Sunday Of Stone - Turok Volume Two!

In the second archive volume of Turok Son of Stone, we really begin to see the fullness of the characters and the setting become realized. While the artwork is still a tad lackluster compared to what the Aberto Giolitti studio will bring, it's more developed. What has really become a stunning element are the covers, but more on those later. While it seems true that Turok began as a series titled "Young Hawk", I've always seen Turok himself as a mature man and Andar much his junior in need of the mentoring that Turok's sober approach to the dangers of the Lost Valley provides. Turok never panics, even when confronted with massive deadly dinosaurs well earning his title of "Son of Stone". 

Under a grand cover the comic first featues a one-pager about the Brontosaurus. Writer Gaylord  Dubois and artist Bob Correa introduce a new character of sorts into the Turok clan in the shape of a tamed wolf named "Ski-Yu". Turok seems very pleased with his new ally though the people of the Caves with which the two Native Americans have been living are less pleased. So Turok and Andar move on to a new valley (there always seems to be a new valley) and a new tribe living in houses atop high mesas. We are treated to a new "Lotor" story as the wily racoon uses the back of a Triceratops to allow his family to escape the threat of a Dimetrodon. There's a text page about hunting Mammoths. The second story takes Turok and Andar into a deadly flooding river which they are able to use to turn back raiders who threaten the Mesa People. There's plenty of action dinosaurs battle one another in the raging waters. The comic closes with "The Story of Fire" done in one page. The back cover features the Dimetrodon. 

Beneath another exciting cover we get a one-page introduction to the Duckbill. Turok and Andar are still attempting to deal with the results of the great flood from the last issue. They build a raft and head over to the Mesa despite the threat of a deadly underwater dinosaurs to rescue the stranded Mesa People. It's a struggle to save everyone but they do. The next story features a Pteranadon and we get to see how this "flying dinosaur" lives up to its description. A one-page text piece describes the search for fire. Then Dubois and Correa show Turok and Andar enter yet another canyon where Turok is able to capture a horse for his own use. He names the horse "Wind Racer". Ski-Yu the wolf is still around but he seems to be taken for granted as if Correa drew him in after Dubois left him out of the script. We learn a lot about Turok as he actually gets free of the valley, but Andar is unable to join him and so Turok returns to the deadly territory of the dinosaurs and so much more. The comic closes with a one-pager on ancient tools. 

I would argue that the immense success of Turok owes at least as much if not more to the stupendous covers by Mo Gollub such as the one above which is my all-time favorite image of Turok and Andar as they prepare to face off against a deadly Dimetrodon. The stories inside lack attribution in the Grand Comic Database at least in terms of writer but the artist is Ray Bailey. The comic begins with a one-page history of the horse. Then we follow Turok and Andar as they actually battle the Dimetrodon on the cover. Andar is injured and Turok needs shelter for the young man so his leg can heal. So he bids farewell to Wind Racer (Ski-Yu is nowhere to be seen) and he and Andar try to get access to a cave but are blocked by a scared tribe. The tribe observe them and are curious and the two are able to get into safety though there is much strife when Turok uses fire to save the tribe from invaders. A feature called "Young Earth" debuts and we follow the misadventures of a Plesiosaur as it avoids threat. There is a text piece about a brave man who fights a sabre-tooth tiger. Then Turok and Andar find a tribe who live in trees but that's dangerous and they eventually convince them to seek the safety of caves. 

This image of Turok and Andar is a definitive one. The drama is stunning as the two braves are caught between a monster and the fires behind them. They have only spears to defend themselves but appear stalwart and resolute. I love how Turok is shown here, clearly a man in his thirties and not someone you'd call a youth though the text still does inside sometimes. He's protecting Andar, though Andar is prepared to fight as well. This is one of Mo Gollub's finest.

I first encountered the image on the cover of a Golden Comics Digest, one of my favorite Turok books. This image, even shrunk to digest size has the power to make you imagine you are there standing alongside Turok and Andar as they face down the threats. They are not fighting but like all brave people they are prepared to stand by one another. It's a delightful and important lesson. 

Under another incredibly dramatic Mo Gollub cover we begin with a one-page piece on the Coelacanthus. The lead Turok story is by an unknown writer and artist Ray Bailey. The duo are up against a deadly Triceratops who is hunting them relentlessly. To escape and find food Turok, Andar and a caveman named Alg slip out and set a trap. But Turok and Andar have to contend with a jealous Alg as well as the dinosaur. The second story has our heroes meet up with a tribe who worship a diety who supposedly exists in a bog. But Turok discovers it is actually deadly quicksand and the tribe is starving to give offerings to a god who isn't really there. The text story introduces us to Ignoo the terrible a deadly T-Rex who is defeated by a lone caveman named Gothar. "The Young Earth" feature focuses on a Notharctus an early mammal trying to live in a world ruled by giant dinosaurs. The comic closes with a one-page look at early cave man sculpture. 

Paul S. Newman takes up the writing chores with Ray Bailey still on art. After a one page look at a bird called the Hesperornis who lives beneath the water, the main story takes Turok and Andar into a strange junlgle that seems intent on eating them. They find a tribe stranded inside and together find a way to freedom. "The Meeting" is a one-page text story about a caveman named Ug-Kur who has lost all the members of his tribe and is able to find some friends at long last. "The Young Earth" tells the story of Stegocephal, an early amphibian just learning to live in that bit of land between the waters. Turok and Andar find themselve battling superstition when a caveman has convinced his peers that they can only hunt animals he first draws on the walls of the cave. Turok doesn't pay attention to this and eventually shows the tribe the truth. 

I first came across this great Mo Gollub artwork in a Gold Key Turok Son of Stone Giant Comic reprint from 1966. 

The final comic in this archive edition features another outstanding Mo Gollub cover, very dramatic. Inside there is a new artist to illustrate the scripts by Paul S. Newman. The artist is Lee Elias, a fave of mine and he does a dandy job here telling first the story of "The Conqueror". This is another Native American who finds his way into the lost valley, but this guy named Gurai looks remarkably like Germonimo and seems quite warlike. He wants to conquer the tribes of the valley but Turok and Andar stand in his way and despite several schemes they are able to stop him and though he escapes back up top no one will believe his tales of giant monsters. Saba the Mighty is a sabre-tooth tiger who meets his match when a caveman is able to bring him down in a one-page text story. "The Young Earth" tells the story of how the Archaeopterykx first learned to fly. In the second Turok story the pair find themselves on an island with few resources and among a tribe who don't know how to better themselves so they hide in the ground. Turok and Andar convince them to build weapons and tools from the bones of the dinosaurs around them and they are able to build rafts to get to the mainland where there are resources. The comic closes with a one-pager on cave art. 

In these stories it seems the focus shifts for Turok and Andar and they are less concerned with seeking escape as finding a home in these canyons which seem to roll on forever and offer endless threats. They meet and work with people and always try to work to make the life of everyone better. More next week. 

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Sunday Of Stone - Turok Volume One!

Much to surprise of many at the time I'd suspect, Turok Son of Stone published first by Dell Comics and later by Gold Key when Dell and Western Printing went their separate ways, lasted from 1956 until 1981, when Gold Key itself gave way to the strains of meager newsstand sales. In those many years Turok and his able ally Andar struggled for survival in the "Lost Valley" a remote territory beneath the Earth's surface (sort of) which was teeming with creatures from bygone eras. But of those creatures which included man, it was the sundry and exceedingly dangerous dinosaurs which dominated the fight to live both in the valley and on the comics racks. Kids love dinosaurs and Turok delivered big old ferocious dinosaurs on a regular basis. 

The story begins when two Pre-Columbian Native Americans from the Mandan tribe are travelling far from their traditional territory and find themselves inside the Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico. They explore the caves ever more deeply until they are lost and then suddenly find themselves in a world not of darkness but of light, a lost valley of sorts in which thrive all sorts of creatures from prehistory. Turok is the older of the two with Andar responding to him as something of a big brother. At the time as depicted by Rex Maxon the two are not that seemingly different in age, though of course that will change. Apparently, this series began as a version of a character named "Young Hawk" intended for the back pages of the Lone Ranger comic. But creator Gaylord DuBois saw more in the concept and so we get this story in Four Color #596 from 1954. It turns out there is something innately fascinating about two primitive men facing off a world full of even-more monsters. Robert Susor is credited with the debut cover art.  

One of the key discoveries made by Turok and Andar are poisonous plants which when prepared and applied to their arrows make them sufficiently deadly to fend off the giant dinosaurs which roam the valley. The two take up with a primitive tribe of cavemen and become somewhat revered by the tribe for the improvements in life that they bring. In this second story published nearly a year after the debut in Four Color, Turok and Andar find a second valley, this one mostly occupied by mammals of great power such as a deadly panther that stalks them relentlessly. They become even more friendly with the cave tribe. Bob Correa takes up the interior art chores but the dramatic cover is uncredited. 

In the third installment, which becomes Turok Son of Stone #3 (the Four Color issues becoming defacto #1 and #2) our two lost heroes help the cave tribe to find a safer place to live apart from the dinosaurs (called "Hoppers") and other threats such as sabre-toothed cats. The find an island and make some small boats to reach it but find threats under the water are extremely dangerous as well. They do eventually get the tribe across the dangerous waters in canoes Later Turok and Andar check out yet another cavern in an attempt to escape the valley and find yet a third hidden land. They team up with a caveman named Lanok who followed them, and the trio try to survive. Bob Correa is still drawing the DuBois scripts with assist from Jack Abel on inks on one tale. 

In the fourth issue of Turok Son of Stone in this first volume the trio finds the trio of Turok, Andar, and Lanok still are living among the "Hoppers" when they discover a land bridge which may let them escape the valley. But they have to give up plans to save Lanok from a massive herd of rampaging bison, and the bridge is destroyed. Later as they make their way back to the tribe, they are hunted relentlessly by a Smilodon better known as a sabre-tooth tiger. They barely survive. The art is again by Bob Correa with some help on one story by Bob Celardo. 

The penultimate issue in this volume and the fifth installment of Turok's adventures is maybe the most hair-raising yet as the island haven turns into a deadly volcano and the boys and the cave tribe are barely able to escape the ferocity of the explosions and the lava and the panicked creatures. When they have resettled the cave folk, Turok and Andar go to look for escape and find that the local witch doctor jealous of their influence on the tribe follows them to find out the secret of their poison which allows them to stave off the attacks of the "Hoppers" and other deadly beasts. His scheme fails with fatal results and Turok and Andar find yet another small valley which might offer some respite from the beasts. The art this time is again by the team of Correa and Celardo. 

The sixth and final issue of Turok in this volume features another story by DuBois and more art by Bob Correa This time Turok and Andar protect the cave people from the threat of a deadly giant ape and later protect the secret of their possible escape from the valley from an untrustworthy fellow named Acomac while reuniting a small mammoth with its parent. These two Turok tales are followed by the debut of a new feature titled "Lotor" about a raccoon family trying to survive in this lost land of dinosaurs. As it turns out the wily racoons do quite well. The art for this story might be the work of Vince Alascia. There have been several text pieces in the comics, some dealing with Native Americans coming of age, but most detailing prehistoric critters like the Mastodon, the Smilodon and even early man himself. Once again sadly the cover art is uncredited. 

These early tales begin in 1954 and end in the early months of 1957, nearly three years of Turok adventures. The series seems to have found a footing and a dedicated audience. This audience will change over time of course, but there will be enough dedicated Turok readers to keep the series going for well over a score of years. More to come next week. 

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