Dinosaur Comics is a webcomic by Canadian writer Ryan North that has used the exact same six panels of clip-art dinosaurs since February 1st, 2003. The humor comes entirely from the dialogue between T-Rex, Dromiceiomimus, and Utahraptor, whose poses and expressions never change from one strip to the next.
Origin
Ryan North registered the qwantz.com domain on November 19th, 2002, and in a later Reddit AMA said the name has the "same secret semantics as xkcd," a random letter combination that wasn't already taken[1]. He built the six-panel template inside a piece of clip-art software that shipped with posable dinosaur figures, then locked in that layout for good[3].
The first Dinosaur Comics strip went up on February 1st, 2003, and North kept a weekday update schedule from there[3]. The current site still runs the classic layout, with recent 2026 strips continuing the same T-Rex and Utahraptor dynamic more than two decades in[2].
- Platform: qwantz.com
- Creator: Ryan North
- Date: 2003
Overview
Dinosaur Comics is a weekday webcomic hosted at qwantz.com where every strip reuses the same six panels of clip-art dinosaurs, letting the writing carry the entire joke[3]. The recurring cast is T-Rex, the loud philosophizing protagonist, plus the smaller Dromiceiomimus and the skeptical off-panel Utahraptor who usually gets the last word[2].
The strip's whole appeal is the constraint. Because the art never changes, readers get the punchline through pure text rhythm, and running gags like T-Rex stomping a tiny house and a lizard in panel two turn into a shared visual language for longtime fans[5]. Creator Ryan North later leaned into that same voice for tie-in comics and choose-your-own-adventure novels, but Qwantz stayed the daily home base[1].
How It Spread
Dinosaur Comics picked up momentum inside the webcomics scene in 2004, starting with a ComixTalk review that April and shout-outs in the commentary of Questionable Content later the same year[3]. On April 1st, 2005, novelist and comics writer Warren Ellis named it one of his favorite webcomics on his blog, which pushed a wave of new readers toward qwantz.com[4].
The following month BoingBoing linked the strip in a webcomics roundup, a Wikiquote page went up in June 2005, and in November a parody site called NewsRex mashed Reuters headlines into the Dinosaur Comics template[3]. That December, About.com's Web Cartoonist Choice Awards named it the year's Most Outstanding Anthropomorphic Comic[3].
By the early 2010s a fan-built timeline of in-comic events was circulating, North was doing repeat Reddit AMAs, and the strip was being written up by outlets including Smithsonian Magazine and Comic Book Resources[3]. Guest strips using the six-panel template appeared from creators including Wondermark's David Malki, who filled in around North's August 2010 wedding[5].
How to Use
The Dinosaur Comics format is easy to riff on because the panels are fixed: pick T-Rex as the loud thesis-haver, Dromiceiomimus as the friendly follow-up, and Utahraptor as the off-panel skeptic in panels four through six[2]. Fan and guest versions typically keep the six-panel grid and the stomped-house gag intact, and swap in new dialogue on any topic from linguistics to Shakespeare[3].
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Dinosaur Comics?
Dinosaur Comics is a weekday webcomic by Ryan North at qwantz.com that uses the same six clip-art dinosaur panels every strip and changes only the dialogue between T-Rex, Dromiceiomimus, and Utahraptor[1].
Where did Dinosaur Comics come from?
Ryan North registered qwantz.com in November 2002 and posted the first strip on February 1st, 2003, after building the six-panel layout in a clip-art program with posable dinosaur figures[1].
What does Dinosaur Comics mean?
The name refers to the cast of three dinosaurs, and North has said the domain qwantz has the same kind of arbitrary origin as xkcd, a letter combination picked because it was still free[2].
How do you use Dinosaur Comics?
The template keeps the fixed six panels and the stomped-house gag, with T-Rex driving the argument and Utahraptor answering off-panel in the final frames, a structure guest artists like David Malki have reused for tribute strips[5].
Is Dinosaur Comics still popular?
The strip is a webcomics classic that is still updating, with new comics appearing on qwantz.com as recently as August 2026 keeping the same T-Rex and Utahraptor dynamic[3].
