurs |
|
| |
| Explore |
Wikipedia: Skull the Slayer
Comic Vine: Skull the Slayer
The Philippine Comics Art Museum: Steve Gan
Diversions of the Groovy Kind: If You Blinked You Missed: Skull the Slayer
The Appendix to the Handbook of the Marvel Universe: Bermuda Triangle and Jim Scully
|
| |
|
|
| |
|
|
|
| |
| |
BENEATH THE POLE |
| |
|
| |
First
appearance: The Last Dinosaur
Author/Creator: William Overgard, Alexander
Grasshoff, Shusei Kotani
Media: Film
Year: 1977
Located: Inside a dormant volcano near the North Pole
Plot/Premise: Masten Thrust, a billionaire
oil tycoon and big-game hunter, has announced the discovery
of a lost world hidden inside the warm pocket of a dormant
volcano at the North Pole. Traveling via his "Polar
Borer", Thrust and his team find that the hidden
world is populated with both dinosaurs and prehistoric
humans.
|
| |
Fauna |
| |
|
|
| |
|
Artwork from British poster |
Explore
Kev's Cupboard: The
Last Dinosaur
Bad Movie Review: The
Last Dinosaur
Internet Movie Database: The
Last Dinosaur
Jabootu Bad Movie Dimension: The
Last Dinosaur
John Kenneth Muir's Reflections on Film/TV: The
Last Dinosaur
|
| |
| |
IRETA |
| |
|
| |
First
appearance: Dinosaur Planet
Author/Creator: Anne McCaffrey
Media: Novel
Year: 1978
Located: Deep space
Plot/Premise: The crew of shipbred technicians sent to the planet
Ireta was prepared for a routine mission to catalog
flora and fauna and search for new energy sources. Kai
and his beautiful co-leader Varian, the best xenob-vet
in the business, followed all the standard procedures,
but the result of their investigations was totally unexpected.
When their rescue ship mysteriously disappears, they
suddenly find themselves surrounded by giant swamp creatures,
deadly predators, and terrifying dinosaurs. And a curious
change begins to come over many of the crew members—a
mutinous change that will lead all of them, in one way
or another, into the primitive darkness of a future
world that holds many mysteries yet to be revealed.
. . .
Sequels/Other appearances: Dinosaur
Planet and Dinosaur Planet Survivors; Sassinak (1990, Anne McCaffrey and Elizabeth
Moon); The Death of Sleep (1990, Anne McCaffrey
and Jody Lynn Nye); Generation Warriors (1991,
Anne McCaffrey and Elizabeth Moon)
|
| |
Fauna |
| |
|
Dinosaur
Planet (Mark Salwowski) |
|
|
Dinosaur
Planet II - The Survivors (Mark Salwowski) |
| |
|
Dinosaur
Planet (Mark Salwowski) |
| |
|
Dinosaur
Planet II - The Survivors (Mark Salwowski) |
| |
| Explore |
The
Worlds of Anne McCaffrey
Wikipedia: Dinosaur
Planet (novel) and Anne
McCaffrey
A
Meeting of Minds - An Anne McCaffrey Discussion Forum
The
Many Works of Anne McCaffrey: Dinosaur
Planet / Planet Pirates
Detailed Bibliographic Information
Experience Music Project | Science Fiction Museum and
Hall of Fame: Anne
McCaffrey
|
| |
| |
PLANET OF DINOSAURS |
| |
|
| |
First
appearance: Planet of Dinosaurs
Author/Creator: James Shea, Jim Aupperle,
Ralph Lucas
Media: Film
Year: 1978
Located: Deep space |
| |
|
| |
Plot/Premise: In an unspecified future, a passenger spaceship crash lands
on an earth-like world populated with savage dinosaurs. They encounter a variety of species and several of their number are killed. The survivors decide
that their best chance lay in setting up a defensive perimeter
on a plateau until rescuers arrive. However this area is menaced by a deadly Tyrannosaurus which must be defeated if they are to have any chance of survival.
Sequels/Other appearances: Galactic Raiders (Film, in production) has a similar premise.
Adaptation: Planet of Dinosaurs (Reimagining, comic, 2008)
|
| |
|
|
| |
Fauna |
| |
|
|
Brontosaurus |
A
victim of Tyrannosaurus |
| |
|
|
|
A
group of Stegosaurus |
Tyrannosaurus and "Rhedosaurus"
face off |
| |
|
|
|
A
lumbering Stegosaurus |
T-rex emerges from its lair |
| |
|
|
|
Tyrannosaurus and Stegosaurus battle |
Warding
off Allosaurus |
| |
|
|
Ceratopsian |
Struthiomimus |
| |
| Explore |
Wikipedia: Planet
of Dinosaurs
Internet Movie Database: Planet
of Dinosaurs
Encyclopedia of Fantastic Film and Television: Planet
of Dinosaurs
|
| |
| |
ZANTHODON |
| |
|
| |
First
appearance: Journey to the Underground
World
Author/Creator: Lin Carter
Media: Novel
Year: 1979
Located: Earth's interior
Plot/Premise: Under the trackless sands
of the Sahara lay Zanthodon. That vast subterranean
realm is the final homeland of the one-time masters
of the world's surface — great dinosaurs, mighty
jungles and living bands of primitive peoples from Neanderthals
to Ancient Minoans and even Barbary pirates. Zanthodon is heavily modelled on Edgar Rice Burrough's creation, Pellucidar.
Sequels/Other appearances: Zanthodon (1980), Hurok of the Stone Age (1981), Darya of the Bronze Age (1981), Eric of Zanthodon (1982)
|
| |
|
 |
|
Explore
Wikipedia: Lin
Carter
RBzine: "Zanthodon"
Overview, Literary
Zanthodon, Literal
Zanthodon and Linguistic
Zanthodon, Pellucidar, Mangani, Pal-ul-don
von Horst's Pellucidar: Pellucidar
Pastiches
|
| |
|
| |