Turok
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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For the video game see Turok: Dinosaur Hunter; For the cosmologist with this surname, see Neil Turok.
Turok is the name of a fictional comic book character created by Western Publishing and published first through Dell Comics and then through Gold Key Comics. Turok first appeared in Four Color Comics #596 (1954), then graduated to his own title Turok, Son of Stone. Many years later, Valiant Comics acquired the rights to the character. Valiant was itself acquired by Acclaim Entertainment.
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[edit] Western Publishing
The original comic was illustrated by Rex Maxon, best known for his work on the Tarzan newspaper strip. Other credits are more obscure as Western did not give creator credits at the time. Most source say that Paul S. Newman started scripting it with issue #9, others say Gaylord DuBois, also extremely prolific, contributed as well. The DuBois account books list the first Turok story, A Cry in the Night as dated April 11, 1955, and the final Turok story submitted by Dubois published in August 1957. The DuBois account books list a total of 33 Turok stories/text between 1955 and 1957. The character was probably created by editor Matt Murphy, and probably first written by Alberto Giolitti — who was actually the artist most prominently associated with Turok in his earliest incarnation.
The Western Publishing version of Turok was a pre-Columbian Native American who, along with his brother, Andar, wound up trapped in an isolated valley populated by dinosaurs, which they called "honkers". The original stories were fairly formulaic, often involving Turok and Andar looking for a way out of the valley. DuBois was influenced by his visits to Carlsbad Caverns New Mexico and developed the 'Lost Valley' from his visits to the area.
After two appearances in Four Color #596 and #656, the title ran for 27 issues (#3-29) from Dell Comics (1956-62), then under the Gold Key Comics imprint from issues #30-125 (1962-80), then brought back under the Whitman Comics imprint for issues #126-130 (1981-82).
[edit] Valiant Comics
When the character appeared in Valiant Comics, the concept and setting were altered slightly. Turok and Andar were now 19th century American Indians. The isolated valley became Lost Land - a cosmic anomaly where time moved in a self-contained loop (which meant that while millions of years passed outside of it, inside it, time barely moved at all). Unity, a line-wide Valiant Comics crossover, altered the concept even further. The crossover's main villain, a psychotic, super-powered being known as Mothergod used the Lost Land as the base of operations. She outfitted the dinosaurs with intelligence-boosting implants, turning them into "bionisaurs". In the aftermath of the final battle between Mothergod and Valiant Universe heroes, the Lost Land began to disappear. Turok wound up tossed into the jungles of then present-day Colombia. Andar landed in parts unknown. Unfortunately for Turok, a group of bionisaurs made it to Earth along with him. Since then, he became a ruthless bionisaur hunter.
[edit] Acclaim Comics
When Acclaim purchased Valiant and relaunched the Turok title, Turok changed yet again. This time, he was re-imagined by writer Fabian Nicieza and artist Rafael Kayanan as a young American Indian boy from a long line of bionisaur hunters (where bionisaurs came from was never explained).
[edit] Turok in other media
The Turok franchise is most notable today for the Turok video games. The first Turok video game appeared early in the life of the Nintendo 64 console, and the next two sequels were also Nintendo exclusives, though were later ported to PC. The fourth installment of the series, Turok: Evolution, released in 2002 across all console formats, was a critical and financial disappointment.
After the success of the Turok video games, a series of Turok novels came out, dealing with the same storyline as the games. The first book was mainly the first game in text and then the second, third and so on were their own stories.
In 2005, Buena Vista Games announced it had acquired the rights to the Turok franchise and would be publishing new games for consoles and handhelds. Propaganda Games will develop the new titles, and will be using Unreal Engine 3 to power the console versions. It will be released on Xbox 360 and PS3.
