Mostly an excuse to show off a couple early Turoks from my collection.
So anyway, I was finally getting around to reading my relatively-recently acquired copy of Turok Son of Stone #3 (1956), and…well, I’ve generally held up Turok as being at least somewhat non-stereotypical in its portrayal of its Native American leads Turok and Andar. Again, here, we’re grading on the scale in the terms of comic books of the Golden and Silver Ages, where our Native American friends are usually portrayed as speaking in broken English with “how” and “ugh” interspersed in the dialogue, among other ugly tropes.
Turok and Andar, trapped in the Lost Valley with surrounded by dinosaurs and primitive tribes, are the rational actors of the piece. Intelligent and resourceful, with Turok as the wise elder and Andar as the sometimes brash but still mindful young companion, the two make their way through this strange world. And, unusually for Native Americans in comics, they spoke in full, clear and understandable English.
However, in that issue #3, I did come across an example of Andar saying “ugh” in multiple panels:
And at first I thought “okay, it’s clearly just an expression of disgust/dismay” when I came across it, but it just kept happening over and over again, sometimes in proper context, sometimes not. Plus, Turok says it on occasion, too:
I’m pretty sure this bit of business is dropped from the books in short order, but still it was a surprise to catch it in a book that I had remembered being free of such things.
Something else I caught in this issue was the captions sometimes describing Turok and Andar as “youths,” which struck me as strange:
…particularly when Turok is coded as the older and wiser of the two, both in behavior and visual depiction. It’s absolutely a mentor/student relationship, and like the unfortunate “ughs,” I think the “youths” descriptor is dropped in short order.
I went back to peruse my copy of Four Color #596 (1954), AKA Turok: Son of Stone #1, to see if their relative ages were more firmly established:
…and while they are collectively called “adventurers” and “braves,” I did see “youths” at least once. So…I mean, sure, maybe Ander was, like, 15 years old, and Turok was a wizened old 19, but I never thought that in all the years I read these comics, and I would think nobody else did either. Two of the earliest writers of the feature were Gaylord DuBois, who would have been in his mid-50s when Turok first appearaed, and Paul S. Newman, who would have been around 30. I can see DuBois calling a 35-year-old Turok “a youth,” but maybe not Newman.
I liked that Turok went around killing the “honkies”. I thought that was unexpected from a Native American lead for the time it was written.
Wait, what? “Honkers”, not “honkies”? It’s their name for the dinosaurs? Well, darn.
I enjoyed the Dell/Gold Key Turok series fine. The Tim Truman run on the Turok 1990s revival was worth reading.
1. That art is really pretty.
2. I recently saw a stupid TV show (from 2024) that did the same thing: two Indians from the same tribe speaking to each other in their native language and using incomplete or simple declarative sentences.
They are adults speaking their native language! They have the capacity to describe complex thoughts! Makes you wonder why the *English translation* renders their speech that way. It made me so mad.
Although I only own several issues of the Dell/Gold Key/Whitman Turok comics, that is my preferred iteration of the character , and I wish that Dynamite (or whoever holds the license) would return to that model, instead of constantly mucking about with the character.
I agree with Thom H. that the art is pretty. All of those Dell/Gold Key painted covers are great. And by Silver Age art standards, the interior art is pretty decent as well.
As a product of the mid-20th century, Turok comics are sure to have their faults when it comes to cliches or stereotypes in the portrayal of Native American characters and their speech patterns and word usage, but I doubt that it was purposefully done to demean the characters, Turok and Andar, who, after all, our the heroes of the comic. But, sure, Gaylord Dubois and Paul S. Newman were must likely writers who were not of Native American extraction–unless Dubois was Creole–so, they were writing as products of their time and using some popular culture cliches and stereotypes of the time.
But all of this made me curious about the whole “how” and “ugh” tropes, so I searched around.
According to a source on Reddit, “How” could very likely be derived from “Hau,” apparently an expression which the Lakota-Sioux used as a greeting for men (and apparently “Han” was the greeting for women). I’m not certain if this is accurate, but it is one supposition, of how “how” became used as a cliche of Native American speech in 20th century popular culture (in media generally written and generated by non-Native Americans).
I also read that during the 17th century it was not uncommon for a pidgin English to be spoken between various Native American tribes and European settlers/colonizers/fur trappers, etc., known as AIPE: American Indian Pidgin English. Is it possible that this might also include some basic French words, or French-derived words? Sometimes there are cliched depictions in various earlier media of a Native American character saying: “You savvy?” This could derive from French fur trappers introducing the word “savoir” (= to know/ factually comprehend) to various Native American tribes. Possibly even the French space filler word “bah” (similar to the English space filler words “uhh” and “umm”) which can be stretched out to sound like “bahuun” could have morphed into “ugh” over time, if the French introduced it to various Native American tribes.
Apparently James Fenimore Cooper, author of “Last of the Mohicans,” might be largely responsible for “ugh”–although in his novel he spelt it as “hugh” –but later non-Native American writers modified the spelling to “ugh,” when using it as pseudo-Native-American-speak, so as to avoid confusion with the name “Hugh.”
I also included a link to an interesting post below in which the author posits that the Moskegee language of the Creek used words similar in sound to “how” and “ugh.”
From context, it seems that Turok and Andar’s usage of “ugh” just signifies “yes” or “yep” as a response made in full agreement with a statement made by the other person–which could lead to the possibility of “ugh” having maybe been derived from “un huh” as in “yes.”
https://alarob.wordpress.com/2009/04/14/why-indians-say-how/
“Andar”
The previously unknown influence on Tom G. Warrior, of Celtic Frost & Hellhammer!
“which struck me as strange”
SUCH a Tim Truman-esq panel!
“And by Silver Age art standards, the interior art is pretty decent as well.”
Yes! Especially in comparison to how non Dc/Marvel art often looked.
A lot of the Dell/Gold Key/Whitman Turok art is uncredited, but the art for his first appearance in Four Color no. 596 is credited to Rex Maxon, and the painted cover is credited to Robert C. Susor, according to MyComicShop. Bob Correa and John Celardo also drew some of the early Turok issues, and Mo Gollub is credited as the painter of at least one cover.
So, chances are that either Rex Maxon or Bob Correa drew Turok no. 3– and John Celardo may have inked it. Personally, I thought the art might have been by Sam Glanzman, as the style is somewhat similar.
A few other artists who drew Silver Age Turok stories include Giovanni Ticci and Alberto Gioletti (I believe they also did Star Trek for Gold Key), Jack Sparling (who drew the original Secret Six for DC), Bob Fujitani (probably best know for his incredible Golden Age Hangman stories for MLJ/Archie Comics–and he also drew some Solar stories for Gold Key), Angelo R. Todaro, Oscar Novelle & Sergio Costa, and Jose Delbo (noted Bronze Age Wonder Woman artist, and also know for his Wonder Woman NFT art controversy).
It would be interesting to know the back story of Gold Key hiring a lot of Italian artists during the Silver Age–I’m assuming as a cost-cutting measure? I wonder if Mark Evanier has the answer?
Here is more information about Rex Maxon and his Turok art connection. Maxon was also the artist on the Tarzan comic strip after Hal Foster left.
https://www.lambiek.net/artists/m/maxon_rex.htm
https://www.erbzine.com/mag8/0827.html
” Sam Glanzman”
One of Tim Truman’s influences.
“Giovanni Ticci and Alberto Gioletti (I believe they also did Star Trek for Gold Key”
Gioletti sounds familiar, I think he did.
“and Jose Delbo… his Wonder Woman NFT art controversy”
What now?
@ Snark Shark
Yeah, I think the ERBzine link mentions that Sam Glanzman also drew Turok.
The Jose Delbo NFT controversy is that he got in early on the whole NFT craze from several years back and drew some recreations of his Wonder Woman covers, or just drew Wonder Woman illos in general, which were converted to NFTs. Apparently he made a tidy sum. But I think as a result of this DC and Marvel made sure that no other retired comics artists used the Big Two’s intellectual property to create NFTs.
Delbo passed away the other year, and, while I’m not a fan of NFTs, I can understand why he would have went that route, considering that, for the most part, comics artists were not greatly compensated by the companies.
I mean, if Kirby were still alive, I could totally see him creating art for NFTs.
Ah!
“I mean, if Kirby were still alive, I could totally see him creating art for NFTs.”
yeah, maybe. A gig is a gig. Those things are a con, though.
@Snark Shark
I agree that NFTs are a con–and something I wouldn’t buy–but based on how much Marvel profited from and exploited his unbridled creativity and stellar imagination, if Kirby had still been around when the whole NFT thing started, he could have made millions of dollars– as, apparently, Jose Delbo made with his Wonder Woman NFTs.
If you go back to the Pop Art movement from the ’60s you had artists including Andy Warhol, Jasper Johns, and Robert Rauschenberg essentially ripping off the comic strip and comic book art of Chester Gould, Jack Kirby, Irv Novick, Russ Heath, etc, by plagiarizing panels from their comics art and creating paintings or silkscreened images, so what shouldn’t the original comic book artists be able to create NFTs if they want to? It wouldn’t surpris me know t the estates of Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko, et al did release NFTs based on characters which they created–like Captain Victory or Mr. A–that aren’t owned by “The Big Two.”
“you had artists including Andy Warhol, Jasper Johns, and Robert Rauschenberg essentially ripping off the comic strip and comic book art of Chester Gould, Jack Kirby, Irv Novick, Russ Heath, etc, by plagiarizing panels from their comics art and creating paintings or silkscreened images,”
Yeah, I always thought that was lame- they’re just copycatting!
I don’t mind they did that with soup cans- that’s just advertising to begin with.