But anyway, yes. Get the new edition of After Man. I pretty much had to get it anyway because, as you can see from the above photo, my old edition is pretty much loved to within an inch of it's life. How much?
I'm holding it together with duct tape, staples, and prayers. The new version is a sturdy hardcover with tough, glossy pages and it is very very nice. Like, have it as your official coffee table book for the delight and confusion of your holiday guests nice. It's THAT nice.
It is also *slightly* altered from the original 1981 edition. I'm happy to report that this isn't an outright George Lucasing, the original text and illustrations are left basically alone. There are a few edits to the introduction, but the biggest one helpfully cleans up the circa-1980's "protomammals" mess and the others are treated more as footnotes of the "Look at the cool things we've learned about this since then" kind. Two creatures have been redesigned, however, and so here come the Spoilers. First,
Art of the Week:
Speaking of fictional creature redesigns, here's my silly attempt to give Detective Pikachu less... *jarring*... anatomy:
But also...
-------I wonder how many of the people who don’t care what the dinosaurs in Jurassic World look like and told us to chill out cause it’s just a movie are suddenly very, very concerned about Pokémon integument? 🤔— Christmas Treesh (@Babbletrish) November 13, 2018
Okay, here are the new After Man illustration spoilers. Note that both the original and revised illustrations are credited to Diz Wallace:
So the new Reedstilt is fine. Weirder than the old design, which was already deeply strange to start with. I don't like it as much; the old version is a lot more graceful.
Okay hang on to your butts, here comes the new Nightstalker:
Okay, it's redder. And more... sinewy... I'm not a fan, but I admire the stones it takes to redesign one of the very few creatures in After Man who can truly be called iconic.
