Every Respectable Lost World Includes Man-Eating Plants!

cover artist uncredited

Gee whiz, you would think that hungry dinosaurs and violent cavemen would be trouble enough for Turok and Andar! Now, they gotta deal with carnivorous plants?

Well, to be fair, carnivorous plants are a standard part of most prehistoric-themed Lost Worlds. So it would be expected the two Indians would run into some eventually.

This all takes place in Turok Son of Stone #26 (December 1961-January 1962), in a story written by the prolific Paul S. Newman and drawn by Giovanni Ticci. (Ticci worked in Alberto Giolitti's studio and Giolitti did the inks. Ticci always does an excellent job of emulating Giolitti's style--I can rarely tell them apart.)

Turok and Andar encounter the plants while dodging an angry styracosaurus. The dinosaur gets caught in the plant's tentacles. It seems that nothing can escape the tentacles.

Except the next day, they notice that the dinosaur is gone--no remains, no bones, no nothin'. They soon discover a nearby tribe that has a secret powder able to open up the plants. The cavemen used this to get the styracosaurus's meat. 

Though Turok considers the meat his, its not worth going to war over. Andar, though, thinks the secret powder would be useful. So that night, he sneaks back to the tribe to steal some. 

Andar, here, acts foolishly. But he's young and an occasional foolish decision is a legitmate part of his character. And when he's discovered, it's just bad luck and not another stupid mistake.

Andar makes a break for it, but gets caught by a plant. Okay, maybe he is a little too stupid in this story.

Turok finds him and realizes they now really need the secret powder. He negotiates the the cavemen and, after saving them from a charging herd of iganodons, they tell him where to find the powder. They don't, though, tell him about the safe path. 

The unsafe way involves scaling a cliff and dealing with a flock of hungry pterodactyls. Fortunately, poison arrows continue to be the rock that smashes dinosaur scissors.

Turok frees Andar and, for bonus points, lures a hungry carnosaur into the plants unaffected by the powder. 

It is a fun story. As was true of nearly all of Newman's best Turok stories, it involves Turok using his head as well as his bow to triumph. Perhaps Andar does act a little too dumb this time around. But he is indeed young. I, of course, was a perfect little angel growing up, but who among the rest of you didn't occasionally act foolishly when you were a kid?

Next week, we'll visit again with the Fantastic Four for the beginning of a 4-part story arc.