One of my favorite working cartoonists is Lucie Ebrey, who I first learned of via her daily comic diary Muggy Ebes. Her linework in that comic is fantastic, bold and full of a wild appeal. I think it can be easy to make things look good online but I got to see Lucie’s work in print for the first time at the 2019 Toronto Comics Art Festival where I scored a copy of Werewolf Social Club and holy mackerel…

Lucie is a tremendously talented inker. Check out the inscription:

That’s no mere doodle. It’s a perfect drawing, packed with texture and life. I love it. Clearly I’m a fan so it should be no surprise one of the books I looked forward to most last year was Lucie’s Cowgirls & Dinosaurs: Big Trouble in Little Spittle.

I love so much about this book, the character design:

Rootbeer, the faithful dinosaur companion (and the character names in general):

The (_^smeck) romance!

The villain’s rollercoaster of a redemption/non-redemption arc:

There’s so much good stuff in here. If I had any wish, it might be that the book was printed in the larger European BD format but at 284 pages, the story would probably have had to have been broken up into multiple volumes. Still, the “bio “about the cartoonist” page from inside the Werewolf zine gives us a hint at how good Lucie’s art looks full scale.

Maybe worth noting: the bio on that page says “Lucie Ebrey is a cartoonist living in Bristol”. Cowgirls & Dinosaurs has a lot of old West lingo and coming from a British cartoonist, the dialogue might be expected to sound like that scene at the end of A Fish Called Wanda where John Cleese mocks Kevin Kline, but it doesn’t. The writing is joyfully raucous but not gratuitously “Y’all better git if’n you know what’s good fer ya.”

Okay, one final appreciation. If Jeff Smith’s Bone is Walt Kelly’s Pogo meets Lord of the Rings, then Lucie Ebrey’s Cowgirls & Dinosaurs is Jack Kent’s King Aroo meets Thelma and Louise.

Oh yeah, the book is colored by Boya Sun and his work is excellent.