Member Reviews
My boys absolutely loved this book. It was funny,energetic,very colorful! They couldn't put it down when I asked them to read it.
Love to bright colors and pizza, but I found this hard to get through. I think kids would probably love it, but it's definitely not very appealing to teens or adults. The plot is a little convoluted. But i would definitely recommend for every youth collection.
Pizzasaurus Rex is a throwback comic in the vein of TMNT and Denver the Dinosaur. I really enjoyed this comic, but I didn't care much for the lead character. The supporting cast and villains really carried the story. The dinosaur has pizza shaped everything. This comic book makes me want to order some pizza. I think it may be geared towards adults than children given the nostalgia and sarcasm. I enjoyed this one!
At face value, this feels like a comic I'd have seen in the mid 90s, what with the popped collar and high tops wearing dinosaur and the focus on being "rad". Lots of dated slang. Clearly, Wagner is playing with genre and expectations. It's a borderline spoof. The plot is relatively complete, just ridiculous and bearing some plot points that come rather out of left field. There's certainly an audience for this book but I feel like it's a narrow one.
I feel awful saying this...but Pizzasaurus Rex was truly terrible. The 80s references were over-the-top and, simply put, annoying. The main character is one of the most annoying characters I've ever read. Truly, truly an awful person and not even one that gets much of a character arc seeing as his "rad" self at the end of the book is just as completely insufferable as his nerdier counterpart. I can not in good conscience purchase this for my library.
'Pizzasaurus Rex' by Justin Wagner feels like a fossil from another age. I think it should have stayed buried.
Jeremy Duderman is a pretty boring scientist who unleashes a reptile that likes pizza on the world (sound familiar?). The dinosaur has pizza shaped everything, like skateboards and guitars. He also says the word "Rad!" A lot. The almost only girl in the book gets a rad transformation and then is mostly referred to as "the hot chick." The bad guys are infinite, which is good, because they keep losing their heads as the main bad guy keeps lopping them off.
Is this for kids? Is this a lost book from the early 1990s?
Whatever it is, it just wasn't very good, and felt really dated.
I received a review copy of this graphic novel from Oni Press and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you for allowing me to review this graphic novel.
Bizarre madcap mashup
This is a rather bizarre comic that’s a mashup of Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure, Dumb and Dumber, and Napoleon Dynamite, channels George Carlin, Matthew Broderick, Bill Murray, and Michael Keaton, among others. It’s a fluff piece without much depth – think of it as a popcorn flick or a Saturday morning cartoon for middle-schoolers - but it has a crazy energy and a smidgen of horror. I can’t even begin to describe the journey of Jeremy Duderman, except he’s a throwback to the 90’s and everything bad ever said about nerds. Add in classic bullies, a pizza-munching dinosaur, and another dimension, and well, you have the basis for the story.
I think that middleschoolers who like Artemis Fowl and similar books where there’s a bit a crude humor, name-calling, and a lot of attitude will enjoy this. The life lessons are a bit light, but they’re there if you dig hard enough. But there’s plenty of punching and decapitating action. This might be a comic that will encourage kids to read while not really being that thought-provoking, just mindless silliness. And sometimes that’s not a bad thing!
I’m only giving it four stars because there didn’t seem to be any really solution for the name-calling and bullying, the sexism toward the female characters, and the general disrespect for academics and intellectuals. It’s as if some of the bullying was justified. It’s just something that was really hard to quantify as ever truly addressed by the story.
Thanks to @Netgalley and @Onipress for my advance readers copy in return for my honest review.
Meet Jeremy Duderman, the most extremely awesome scientific mind of his generation. Too bad everyone’s too busy bullying him or just generally disliking him to realize it. But that all ends today.
So, I love comics, I have been lucky enough that my two boys love reading as much as I do. So I read this book, which I absolutely loved! Then I asked my eight year old if he would like to read it and let me know how he liked it! He was over the moon that he had to privilege of reading a book that hasn’t been sold in stores yet! So he sat down with my iPad and snuggled in for a reading session. Cut to half hour later…and I had the happiest little boy with lots of questions, input and wanted to share everything he had read.
He absolutely loved it! My boys go to a school that is Bully Free, so he knew right away that bullying is not a good thing to do or be at the end of. He loved how the main character Jeremey was a scientist. He loved that “ he made another dimension, which I know isn’t possible because we aren’t there yet, but it was still pretty awesome! “. My son is pretty funny little dude, with lots of input. Ha-Ha
The book is awesome. I would definitely recommend it! It was a solid 3.5/5 stars, the book dealt with how to deal with bullies and never giving up.
The type of bright, colourful, silly fun that children will no doubt love, without ever feeling like it's going to make any best of lists.
Give it to your kids who are in the juniors at school and it'll no doubt prove a huge hit.
Undeniably lame 😉
Read this if: you're in the mood for some ridiculous silliness / your inner child is still alive / you've ever struggled with wanting to be cool / love pizza.
That's all
DNF - I gave up when the colourist and inker did. And I was still waiting for hilarious references to cartoons I may have been brought up with, for this was lame. Only for those who think brash and childish are qualities to cherish.
A rad story with a main character called Pizzasaurus Rex! What a fun introduction to graphic novels, that will be super popular with middle aged children. I laughed my way through this one, and I know they will too. The paged are filled with bold lines, bright colors, ridiculous characters, and an obscene amount of pizza. Simply wonderful!
A huge thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for sending me a digital copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. I truly appreciate it!
The all-engulfing truth about some bullying that continues into your adult life. It is sad and hurtful when things like this happened because some bullying can cause grievous bodily harm and psychological issues that becomes deadly and fatal to the individuals, so yes, no form of bullying is good or right and should never be condoned. An interesting and colorful way in causing fissures in the bullying fraternity.
This one is the perfect read for summer! The bright fun colors and awesome illustrations are sure to be a win with kids. I read this with my 10 year old and he loved it he thought it was hilarious and I loved the nod to the older generation, he did as well enough that everything is ‘RAD’ now. As a parent it was hard to read so much name calling but I think it’s relatable for kids especially those early middle school aged and shows bullying in a way they’ll understand and relate to and it’s action packed which is always a plus.