Amazing Australia

Amazing Australia - The Inside Story!

2008-11-19T01:07:00.000-08:00

Ever wondered how a kid's book actually makes it onto the bookstore shelves? To the uninitiated, it might seem a mysterious process, but to anyone who's ever worked on children's books will tell you, the main ingredients are an uncertain mix of good ideas, hard work and a generous dollop of good luck thrown in for good measure!

Each book takes a different path on its journey from abstract idea to printed reality. We can't speak on behalf of other authors and their books, but if you've ever wanted to know how the Amazing Australia series came into being, then check out the following article which appeared in the August 2008 edition of Reading Time, the official journal of the Children's Book Council of Australia.

Oh, and just in case you're wondering, the accompanying illustration shows an early cover design for Airborne Australia which Doug prepared during the course of the series. Enjoy!

Airborne Australia - By Kevin Patrick

The idea for Airborne Australia was borne out of a long drive through country Victoria I took with my wife sometime back in 2004. I can’t recall what prompted our discussion, but we were talking about the teaching of Australian history in schools, and recalling some of the bizarre and entertaining historical anecdotes our teachers used to tell us.

I wondered aloud if kids today were being taught any of this stuff, at which point my wife said I should write a book about it. ‘That’ll teach you to open your trap’, I thought to myself. But she was right – I could write a book about the hidden nooks ‘n’ crannies of Australian history, because there’d certainly be enough material to fill a book.

But I didn’t want to sit down and slog over a dry and musty textbook. I figured if I got bored writing it, then chances are kids would go to sleep reading it, too. Having worked in bookstores on and off over the years, though, I recalled just how popular the Horrible Histories series was, with their quirky facts and grisly anecdotes, punctuated by cartoons. Although they were utterly Euro-centric, they did provide a possible template for a comparable series of kids’ books dedicated to Australian history.

With this in mind, I hammered out a proposal outlining a new series titled Amazing Australia, with each volume examining a different aspect of Australian history, from sport and inventions, to dinosaurs and warfare. In my mind’s eye, I could see each book packed with illustrations, little ‘factoid’ break-out boxes – maybe even a comic strip?

It all sounded great on paper, but there was one tiny problem – I was a writer, not an artist. And so began my quest to find an illustrator who’d be willing to sign-up for the Amazing Australia adventure.

I first met Doug Holgate at the Supanova comic convention in Sydney, back in 2001, after he’d just finished illustrating a horror comic, Dunwich. Our paths would occasionally cross at subsequent conventions, but it wasn’t until I was casting around for a possible illustrator that I really began to notice Doug’s artwork.

Some idle internet browsing took me to Doug’s online folio, which proved to be a pleasant surprise. During the intervening years, Doug had developed a unique drawing style, blending ‘cartoony’ caricature with a strong storytelling sensibility. Just as importantly, Doug’s folio showed he could draw more than just comics, with samples ranging from portraiture to palaeontological illustrations of dinosaurs.

Convinced that I had found the ideal illustrator for Amazing Australia, I contacted Doug and explained my harebrained scheme. Thankfully, he didn’t hang up the phone on me and we eventually sat down to assemble some sample pages for what would become Airborne Australia.

Putting those pages together pretty much laid down the collaborative process we’ve follow for the entire series so far. Doug and I would discuss the people, places and events we’d both want to see in the book – not only because they held personal appeal for each of us, but also because we felt that their inclusion was essential to the overall story being told in each book.

In most cases, it was simply a matter of me researching and writing each section of the book, then forwarding on the text to Doug, along with any visual reference material I thought he might need.

Doug would then retreat to his studio and, some time later, I’d get a scan of the completed artwork emailed to me. Often Doug would nail it the first time ‘round, but other times we’d email each other back and forth with changes and corrections, until we were both happy with the result – or simply too exhausted to look at it any further!

Occasionally, though, Doug and I would have to sit down and try and ‘nut out’ a solution to a particularly tricky ‘visual’ sequence, such as a puzzle, maze or activity page.

This was especially true of ‘Target: Darwin’, the comic strip featured in Airborne Australia, which recounts the Japanese bombing of Darwin in 1942. Not only was there a good deal more research involved, but trying to convey the details of this complex event, without impeding the action, was a real challenge. As a writer, I had to give Doug the room he needed to let his artwork tell the story, and resist the urge to weigh down each panel with reams of wordy exposition.

I should stress that Doug’s role in the book went beyond just furnishing the illustrations themselves. He designed the graphic motifs which introduced each section of the book, such as stopwatch image for the ‘Record Breakers’ page, and (my personal favourite) the floating brain wearing the flying goggles on the ‘Brain Busters’ page. Doug also designed the page headings, typeset my original text and composed the page layouts, as well. In this area, he was amply assisted by Random House Australia’s in-house designer, Anna Warren.

Once we were both satisfied with each sequence, we’d pass them on to our editor at Random House Australia, Brandon Van Over, who really helped us pull the book together in its final stages. Not only would he pick up any historical or factual errors I’d made, but more importantly, he’d occasionally challenge us to rethink some sequences in the book which just fell short from the rest of the book’s overall quality. Although Doug and I were, by this time, suffering from deadline-itis, I think that last round of revision and correction Brandon made us do really strengthened the book’s overall look ‘n’ feel.

The level of interest in Airborne Australia since its release tells us that this book, like its predecessor, Prehistoric Australia, might be filling a valuable niche in the children’s book market. By revealing these overlooked aspects of our nation’s history, and telling these stories in ways that engage the reader’s imagination, our goal is to make them curious enough about their own country to want to know more.

Airborne Australia soars above the magazine racks!

2008-05-14T23:38:00.000-07:00

If you've ever wondered how a book like Airborne Australia gets written, then check out the June 2008 issue of Krash magazine, which has a two-page interview with author Kevin Patrick, where he talks about how the book came to be - and how he and illustrator Doug Holgate hammered it into shape!

But, if you're one of the reluctant few who haven't actually gone out & bought a copy of Airborne Australia just yet, then you can get a sneak-peek of this amazing book in the June 2008 edition of DMAG, which has a full-colour excerpt from Airborne Australia, featuring more high-flying factoids than you could shake an aircraft wing at!

So, stop reading this blog, and march down to your nearest newsagency, convenience store or supermarket checkout aisle - and demand (well, it doesn't hurt to say "please", either) your copy of these cool mags today, okay?

Meet us @ Children's Book Council of Australia conference - Sunday 4 May 2008

2008-04-30T19:52:00.000-07:00

Kevin Patrick and Doug Holgate, the dynamic duo behind the Amazing Australia book series, will be appearing at the Children's Book Council of Australia's (CBCA) 9th national conference and expo, to sign copies of their books, Prehistoric Australia and Airborne Australia.

This year's event, held under the banner, All the Wild Wonders, will "explore the various dimensions of children’s books from the craft of the writing, to the illustrator’s art, to the importance of the publisher’s final production."

The CBCA conference, is being held at the Melbourne Exhibition and Convention Centre, 2 Clarendon Street, Southbank.

Kevin and Doug will be appearing between 1.30pm-2.00pm inside the You Yangs Exhibition Hall on Sunday 4 May to meet people attending the trade fair component of the conference, and sign copies of their books. So, be there, or be...umm....perpendicular?

Return of the Nomad?

2008-04-12T18:44:00.000-07:00

The April - June 2008 edition of Aero Australia magazine contained an intriguing news item, which claimed that Gippsland Aeronautics was seeking to purchase the manufacturing rights to the Nomad STOL (short take-off and landing) aircraft from Boeing Australia.

The Nomad was a controversial, although some say needlessly maligned, aircraft designed and built by the Government Aircraft Factory (GAF) in Australia. Design work on the aircraft commenced in the mid-1960s, with the first prototypes taking flight in 1971.

Intended for use by military and commercial operators, the Nomad was built to operate successfully from rugged environments, and could even be flown as a seaplane. However, the aircraft's history was plagued by a series of fatal accidents, and was subject to ongoing criticism about its allegedly major design flaws.

Despite being sold to several military services and civilian operators throughout Asia and Australia, eventually only 170 Nomad aircraft were built, before production ceased in the early 1980s. In 1985, the Government Aircraft Factory was renamed Aerospace Technologies of Australia (ASTA), and continued to operate under that name for a decade, until it was sold off by the Australian government in 1995 to Rockwell Systems Australia which, in turn, was purchased by Boeing Australia in 1996.

Both the GAF Nomad and the Gippsland Aeronautics GA8 Airvan are featured in Airborne Australia. It will be fascinating to see if this news story, as reported in Aero Australia, develops further. Who knows? If a follow-up edition of our book appears down the track, we might need to make space for a new, improved 21st century Nomad!

Interested readers should check their local library to see if they have a copy of Aero Australia Issue 2 (April - June 2004), which has an excellent article, 'Nomad: The Unwanted Child', written by the magazine's editor, Stewart Wilson, that charts the aircraft's troubled history. (Image courtesy of the Aeroplane Art Company)

We accept the Premier's Reading Challenge!

2008-04-12T18:23:00.001-07:00

We were tickled pink to learn that Airborne Australia was one of the new book titles to be included for the Victorian Premier's Reading Challenge for 2008. The book was even featured in the special lift-out which appeared in The Age newspaper on Monday 7 April.

This event, now in its fourth year, is open to all Victorian school students from Prep to Year 10, and is designed to encourage schoolkids to broaden their reading horizons.

So, for example, school students from Years 3 to 10 must read 15 books between 30 January - 31 August 2008, with at least 10 of those books to be chosen from the Reading Challenge booklist. (Just make sure that Airborne Australia is one of the titles you choose, okay? Heh, heh, heh...)

You'll need to be a registered user at the Premier's Reading Challenge website, and log-in regularly to keep an online record of your reading throughout the event. and everyone who successfully completes the Challenge will receive a certificate of achievement from the Victorian State Premier, John Brumby (pictured above).

If you haven't already signed up, then get onto it straight away. And start re-reading Airborne Australia as a form of pre-Challenge training. Harrumph!

In space, no one can hear your boomerang return

2008-03-26T02:46:00.000-07:00

One of the earliest sections appearing in Airborne Australia is devoted to the boomerang, the uniquely Australian device whose surface resembles that of modern-day aircraft wings, which allows it to fly through the air - and, in the case of specially-designed boomerangs, return to the person who threw it!

Now, one of the most intriguing aeronautical experiments ever to be conducted was successfully completed on Tuesday 18 March 2008, by Japanese astronaut Takao Doi (pictured) who, while serving aboard the International Space Station, threw a boomerang out into space - and saw it return, just as it would have on Earth!

He carried out this offbeat mission (conducted during his free time, so he wasn't goofing off, alright?) at the request of Yasuhiro Togai, a resident of Osaka, Japan, who won an international boomerang-throwing competition in 2006.

While it might be some time before you, too, can enjoy the thrills of deep-space boomerang throwing, you can visit the Boomerang Association of Australia to learn more about this unique sport. No space suit required - just a good, strong throwing arm.

You've read the book - now, download the study guide!

2008-03-26T02:29:00.000-07:00

Well, it's official - as of today, copies of Airborne Australia are being parachuted into bookstores across the country. (Well, okay, they were probably wheeled into bookshops on a trolley by a courier, but "parachuted" sounds a lot more exciting, right?)

Anyhow...um, where were we? Oh yes, that's right, the book. Well, it's out now in bookshops everywhere. But, if you're a teacher or librarian who's got a copy proudly displayed on your shelf, you might be interested to know that Random House Australia has prepared a study guide to accompany Airborne Australia, which you can use as the basis for lesson plans or group activities.

Just visit Kids @ Random Reading Guides, then scroll down to the bottom of the page and click on the 'download' link next to Airborne Australia. It's that simple!

Take-off with Airborne Australia!

2008-03-13T19:40:00.000-07:00

Okay, we'll be the first to admit that things have, well, been a little quiet here at Amazing Australia headquarters for the last month or so. But we have a very good excuse - and, no, it wasn't because we spent the whole summer sipping cold drinks by the pool.

Instead, we've been hunched over our keyboard (or, in Doug's case, his drawing board), busily putting the finishing touches to the next book in the Amazing Australia series - Airborne Australia!

In case you haven't guessed by now, Airborne Australia is all about the history of aviation in Australia, from the pioneering days of hot-air balloons and box kites, to the modern era of supersonic fighter jets and unmanned aerial vehicles.

Like its predecessor, Prehistoric Australia, this new book is packed to the rafters with puzzles, activities, thrilling stories and true tales of aerial daring. And there's an action-packed, full colour comic strip, documenting the devastating Japanese bombing raid on Darwin in 1942!

Airborne Australia will be published by Random House Australia on 1 April 2008 and will be available at all good bookstores across the country.

And remember - keep watching the skies!

Cape Otway's Cretaceous Christmas Present!

2007-12-24T14:56:00.000-08:00

Christmas Eve delivered an unexpected surprise to Australian palaeontologists and dinosaur enthusiasts alike, with the revelation that researchers have uncovered the partial skeleton of a plant-eating ornithopod at Cape Otway, Victoria.

The discovery, which was first made in 2005, but was only formally announced on 24 December 2007, marks the first dinosaur skeleton to have been unearthed in nearly two decades. Previous fossil discoveries, such as those made at the nearby 'Dinosaur Cove' site, have largely consisted of bones and teeth.

According to Doctor Thomas Rich, vertebrate palaeontologist with Museum Victoria, the skeleton (estimated to be over 100 million years old) may have been intact as 'recently' as 500 years ago, when its head, along with much of its body, could have been washed away.

Full details of the discovery can be read here.

The Sommerville Collection

2007-12-01T12:58:00.000-08:00

If you saw the Friday 30 November episode of ABC Television's The Collectors, you would have been blown away by the 'Sommerville Collection' - a massive archive of Australian and international fossil and mineral specimens, representing the lifelong passion of Warren Sommerville.

But don't despair if you missed the TV show, because now everyone in Australia can view this amazing collection for themselves at the Australian Fossil and Mineral Museum, in Bathurst, New South Wales.

Housed in the town's old Public School building (constructed in 1876), the Australian Fossil and Mineral Museum is now the permanent home to Warren Sommerville's remarkable collection, which he has generously donated, so that all Australians can enjoy it. (It even features the only complete Tyrannosaurus Rex skeleton in Australia!)

If you can't make it to Bathurst straight away, you can get a sneak peek of the exhibitions by taking the virtual tour online.

Desalinated Dinosaurs?

2007-11-27T11:33:00.000-08:00

The Victorian State Government's plans to build a water desalination plant near Wonthaggi hit an unexpected obstacle when it was revealed that a significant deposit of prehistoric fossils was located in the plant's proposed construction site.

The fossils, dating back 115 million years, had been discovered by palaeontologists at the Powlett River site in Kilcunda, Victoria, in 1994. However, their exact location had been kept a secret, until researchers realised that the Department of Sustainability and Environment (DSE) may not have been aware of the fossil site's existence. Dr. Thomas Rich, curator of vertebrate paleontology at Melbourne Museum (who is profiled on page 58 of Prehistoric Australia), wrote to the DSE to alert them of the site's presence.

Remains of ornithopods and plesiosaurs, along with polar lungfish, are amongst the fossils to have been uncovered at the site.

The Victorian State Government is yet to decide whether it will conduct an environmental effects study to gauge the potential impact that the proposed desalination plant will have on the fossil site. However, Water Minister Tim Holding has been reported in the media as saying that the plant's inflow and outflow pipes would be laid well below the surface of the excavation site.

You can listen to an online recording of an ABC World Today interview with Dr Tom Rich, Water Minister Tim Holding and the Victorian state opposition water spokeswoman, Louise Asher, which was aired on Tuesday 27 November 2007.

Image of polar lungfish courtesy of Australian Dinosaur Story, Australian Heritage Directory.

HMS Fly - The 'prehistoric' ship

2007-11-25T03:42:00.000-08:00

Eagle-eyed readers of Prehistoric Australia will no doubt recall that we made mention of the British vessel, HMS Fly, and its role in uncovering some of Australia's earliest prehistoric fossils. (And if you can't recall this offhand, then turn to page 24. Yes, that's it, the second paragraph. Got it? Good! Then we may proceed...)

So, what was a British naval vessel doing so far from home, digging up dinosaur bones on the other side of the world? Actually, finding fossils was the last thing on the Fly's "to do" list. It was actually surveying much of the coast of north-eastern Australia, as well as New Guinea, during 1842-46. As part of its mission to accurately map new trade & shipping routes in the region, the Fly carried out surveys of the Great Barrier Reef and the Torres Strait, as well as Whitsunday Island and the Capricorn Islands.

HMS Fly was captained by Francis Price Blackwood. Amongst its crew was the geologist Joseph Beete Jukes and the naturalist John MacGilivray. An illustrated account of the voyage and its discoveries, titled Sketches in Australia and the adjacent islands, was published in 1849 by the expedition's draftsman, Harden S. Melville.

Oh, and in case you're wondering what the 'HMS' in HMS Fly stands for, it means 'Her Majesty's Ship' - so named, because Queen Victoria was Britain's monarch at the time. (If a king had been enthroned, HMS would represent 'His Majesty's Ship'). And, on a related note, Australia's modern naval vessels bear the prefix 'HMAS', which stands for 'Her Majesty's Australian Ship'.

Check out the Kids' Reading Guide

2007-10-31T16:26:00.000-07:00

Prehistoric Australia has been chosen as one of the 160 books featured in the 2007-2008 Kids' Reading Guide, which has just been published by the Australian Booksellers' Association.

The Kids' Reading Guide, which is available from participating bookstores from 1 November 2007, also offers readers the chance to win 10 of the fabulous titles featured in the latest edition.

So, don't just sit there reading this blog - get to your nearest bookstore and demand your free copy, today!

Tune in for Queensland Dinosaurs

2007-10-31T16:10:00.000-07:00

Tune into ABC television at 8.00pm (AEST) on Thursday 1 November 2007 for the latest episode of Catalyst, which features a special report on the dinosaur fossil excavations being conducted by the University of Queensland.

The state of Queensland has provided palaeontologists with a rich source of prehistoric fossils, dating back to the pioneering discoveries of Heber Albert Longman of the 1920s, through to the Winton Dinosaur Project which has been undertaken by the University of Queensland since 2001.

This episode of Catalyst promises to be a timely update on the University of Queensland's more recent fossil discoveries. What weird and wonderful beasties have they found? Tune in tonight to find out!

Dinosaur Tracks Uncovered in Victoria

2007-10-23T05:20:00.000-07:00

Palaeontologists from America and Australia have uncovered three separate sets of dinosaur tracks at a site near the town of Inverloch in Victoria, Australia - making them the first of their kind to be discovered in Victoria.

Reporting the findings at the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology meeting in Austin, Texas on 19 October 2007, Dr. Anthony Martin, senior researcher at Emroy University (USA), said that the tracks were approximately 14 inches long and were most likely made by large carnivorous dinosaurs during the Cretaceous Period - 115 million years ago!

Dr. Martin discovered two of the tracks during a visit to the Inverloch site in February 2006, with the third track located by Monash University undergraduate volunteer, Tyler Lamb, in February 2007.

Dr. Martin collaborated with noted Australian palaeontologists Dr. Thomas Rich (Museum of Victoria), Professor Patricia Vickers-Rich (Monash University) and Lesley Kool (Monash University) in classifying the tracks. (Image reproduced from Science Daily)

Dinosaurs Storm Melbourne!

2007-10-17T20:34:00.000-07:00

Well, actually, no, they didn't. In fact, the closest we came to witnessing a 'dino stampede' was seeing Doug & Kevin (pictured at left) smuggling copies of their book, Prehistoric Australia (which does contain heaps of dinosaurs!), into the Armageddon Multimedia Expo held at the Melbourne Exhibition Centre on Saturday 13th/Sunday 14th October 2007.

But there was wrestling. And Lasertag. And pizza-eating contents. And an all-in pillow-fight brawl. All this, and more comic books, figurines, console games, trading cards and sci-fi paraphernalia than you could poke a phaser (set to stun, of course!) at.

Armageddon began in New Zealand, where it has become a massive event, attracting thousands of visitors each year. This was the first time in almost a decade that the event organisers have returned to Melbourne to stage the expo.

Personally, we were looking forward to meeting Adam West and Julie Newmar, who played Batman and Catwoman in the original 1960s version of the Batman TV show. But sadly, that was not to be, as Adam West couldn't attend because his house burnt down. (Kev was especially bummed out by this - he had his copy of West's memoir, Back to the Batcave, all ready for West to autograph.)

Younger readers who have absolutely no idea what the hell we are talking about may know Adam West as the voice actor for the character, Mayor Adam West, who appears in the potty-mouthed (but extremely funny) TV cartoon show, The Family Guy.

The great thing about events like Armageddon is that some people really do make an effort to put on their "Sunday best". Consider, if you will, the following attendees:

Or this intriguing visitor:

Honestly, if you've never been to a comic book/pop culture convention before, then you owe it to yourself to attend just one in your life. Trust us, the costumed punters are as every bit as entertaining as the 'celebrity guests'! For more photos from the Armageddon Expo, click here.

New Dinosaur Species Discovered

2007-10-16T15:28:00.001-07:00

If you thought we knew all there was to know about prehistoric dinosaurs and their world, then think again.

Paleontologists from Brazil and Argentina have just uncovered fossils of a new, previously undiscovered species of dinosaur in the Patagonia region of Argentina.

Measuring between 32-34 metres, and dating back 88 million years ago to the Cretaceous period, the dinosaur is said to be a member of the Titanosaur family, and belongs to the Lognkosauria genus.

It has been named Futalognkosaurus dukei, which was partly derived from a native Mapuche tribal word meaning "giant chief of dinosaurs", while the word 'dukei' was assigned in recognition of Duke Energy Argentina, which helped finance the excavation site at Lake Barreales, which lies 90 kilometres north of Neuquen, Argentina.

Further details about this amazing discovery can be read here. To see photos from the excavation site, and a reconstruction of the dinosaur itself, click here.

Twilight of the Thylacine - 70 Years Later

2007-10-13T06:00:00.000-07:00

It's been over 70 years since the last captive Tasmanian thylacine died in the Hobart Zoo, but recent research carried out by the University of New South Wales suggests that humans were not the sole cause for this creature's demise.

As we noted in Prehistoric Australia, the thylacine faced fierce competition for food and resources from the dingo, which is believed to have driven the thylacine from mainland Australia. However, the University of New South Wales' comparative study of dingo and thylacine skulls suggests that other factors, such as climate change and the arrival of humans on the Australian continent hastened the species' decline and ultimate extinction.

More than any other creature, the fate of the 'Tasmanian Tiger' (as it was popularly known) continues to captivate the imagination of Australians from all walks of life, with alleged sightings of the elusive beast always receiving widespread coverage in the local media.

Even the late, great 'Crocodile Hunter' himself, Steve Irwin, apparently tried to see if the thylacine still survived in the Tasmanian wilderness - but without success.

Back in 2002, geneticists at the Australian Museum captured world headlines when they announced plans to clone the Tasmanian Tiger using DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) taken from a thylacine pup (or 'joey') that had been preserved in ethanol since 1866.

However, the project was scrapped in 2005, with researchers citing the poor quality of available thylacine DNA making the experiment impossible. (Other obstacles confronting attempts to clone the thylacine are outlined in this article from Museum Victoria.) Subsequent media reports issued later in 2005, however, claimed that the Australian Museum had not entirely abandoned the project, and was still investigating means of obtaining suitable thylacine DNA samples.

(Image of 1962 Tasmanian Tiger stamp courtesy of Thylacine Stamps.)

Don't call him 'Skippy'!

2007-10-09T05:50:00.000-07:00

If you think this fierce creature doesn't look like any kangaroo you've ever seen, then you're right - it hasn't walked on Australian soil since the passing of the Pleistocene Epoch.

The Procoptodon goliah was the largest-known kangaroo to have inhabited ancient Australia and weighed almost twice as much as the modern-day Red Kangaroo.

You can learn more about this menacing marsupial in the pages of Prehistoric Australia.

However, as a special treat for our online audience, intrepid illustrator Douglas Holgate has produced this full-colour version of the Procoptodon goliah exclusively for this website.

Join us for...Armageddon?

2007-10-01T05:38:00.000-07:00

No, we're not inviting you to the end of the world. Armageddon, in this instance, is the Armageddon Multimedia Expo, which is being held at the Melbourne Exhibition Centre on Saturday 13th & Sunday 14th October 2007.

We'll have a table all to ourselves (actually, the table really belongs to Doug, but Kevin decided to gatecrash the event), so you can come along and say "G'day" to us. We'll be selling and signing copies of our new book, Prehistoric Australia.

And, if you ask Doug nicely, he might even draw you a quick dinosaur sketch.

However, in the event that Doug's vanished to take part in the Armageddon Pizza Eating Contest, then Kevin will bravely step up to the artist's easel and dash off some abstract squiggles that are supposed to resemble dinosaurs.

Actually, it'd probably be better if you all waited for Doug to reappear if you want a decent dino-sketch!

See you there...