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Turok, Son of Stone Archives #1
Turok: Son of Stone Archives Volume 1
If you know that "honkers" means "dinosaurs," this is the archive collection you've been waiting for! This deluxe collection contains the first six issues of Turok, Son of Stone: Dell Four Color Comics #596 and #656; issues #3-#6 of the Turok series.
224 pages, Hardcover
First published April 15, 2009
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
August 13, 2024
I grew up on the great Gold Key comics of the 1960s and this was always one of my favorite. Great fantasy style comics. Recommended
March 25, 2010
These were always the poor man's Tarzan for me. Don't get me wrong . I owned them all growing up. Somebody stole the whole collection out of my closet. ( Thanks Dave )I liked Tarzan much better though. As a hardcover collection, this stands up alright. Dark Horse did a good job reproducing them, but...
March 20, 2023
The artwork was great for the '50s, as probably were the stories. To kids, their chosen audience, they probably remain that way today. But as a child of the '60s, now 63, the nostalgia factor does not keep the product from coming across as dated and simple. Also, I saw no explanation why one page near the end of each issue was in black and white...
March 25, 2009
Short version:
Lavish (and expensive!) reprints of mid-50's kids comic series about Indians fighting dinosaurs.
Long version:
http://blog.newsarama.com/2009/03/22/...
Lavish (and expensive!) reprints of mid-50's kids comic series about Indians fighting dinosaurs.
Long version:
http://blog.newsarama.com/2009/03/22/...
June 18, 2010
This collection of reprints holds up well today, but a little pricey. I would check out your local library first.
September 9, 2025
This collection of comics was very enjoyable to read. It brought back memories of comics I read when I was a youngster. Several times in the book the Dell Comic Pledge was printed. Part of it was “the comic magazine bearing it contains only clean and wholesome entertainment. The Dell Code eliminates entirely, rather than regulates, objectionable material.” Anyone adult or child that enjoys a story about humans fighting Saber tooth tigers, dinosaurs, Mastodons, and other extinct creatures will enjoy reading this book.
June 18, 2024
This was fun, but not amazing. I didn't read these when I was young, but pulled this volume from my dad's book shelf, as I have always been curious. Simple and easy plots, I read them to fall asleep as not a lot of attention is needed to get the storyline. Art is decent, but out dated. I'm glad I read it and I will probably grab another volume eventually, but it is more a read when you need a very simple distraction, opposed to something that you want to get sucked into.
June 22, 2015
This first volume features Plains tribesmen Turok and his youthful and impulsive sidekick Andar as they first stumble upon a hidden series of canyons and caverns, geographically situated in what we now call New Mexico. These canyons happen to support prehistoric life in the forms of "caveman" tribes and dinosaurs. We are repeatedly told that this story takes place a few centuries before the European discovery of North America.
Although this 1950's comic by Dubois (Dell Comics)features American Natives as the leading characters, the story lines parallel many of the colonizing acts perpetrated on the indigenous people the Europeans found when the "New World" was discovered. Under the guise of assisting the tribes they encounter, Turok repeatedly refers to the prehistorics as "savages" and "backward". In one issue we see Turok and Andar in the role of leaders in a foreign land, relocating a tribe to a "preferable location", only to have that tribe again threatened. Our heroes systematically instruct another tribe to change their way of life from hunters and gatherers to that of agriculturalists. Throughout the entire collection Turok and Andar are gratuitously killing beasts for meat and yet purposely laying much of the kill for waste, something no warrior of the Plains would have deliberately done.
Another theme throughout was the use of their poison tipped arrows, again altering the lifestyle of the "indigenous" cavemen. Turok and Andar establish their position of power through the judicious dispersal of the weapon without divulging their secret to making the poison, much akin to the Europeans restricting the use of guns for political gain. It is at this point Dubous engages the popular "sneaky/deceitful indian" trope in the guise of the wise medicine man in an attempt to steal Turok's power. But of course our eponymous hero outsmarts the inferior medicineman.
Another parallel between these two peoples involves communication. Early issues feature communication between Turok and the cavemen as an obstacle but gradually the cavemen lose their own language preferring to communicate to accommodate the superior Turok and Andar.
I have to give this 3 stars because the drawings are really fabulous. Dubois captures some great action scenes and in no way does he create a caricature within his story. I found the illustrations far more captivating than the simple storylines designed for children to read.
Not knowing the history of Dubois, I cannot state whether these parallels were deliberately used to voice a personal commentary against colonization, or whether he simply wanted to tell a tale featuring the exotic Other as the hero.Either way, reading this now dated material, this series clearly (to my eyes at any rate) depict foreign men taking on the role of leaders in their new land, imposing their modern thinking on otherwise backwards and in their opinion,inferior people, creating situations that force the savages to become dependent upon them for security and survival all the while changing their way of life, and their language. Sounds like a 1950's portrayal of colonization to me.
Although this 1950's comic by Dubois (Dell Comics)features American Natives as the leading characters, the story lines parallel many of the colonizing acts perpetrated on the indigenous people the Europeans found when the "New World" was discovered. Under the guise of assisting the tribes they encounter, Turok repeatedly refers to the prehistorics as "savages" and "backward". In one issue we see Turok and Andar in the role of leaders in a foreign land, relocating a tribe to a "preferable location", only to have that tribe again threatened. Our heroes systematically instruct another tribe to change their way of life from hunters and gatherers to that of agriculturalists. Throughout the entire collection Turok and Andar are gratuitously killing beasts for meat and yet purposely laying much of the kill for waste, something no warrior of the Plains would have deliberately done.
Another theme throughout was the use of their poison tipped arrows, again altering the lifestyle of the "indigenous" cavemen. Turok and Andar establish their position of power through the judicious dispersal of the weapon without divulging their secret to making the poison, much akin to the Europeans restricting the use of guns for political gain. It is at this point Dubous engages the popular "sneaky/deceitful indian" trope in the guise of the wise medicine man in an attempt to steal Turok's power. But of course our eponymous hero outsmarts the inferior medicineman.
Another parallel between these two peoples involves communication. Early issues feature communication between Turok and the cavemen as an obstacle but gradually the cavemen lose their own language preferring to communicate to accommodate the superior Turok and Andar.
I have to give this 3 stars because the drawings are really fabulous. Dubois captures some great action scenes and in no way does he create a caricature within his story. I found the illustrations far more captivating than the simple storylines designed for children to read.
Not knowing the history of Dubois, I cannot state whether these parallels were deliberately used to voice a personal commentary against colonization, or whether he simply wanted to tell a tale featuring the exotic Other as the hero.Either way, reading this now dated material, this series clearly (to my eyes at any rate) depict foreign men taking on the role of leaders in their new land, imposing their modern thinking on otherwise backwards and in their opinion,inferior people, creating situations that force the savages to become dependent upon them for security and survival all the while changing their way of life, and their language. Sounds like a 1950's portrayal of colonization to me.
May 19, 2009
Like Tarzan, Phantom, Turok is an ideal. To live life cleanly and take it as it comes.
March 24, 2010
This book could have used more lasers and stuff, but it was pretty good.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews