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Turok: Son Of Stone Volume 1 (2007)
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Fiction Review by The Gravedigger
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12.30.09
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This hardcover book reprints the first six issues of the TUROK: SON OF STONE comic that were published in the 1950's. The first story, THE WORLD BELOW, explains how Turok and his young companion, Andar, find themselves in a lost valley inhabited by prehistoric beasts and cave-men. They are in the desert in the Carlsbad cavern area and look for water in a cave. They go deeper and deeper and when they finally find water they are attacked by a huge cave bear. They dive into the water, narrowly avoiding a school of piranha, and emerge into the lost valley which is an ancient cave whose roof had collapsed long ago. Then, they start to see the creatures, like the fin-backed Dimetrodon, a brontosaurus and ankylosaurus. When they encounter their first humans, they are a primitive and don't trust the strangers. The Native Americans watch them chase an antelope with clubs, then net it. Later, they see a guy mashing up the roots of a plant which he throws into a nearby pond. Almost immediately fish float to the surface. They get the idea of using this poison on their arrow tips so they won't have to worry about being killed by dinosaurs. They make friends with another tribe and when access to their home is destroyed help them find another. This is on an island that is safe from the big predators. A caveman named Lanok accompanies them on some adventures. When Turok and Andar finally find a way to climb out of the valley they find themselves on the edge of a cliff and a herd of Bison coming their way, so they have to go back down or be trampled. Soon after, a volcano explodes and knocks a hole in the canyon wall so they can escape. But from above they can see that the river of lava is going right towards their friends' new home and they choose to go back down and warn them of this. They help the tribe find another home. And they also save a baby mastodon, who they later reunite with its mother. One of the stories also involves a giant King Kong-like ape that starts taking food from one of the tribes. After all, giant apes do go along with dinosaurs.
I was first introduced to Turok in the 1970's and it's very cool seeing these early tales collected in a hard-bound format. There are some inconsistencies with the stories, such as Andar looking like a boy in the first story, and then a young man in the next. And Turok and Andar are referred to as prehistoric indians, which I guess is true in a sense, since this happens before indians ever came in contact with white men. However, all the dinosaur info is based on knowledge and theory up to that time, so they are depicted as small-brained, incredibly stupid creatures that are easily dispatched by poisoned tip arrows. The biggest threats, besides the numerous T-Rex's are the sabre-toothed tigers.
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Rating: nan out of 10.0 - votes cast total
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