Jul
2020
Dinosaur Hunter Diaries #051: Terror in the Trees
Turok: Son of Stone #29
Turok's bodycount sees a sharp uptake.
After a close shave with a styracosaurus, Turok and Andar find themselves with a
surplus of meat -- and a pushy tribe on their doorstep demanding they share.
Turok's not in a sharing mood, and tries to distance themselves by bargaining
for fruit, but this only makes things worse: the tribe want to be friends.
The two claim they're just passing through, and when the tribe mention of an
island of dangers across the shore, the two immediately set sail for it.
Anything to get away from nosey neighbours, apparently!
I've addressed it in prior entries, but this story is perhaps the peak of
Turok's anti-friends sentiment. He makes grand gestures of not getting cosy with
any of the Lost Valley's cave dwellers, a far cry from early issues where they
got downright chummy with some of the folks, but context is everything, I guess.
This crowd are pretty heavy-handed.
They barely outrace a hungry croc in the waters, and the moment Turok leaves
Andar's sight, he's immediately captured by natives. These tree-dwelling brutes
want to know the secret of raft-building, so they can get off their island and
make life hell for whoever else they may meet. Oh, now Turok calls the
other guys his friends.
Andar may have been oblivious to Turok's capture, but he quickly deduces what
happened based on the isolated footprints and loose vines around the place. He
takes to the trees and is fair assailed by a tree-dwelling honker, and two more
of the angry natives, but he brings them down to earth with a quick snip of
their vines.
For those keeping track, Andar throws another dude off a tree in the very next
page, making that four people our heroes have probably killed by dropping from
great heights this ish. Unless we're to assume the foliage down there is really,
really padded.
Despite being a nuisance, Turok remains the tree-dwellers' captive in the hope
he'll cave and build them an escape vehicle... but it gives Andar a chance to
prove himself, rescuing his mentor with the aid of a smokescreen and hightailing
it back to the river. They escape on their raft, safe in the knowledge their
tormentors can't cross the water and bother no one but themselves.
Young Earth warns us of The Coming of the Flesh Eaters, an excuse to talk
about the evolution of lithe, flighty dinosaurs into the chunky bois folks
commonly associate with the species, among them the spinosaurus, the
megalosaurus, and the teratosaurus, pictured above. Son of Stone is
already rife with old-fashioned depictions of palaeontology, but this one's a
real humdinger. It's got tail-dragging, it's got messed up postures...
... and my personal favourite: manhandling! There's three panels of honkers just
going to town on suckers with their funky little digits, and I could not be
happier.
Our heroes witness caveman ringleader Ralg and his men capturing a gorgosaurus
and dunking it on a pit... and then preparing to do the same to a bunch of
hapless prisoners. This isn't just an unorthodox form of cardio, this is a
bloodsport!
The pair launch arrows to ward off Ralg and his game makers, allowing the
prisoners time to escape... but they themselves are captured and dunked in the
pit in their stead. They may not have their weapons, but they're by no means
defenceless! They quickly use the net they were captured in to trip it up,
followed by sand in its eyes to keep it off their tail for just a little bit...
... long enough for Turok to throw the net at his captors above, dragging them
into the pit! Ralg calls for his cronies to save him, but it's too late — by the
time the honker is speared to death, it's already made short work of the cruel
gamemaster.
In the hubbub, the pair make their escape and reunite with the prisoners they
rescued earlier, sending Ralg's goons scattering. Without a motivator to make
digging holes and capturing dinosaurs seem like a good use of their time, the
followers disband and the bloodsport comes to an end.