Four Color #596
☆ Be the first to review + Add to your collection — Join freeFour Color #596 marks the absolute origin point of Turok and Andar — their first appearance in any medium — and with it the debut of one of the most durable adventure concepts in mid-century American comics: a pre-Columbian Native American warrior and his young companion, permanently marooned in a hidden valley filled with living dinosaurs and primitive humans. The premise was genuinely novel in 1954, arriving at the peak of the Comics Code controversy and proving that Dell, by pointedly refusing to sign the Code, could still deliver visceral life-or-death adventure for young readers without veering into the sensationalism that had ignited the censorship debate. The franchise the issue launched ran unbroken for 130 issues across Dell, Gold Key, and Whitman imprints through 1982, was revived by Valiant Comics in the 1990s, inspired a best-selling Nintendo 64 video-game series, and generated an animated film — an extraordinary cross-media legacy traceable entirely to this single one-shot. Equally noteworthy is the issue's quiet cultural significance: at a time when Native Americans were almost universally cast as peripheral villains or comic foils in genre fiction, Turok and Andar were the unambiguous protagonists, written with ingenuity and moral agency at the center of every story.
In the untamed wilderness of prehistoric North America, young hunter Turok and his friend Andar stumble upon a hidden cave system that leads to a secret world where dinosaurs still roam. Written by Gaylord Du Bois and brought to life with vivid art by Rex Maxon, this thrilling adventure unfolds in the lush, perilous jungles of a forgotten age. The dynamic cover by Robert Susor captures the primal wonder of the lost world, inviting readers into a tale of survival and discovery.
In the untamed wilds of pre-Columbian North America, Turok and his young companion Andar stumble upon a hidden cave system that leads deep beneath the earth. What they discover beyond the tunnels is a lost world where ancient dinosaurs roam alongside lush, untamed jungles—beautiful, mysterious, and perilously alive.
In the wilds of a prehistoric jungle, Turok and Andar encounter a tribe of wary cavemen, their trust hard-earned. When Turok demonstrates how poisoned arrows can turn the tide against dangerous prey and hostile dinosaurs, the tribe begins to see him not as a stranger—but as a possible ally.
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Writer Gaylord Du Bois composed the two stories in this issue — 'Turok and the World Below' and 'Turok and the Terrible Ones' — not as a Turok project at all, but as a continuation of his existing Young Hawk serial, a second feature he had long been writing for Dell's The Lone Ranger comic; his account books record the second story title as 'Young Hawk Conquers the Terrible Ones.' Du Bois submitted the scripts to his editor in late 1953, and at some point before publication the characters were renamed from Young Hawk and Little Buck to Turok and Andar — though whether Du Bois, his Dell editor Matthew H. Murphy, or another editorial hand coined the new names remains an open and disputed question among historians. Interior art was provided by Rex Maxon, who had previously illustrated the Young Hawk strip, and the painted cover was produced by Robert C. Susor, in keeping with Dell's signature approach of commissioning fully rendered painted covers rather than line-art ones. Du Bois's real-world visits to Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico directly inspired the geography of the issue's Lost Valley, lending the cave-descent sequences a credible physical atmosphere.
Trivia · 8 facts
- First appearance of Turok (identified in the issue itself as a Mandan Native American) and his companion Andar — their debut in any medium whatsoever.
- Published by Dell Comics under the Western Publishing umbrella; cover-dated December 1954, released October/November 1954.
- Two interior stories: 'Turok and the World Below' (16 pages) and 'Turok and the Terrible Ones' (approximately 17 pages), both scripted by Gaylord Du Bois with art by Rex Maxon; painted cover by Robert C. Susor.
- The issue also includes a one-page text feature, 'The Dinosauria,' providing period descriptions of the tyrannosaurus, brontosaurus, stegosaurus, and pterodactyl.
- The scripts were originally written by Du Bois as a Young Hawk story (his pre-existing Lone Ranger secondary feature); the characters were renamed Turok and Andar before publication, with the identity of whoever coined those names unresolved.
- A second Four Color tryout followed (#656, October/November 1955), after which the character graduated to a self-titled ongoing series beginning with Turok, Son of Stone #3 (March–May 1956) — with the Four Color issues retroactively counted as #1 and #2.
- The issue's second story was reprinted in Golden Comics Digest #31 (August 1973), introducing Turok's origin to a new generation of readers.
- The franchise this issue launched eventually expanded to Valiant Comics (1992–), Dark Horse Comics, Dynamite Entertainment, and an Acclaim Entertainment Nintendo 64 video-game series beginning in 1997.
Cast · 2 characters
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Reprints
Reprinted in Adventure Comic Special Giant Edition #[nn] (1958), Domingos Alegres #220 (1958), Cowboy extranummer #5 (1962), Sheriff #1/1962 (1962), Aventura #405 (1965), Golden Comics Digest #31 (1973), Die Actionhelden #1 (1978), The Original Turok, Son of Stone #2 (1995), Turok, Son of Stone #1 (2009), Turok, Son of Stone #1 (2010), Fantasy Classic #8 (2022), طارق [Tarek /Turok] #6
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