This cover art was originally used for issue #30, December 1962, the first Gold Key issue
Well, the people have spoken! By an overwhelming majority, y'all voted in favor of having Turok, Son of Stone added to the mix here at OUATITWIC. Apologies to the one reader who voted no.
I was raised on dinosaur books and Marx plastic cowboys. So a comic book that combined dinosaurs and Indians completely blew my mind- even after having seen Star Wars !
Turok, for those of you who've been living in a cave (yeah, I said it) is a frontier-era plains Indian. He and his young companion Andar took a wrong turn one day while hunting and ended up in a "lost valley" full of dinosaurs and cave men. Of course, Turok and Andar have never heard of dinosaurs, so y0u'll have to forgive them for naming them things like "honkers".
Turok fisrt appeared in Dell's Four Color Comics #596 in a story by Gaylord DuBois and drawn by Rex Maxon (bonus points to reader Elias Montakis for his spot-on knowledge of Turok history) . Apparently, DuBois had re-worked the story from a discarded script for Red Hawk.
And now, "A Vision of Home" written by Paul Newman (race cars, salad dressing and comics??) and drawn by Alberto Giolitti.
This story originally appeared in issue #42, November 1964:
Just so you know... John Tuska, the reigning "expert" on western fiction, says any story with an American Indian character counts as a western [he thus counts ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOOS NEST and POW-WOW HIGHWAY, to nme two, as true westerns.]
ReplyDeleteSo TUROK surely fits the bill for him... as well for your dozen(s) of readers!
Great story!
Albie: I guess I probably wouldn't hesitate to post a comic with cowboys and dinosaurs, so I'm not sure why I even questioned the inclusion of Turok. Glad you enjoyed it!
ReplyDeleteThe writer was Paul S. Newman, one of the more ubiquitous Gold Key writers... and the letterer was the equally ubiquitous Ben Oda.
ReplyDeleteAnonymous: Well, I knew it wasn't REALLY that OTHER Paul Newman. I was just jokin'.
ReplyDeleteDell's Movie Classics #912 (1969) adapted The Valley of Gwangi (cowboys and dinosaurs).
ReplyDelete