A COMIC BOOK HISTORY OF LIFE ON EARTH

Dinos die, giving humans a chance to evolve into space travelers and planet polluters, in this whirlwind follow up to A Comic Book History of the Big Bang and Beyond (2026).

Keeping the tone upbeat (for all that she begins with the sudden descent of a “GINORMOUS” asteroid and ends with a challenge to get on the stick about climate change), Claybourne chronicles 66 million years of continents drifting, mammals getting bigger, and apes coming down from the trees to evolve from nine human species to one. Meanwhile, the art echoes that theme of constant change in numerous ways, including views of a tropical Antarctica, of whale evolution and (much later) the growth of cities, and of worldwide legends of great floods. Though skipping all but glancing mention of religion, medicine, and art, the narrative does carry the human story through the age of invention to early space flight, with savvy insights into how, for instance, the first civilizations exchanged social equality for efficiency. Cameos of a handful of pathfinders from High Priestess Enheduanna of Sumer to 1963 French astro-kitty Félicette are included. Once they lose most of their body hair, the figures in Ferreira’s panels display a range of brown skin tones.

Distinctly sketchy, but saved by lively wit and insight.