Turok: Dinosaur Hunter #1 (2024)

SXSW 2014. South by Southwest is an interactive, music and film festival in Austin, Texas and since Comixology has a major presence there this weekend, it gave some free books accessible to its subscribers as it launched some major initiatives. This is one of those books.

This was strong debut of Gold Key revival whose heyday was as part of the Valiant Comics line. Pretty confusing? A lot of publisher have held the rights over the years and Dark Horse was the last one who attempted a similar revival. Turok: Dinosaur Hunter comes on the heel of the Valiant Comics rebirth and the current holder of the rights, Dynamite Entertainment, does a good job of riding on the coattails of Valiant in launching this new title.

I didn't enjoy it as much, even though its by one of my favorite writers in Greg Pak. First issues are really his strongest suit though. The art is great. Mirko Colak is budding superstar whose work is going to appear in a Marvel or DC comic after this one. The art and Pak's writing is a good reason to stay around for the next two issues and see how this goes.

The regular cover by Bart Sears is pretty awesome as well. It references his own cover on the Valiant Turok title. I really got a kick out of that since I have that book.

I was really excited for the concept of dinosaurs being in a modern world but I did not get very into the rest of the story. Everything fell very flat in terms of actually caring about what happened to the characters (if they survive, if they mend their relationships, etc.). I did have fun with the action scenes but it definitely read like a blockbuster movie that is focused on action rather than literally anything else.

I love the Turok Series!

Since a boy, I fell in love with the Turok video games, and now I am reading the comics 😀

I had no idea what I was getting into with this one, but the cover was too intriguing to not pick up (as a kid of the 80s, I LOVE dinosaurs). Overall, this story is completely bonkers. It's an alternate history with Native Americans, European explorers (see rapists, murderers, liars, and gold-hounds), and DINOSAURS. The title character - Turok - is tolerated by his "tribe" but is not actually part of them; they in fact try to murder him on several occasions. However, he feels a sense of obligation to them and when the Europeans arrive (with dinosaurs in tow) he can't just let them be slaughtered outright.

The artwork is quite stunning, the dinosaurs terrifying and colorful, and the brutality the Native Americans face at the hands of the Europeans is gruesome and upsetting - granted it's difficult to feel too bad since we see Turok's memories of them hunting his parents down.

This is a weird hybrid comic, that is both brutal and quite a bit of fun if you have the stomach for it!

This comic book collection consists of the story of Turok, a Native American in 1210, trying to survive in a tribe where he is not welcome. It is he however who saves the tribe from the English knights and their dinosaurs when they arrive from England in search of gold.

There is some characterisation and the introduction of various characters of interest but it is the fighting and the will to survive that dominates this collection.

The writing is good, reminiscent of 1950s English comics, and the artwork is quite detailed and well-executed, including lots of variant covers by some very well-known artists like Rob Liefeld and Jae Lee.

Reasonably enjoyable. It’s not something that I would normally choose to read but I found it moderately interesting.

Something about the original Gold Key Turok: Son of Stone has always interested me, but it's hard to put my finger on. I feel this new series doesn't have as much of it, if any at all. It may become interesting in its own right, as it appears to be exploring the thematic metaphor more literally.