The Mighty Tor!

In the year 1975 DC notices that Marvel's barbarian characters are doing quite well on the newsstands of the day, so they cook up some of their own and included in that is a revival of Tor. The debut issue features work that Kubert had done years before, which had already appeared in unfinished form in Alter Ego. Now Kubert has the chance to finish this tale from Tor's youth in which he learns about the harshness of life outside the confines of his clan. 

Tapping on veteran Joe Kubert to revive his 50's co-creation with Norman Maurer was savvy on the part of the DC editors. Tor has just enough weirdness to not become just a dreary caveman adventure. There's plenty of oddities to fuel the series had it continued beyond the reprint stage. Below are the new covers for stories taken from 1950's issues of One Million Years Ago, Tor, and 3-D Comics from St. Johns.  

DC then reprints the St. John Tor stories, the 3-D ones in color for the first time. Kubert creates some exciting new covers for this run on the character. Kubert likely thought he have a chance to add more stories to the canon, but the series was canceled after six issues. 

These stories are from the early 50's when after over a decade in comics Kubert teamed up his longtime friend Norman Maurer to launch some comic books of their own. They entered into an arrangement with St. Johns Publishing and Tor hit the stands under the title 1,000,000 Years Ago. Maurer for his part had happened to marry the daughter of one of the Three Stooges and comic adventures of that hapless trio was the team's other project. But then 3-D happened. Actually, Kubert and Maurer were key in developing their own approach to 3-D comics and the second and third issues of Tor were actually 3-D comics. Both are weirdly numbered issue two which is no end of confusing. 

Tor was inspired by Tarzan and Kubert makes no bones about that. But by setting the brutal and wild adventures of Tor in the fanciful days of mankind's prehistory the connection to the more modern wild man created by Burroughs was shaded over a bit. Tor was a caveman, but not a real caveman, he was one who confronted dinosaurs and other monsters. It was not realism but passionate romance that Kubert was after with Tor, a primitive man who fought constantly in a dangerous world to stay alive, but who had quite literally an evolved sense of justice and a profound empathy for his fellow human beings. He was compelled to help others and that made him a mystery to his tribe who banished him and even to others who he helped along his travels. 

For more detailed reviews of Tor comics check these links for the Collections. 

Rip Jagger's Dojo: Joe Kubert's TOR - Volume One!

Rip Jagger's Dojo: Joe Kubert's TOR - Volume Two!

Rip Jagger's Dojo: Joe Kubert's TOR - Volume Three!

Rip Jagger's Dojo: Joe Kubert's TOR - A Prehistoric Odyssey!

He might have been an enigma to his fellow tribesman of that savage era, but Tor's approach to life is a lesson to us in the modern world to be brave and face the "monsters" which roam our own landscape. 

Next time we Enter the Lost World of the Warlord. 

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