In Savannah Georgia in the early 1960s there was a 7-11 convenience store owned by the Woo family at the intersection of White Bluff Road and Montgomery Crossroads. It was in within bicycle range of my house and so I bought nearly all my comic books there. One day as usual I was perusing the comic book spinner rack in front of the store with the "Hey Kids, Comics!" metal sign on top. That's where I spotted my first issue of Turok Son of Stone, #39, 1964. It had an eye catching cover showing two American Indians fighting inside a walled canyon with dinosaurs and cavemen in the background. What kid in 1964 wouldn't think a book like that was worth .12? This #39 has my name written in pencil on the front cover. I never wrote on my comics ordinarily but this was an unusual case. In those days many school teachers were hostile to comics. I guess they remembered the anti-comic book hysteria from the 1950s and were still wary of them. But surprisingly, my 4th grade teacher at White Bluff Elementary School announced it would be ok for everybody to bring some comic books to school for one day only and for everybody to share their books with others. She may have suggested that all the participants write their name on their books to keep them from getting mixed up with other books. I wish I could remember the details of this event. It was so strange in the early 1960s for a school teacher to promote a comic book reading day.
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| Turok Of Stone #39 & #40, 1964 |
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| The first two of many I bought at Mr. Woo's 7-11 and the only two I have left. |
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I must have liked Turok a lot because I started collecting it right away. The book was based on the interesting premise of two American Indians, Turok and his younger brother Andar, discovering a mysterious land inside a walled canyon in the Southwest. They called it Lost Valley. In the earliest issues they called it Sunken Valley. They got lost themselves in Lost Valley and spent every issue trying to find their way out. The place was full of dinosaurs and prehistoric human tribes from different past geological eras so Turok and Andar constantly had to fight to survive. Lost Valley must have been huge. Turok and Andar spent 29 issues of Dell comics and 100 issues of Gold Key comics exploring the place and to my knowledge they never found the exit.
What I liked best about the Turok comics were the lovely painted covers that Dell and Gold Key publishers were noted for. The 1950s Dell issues have especially vivid painted covers. The interior art was competently done and nicely captured the feeling of an exotic primeval land of lush jungles and forests populated by prehistoric animals and men. The Grand Comic Book Database lists Albert Giolitti as Turok's main artist in the 1960s. Thanks Al. You gave us a good return on our hard earned 12 cents! Even the non-comic book collectors liked his art. I sometimes set up a little flea market type stand in front of Danny Lincoln's house across the street from my house on Edgewater Road. I would sell toy plastic soldiers or maybe some comic books and sometimes handwritten newspapers about goings on in the neighborhood. A guy down the street, David Tillman, stopped by and thumbed through an issue of Turok. I remember him saying he liked the art. It had a cool "primitive" look he said.
I don't clearly remember any particular stories now. I don't think after the first few issues I read an issue more than one time. Once you read one issue of Turok Son of Stone you had more or less read them all. The stories were formulaic with Turok and Andar meeting and probably fighting the latest lost tribe they met while being menaced by dinosaurs along the way. In #58 they did meet some aliens from outer space for a change of pace.
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| My earliest issue of Turok. Bought at my favorite bookstore in Birmingham, Alabama in the late 1960s. A nickel well spent; sold it on ebay in 2000 for $93.55. |
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| Turok Son of Stone #3, 1956 |
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| Bought at the Hillsville Flea Market in 1998. Sold on ebay 2004. |
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Like any comic title I collected I tried to run down back issues but I don't think I ordered any Turoks from the comic mail order dealers. I did look for them however at the Birmingham News & Magazine Co. bookstore in Birmingham, Alabama during my summer vacations there in the 1960s. I had some luck and found my earliest issue, the second issue of Turok which was Dell's Four Color #656 from 1955. I had never seen a comic book before where the story continued onto the inside back cover and also the back cover of the book. Marvel or DC comics never gave you those two extra pages. Pretty neat.
I was getting burned out on collecting Turok in the early 1970s and my modern day ebay sales records show #79 from 1972 to be my last issue. I may have had some later ones I sold at the collector shows before ebay, I don't remember. In 1977 I put my entire comic book collection in storage and left Savannah to start my Air Force career. In 1997 I retired from the Air Force and spent the next two years selling comics and magazines on the road. I needed inventory and so I was willing to let my Turok collection go. At the monthly comic show in Tyson's Corner, Virginia outside of Washington D.C. I had a young man ask me about Turok. I may have had some on my display wall. I pulled out a small stack of them to show him. I still remember how his eyes lit up when he saw them. I explained to him they were in pretty nice condition from my personal collection. He bought several of them. When I gave up the road got on ebay in 1999 I sold the rest of my Turoks there except for the first two, #39 and #40 which I kept for old times sake.
Outside of my childhood collection, I did have one more fling with Turok. In 1998 I bought a large collection of 1950s Dell comics at the Hillsville Flea Market in Virginia. Amongst the numerous Western and Funny Animal titles there were a few nice copies of Turok comics: Four Color #656 and Turok Son of Stone #3, #4, #5, #6. Nobody wanted to pay my price for them at the collector shows so I made those issues the first books I had graded by CGC and sold them all on ebay in 2004 for more money than I was asking at the shows. I haven't been back to Lost Valley since.
