A Reputation Can Be a Burden!

cover art by George Wilson

In the pages of Turok, Son of Stone #32 (April 1963), writer Paul S. Newman and artist Giovanni Ticci remind us that having a reputation can sometimes bring us trouble.

The various cave tribes that live in Lost Valley have not yet discovered fire. Turok has made it a hard and fast rule that he and Andar will never teach the often violent cave people how to make fire themselves. First, its something that gives the two Native Americans an edge in this dangerous environment. Second, we're about to learn that the cave people, with no experience in using fire, are likely to use it irresponsibly.

After 31 issues, it looks like Turok and Andar have built themselves a reputation as fire-makers. That's not surprsing. Their exile in the Lost Valley has certainly been eventful and--though the Valley turns out to be absurdly large as the series went on--its only natural that word about them would get around.

The tale begins with two cavemen watching Turok make a fire using flint. They try to emulate him by knocking two random rocks together. Annoyed that this doesn't work, they move on to Plan B.

Luring Turok into the jungle with cries for help, they capture him. Andar is told to "make lightning" or Turok will die. Andar is about to give in when a storm breaks and a nearby lightning strike scares away the cavemen.

This is one of two times the story depends on a coincidence to move the story along. That is a weakness, but the premise and the great action make up for this.

And that action continues at a fast and furious pace. Another lightning strike starts a fire, allowing the cave people to make torches. They use these to drive another tribe out of a large and desirable cave.

That second tribe assumes that Turok and Andar gave their enemies the secret of fire. They jump them and tie them to a tree, intending to do away with them.

But in the meantime, the first tribe (the ones with fire) set the grass ablaze. The purpose is to flush out small dinosaurs that they can then kill and eat. But the flames also soon flush out really big dinosaurs and then continue to spread, now burning out of control.

Both tribes scatter and run. A big carnivore is about to snatch up Turok and Andar, but a second big carnivore begins to fight him for dibs on the human snack bar. Turok is able to cut them free and they take to the trees.

They manage to get away from the dinosaurs and a sudden rain storm puts out the fire. (This is the second coincidence used to move the story along.) Neither tribe has any fire left to use and the protagonists continue on their way.

As I said, it's a fun story with a lot of great action, especially the scene involving the double-threat of dinosaurs and fire at the end. Yes, the use of two seperate coincidences is a weakness, but the story as a whole still works just fine.

Next week, we'll pay a visit to Our Gang.