"Turok Son of Stone"

[wayshway]

n 1954, Dell Comics introduced Turok, Son of Stone. Who created him exactly is in dispute, with different sources giving Matthew H. Manning or Gaylord Du Bois the honor. What isn't in dispute is the popularity of the pre-Colombian Indian and his companion, the young Andar, in their battles with dinosaurs and monstrous beasts in a mysterious, lost valley. With a run into the 1980's, Turok became Dell's longest-running original comic book title.

Turok Son of Stone title treatmentTurok was revived about 10 years later, with a new comic book from Valiant Comics appearing in 1993 and a top video game for the Nintendo 64 following about four years later. Since the Valiant (and eventually Acclaim) comic folded in 1998, Turok had largely vanished from the pop culture consciousness until this year with the release of the direct-to-video Turok Son of Stone animated movie. Toon Zone News got to speak with story writer and producer Evan Baily about the Son of Stone and what he has to offer modern animation audiences.

This interview contains small spoilers for the plot of the movie, with the major spoiler section separated out.

TOON ZONE NEWS: How did you pick Turok to make a direct-to-DVD movie?

EVAN BAILY: We have the rights to a treasure trove of Gold Key/Dell properties, most notably Turok, M.A.R.S. Patrol Total War, Magnus Robot Fighter, and Dr. Solar: Man of the Atom. I grew up on sci-fi and fantasy -- the John Carter of Mars books, the Tarzan books...I think I read every sci-fi and fantasy author. I just always loved the genre. I think the genesis of the project was a conversation with Michael Uslan, who is also a tremendous fan and who we've worked with on lots of stuff with over the years, and it was one of those things where we realized we'd be idiots not to make a Turok film. He's such a fantastic character and he inspires such an intense reaction from the fans.

TZN: There's been the original comic book series, the Valiant comic book series, and the video games. How did you pick and choose what to pull in from all those different series?

BAILY: We wanted to go back to the roots. There's a generation of people who grew up on the original Turok Son of Stone comics, and then there's another generation that knows Turok best from the Valiant comics era and from the Acclaim video games in the 90's. By going back to the roots and telling an origin story about the character, we felt that there was an opportunity to serve that fan who knows and loves the character from way back, but also to introduce someone who grew up on the Valiant/Acclaim incarnation of Turok to the origins of the character. Maybe also introduce them to some layers and aspects of the character and the story that they may not be familiar with.

TZN: If you're familiar with Marvel Comics, it sounds a lot like it's "Ultimate" Turok, then.

BAILY: Yeah. Certainly, Tony Bedard co-wrote the story and wrote the screenplay and was just integrally involved in shaping the film, and he wrote and edited Turok for Valiant comics and grew up reading the Gold Key/Dell Turok, so we certainly benefited from his familiarity with the Valiant version of Turok. We were all really drawn to the Gold Key/Dell Turok, though, just because there's something so awesome about just the primal nature of those stories. The man vs. nature struggle, the struggle to survive. I feel like on the blogs and on the forums, people think of this character as, "Hey, he's the Dinosaur Hunter." That's NOT who he originally was. He wasn't getting his kicks killing dinosaurs. He was fighting to survive in an alien, harsh, hostile landscape. And that's the story that we wanted to tell. We didn't want it to be a guy on safari. We wanted him to be a more dimensional character. A guy wrestling with himself, and we wanted to use the backdrop of the Lost Land and everything he faces there as a crucible to put pressure on him as he worked through character stuff. When I say character stuff, I mean issues and conflicts that are core to him figuring out who he is.

Yeah, but can Clint or Jack