The Deathless Honker

Turok Son of Stone is almost inarguably the most fun and purely geeky comic book ever published. A wonderful dinosaur-filled concept PLUS admirable and likeable protagonists PLUS great art work EQUALS a consistently entertaining and emotionally resonating book.

One of the most impressive things about the series was how varied the plots of individual issues could be given the arguably limited premise and setting. The writers (usually the prolific Paul S. Newman) always seemed to have another fresh plot idea with nearly every issue.

That being said, it's not surprising that a few ideas were repeated over the books 125 issue run. For instance, Turok #72 (January 1971) is the third time Turok and Andar are stalked by a particularly hard-to-kill meat-eater.

But even then, there are variations in the theme. I've written about the first two times the two friends had a particularly hard time against a specific dinosaur HERE. In one case, it was a carnosaur who was immune to their poison arrows. In another, they were out of poison arrows, but also needed to make sure they destroyed the carnosaur's eggs so that its offspring wouldn't overrun the valley.

In the issue we're looking at today, arrows are simply bouncing off a big black-skinned allosaurus. After hearing about the beast from some cavemen, they decide to investigate. They're not looking for trouble, but if they happen to meet up with the Deathless Honker, they want to be able to deal with it effectively.

By the way, there's no definitive credit for the writer, though I think it has a Paul S. Newman vibe to it. The typically excellent art is by Alberto Giolitti.

Turok and Andar soon find a pool of thick oily liquid that coats the skin and becomes inpenatrable. They test their arrows against an oil-coated log and a stegasaurus that wandered through the pool, confirming that this is what makes the big allosaur invulnerable.

So when they do run into the beast, its no surprise (but no-less frightening) when they confirm that their arrows don't work at all. What follows is an exciting extended chase scene, with the two friends desperately staying out of the allosaur's reach. At one point, they start and avalance and bury it. But their conviction that they are now out of danger doesn't last long:

They finally get a lucky break when they discover that water from a hot spring will wash off the black liquid. Turok, as he usually does in dangerous situations, improvises a plan using the resourses at hand. A water skin full of hot water is used to expose part of the allosaur's skin, then Turok uses himself as bait to give Andar a shot at that small target:

So, yes, this issue does repeat a plot idea that had been used a few times in past issues. But in each case, there was a unique variation on the theme and, in each case, we were given an exciting story with great art work and an awesome protagonist.

Next week, Batman goes to the Olympics---the Crime Olympics, that is!