Doug TenNapel is a guy who brings a very weird sensibility to comics, and Tommysaurus Rex definitely lives up to that expectation. It's reminiscent in structure of the Iron Giant, as a lonely young boy finds a very unusual friend and has to keep him safe from larger society while enjoying the friendship at the same time. However, Tommysaurus Rex is less about the fear of the unknown that Iron Giant riffed off of and more of a story about the difficulties of being young and the question of forgiveness. TenNapel's story sort of meanders through some of the important stuff to get to the points he wants to make, and his conclusion about the nature of forgiveness is a lot kinder than mine, so I wasn't as impressed with this as I was by his previous work, Creature Tech, but it's still a very unique and often very funny read.
In many ways, Tommysaurus Rex has the structure of a kid's movie. The outsider hero, the strange and magical element that enters his life, the bullying kid who is his nemesis, the lessons learned, it's all there. But it diverges from formula in some notable ways, some good and some bad. The good is that TenNapel's story is somewhat unpredictable at times. He sidesteps the overdone gags about the kid trying to hide his friend by having the T-Rex rampage through the town and make his presence known to everyone, and the deadpan reactions to the monster are worth quite a few laughs.
On the other hand, TenNapel also breaks with tradition in that the villain of the piece doesn't really get any comeuppance. The bully, whose cruelty crosses believable childhood cruelty and enters into actual villainy when he tries to murder the T-Rex, is rewarded with a happy ending and forgiveness. This might speak to a more enlightened worldview from TenNapel, but it's hardly dramatically satisfying. Presumably, we're meant to believe that Tommy's sacrifice was worthwhile, that he helped save someone worth saving, but I couldn't help thinking that the more predictable irony of Randy being caught in his own fire would have been a better kind of justice. Of course, that also speaks to one of the problems I have with the book, which is that Ely's dog and his second pet both die pretty horrible deaths, and that makes me uncomfortable in reading the story. It's just a personal hot button issue with me, and while it's not a failure of writing, it makes the book less enjoyable for me.
A strong selling point of Tommysaurus Rex for me, though, isn't the heartfelt dramatic story, which left me unsatisfied, but the funny moments. TenNapel's eccentric characters, like Ely's grandfather or the nakedly ambitious mayor, are immensely entertaining, and Ely's childish enthusiasm is also very likable. In addition, TenNapel puts these characters into unusual situations, like trying to train a T-Rex to fit into farm society, that are rife with comedic potential, and he delivers on that potential, most notably with the scene between Ely's grandfather and a farmer who needs his bull to "disappear." Some of his gags fall too far into the sophomoric for my taste (TenNapel sure loves his poop jokes), but there's definitely fun to be found.
The biggest draw of Tommysaurus Rex, however, is to be found in TenNapel's artwork. Leaving aside that he's got a gift for slapstick comedy, he does these fascinating, distorted and yet completely human character designs. Ely's grandfather, Ely himself, Randy, even the T-Rex, have as much or more character in their visual designs than they often get in the script. TenNapel's work also makes use of a lot of inky shadows and shapes, including some reasonably horrific and moving moments by use of silhouette, thus keeping them accessible to younger readers as well. Actually, on further consideration, I think that Tommysaurus Rex might be ideally suited to younger readers, a little dark in some ways but no moreso than the classic Disney films that many of us were raised on, and with messages about forgiveness, the nature of bullies and the advantages of family that are good for kids to hear.
