It's been years since fans have seen Turok: The Dinosaur Hunter in a comic book. However, starting February 5th, fans can run down to their local comic book shop and pick up TUROK: DINOSAUR HUNTER, published by Dynamite, written by Greg Pak and drawn by Mirko Colak, featuring a cover by Bart Sears. Mike Carroll sat down with Greg Pak and asked him a few questions about the upcoming series.
MIKE CARROLL: Your interpretation of Turok seems to be lot closer to the original Western Publishing version, with the eponymous hero living in the thirteenth century, rather than the eighteenth as in the version published by Valiant. The events of those five centuries made a huge difference to the land we now call America… Was the decision to stick with the original Turok a matter of creative taste, or was it a rights issue?
GREG PAK: Editor Nate Cosby gave me the green light to do whatever felt right. And when you get to the end of the first issue, you'll get a good idea why we went with the 13th century. Without delving into spoiler territory, I'll just say that the time frame opens up the world in some spectacular ways that will allow for some mind-bending conflicts and stories as the series progresses.
MC: Do you have any plans to incorporate any elements from the Valiant version, the later versions by Acclaim and Dark Horse, or the video games? I ask because I know that a lot of people’s first encounter with Turok will have been the video games, so they might be expecting aliens and demons (and high-score tables)!
GP: Anything's possible as we move along. But in the near term, we've got plenty of stories to explore in the big world we're starting to reveal at the end of issue #1.
MC: Without giving away any major spoilers, can you give us a few hints about what we can expect in the upcoming issues?
GP: Turok is a young man living in exile from his tribe, taunted by Andar, the chief's son, and his band of bullies. But then the dinosaurs come -- along with an even more dangerous enemy just around the corner. There's actually a big hint on one of the covers to issue #1 that I don't think anyone's picked up on just yet, so I ain't saying anything. Ooops. Did I just say that?
MC: This is an odd question, I know, but my inner child demands that I ask: What’s your all-time favorite dinosaur, and will we get to see it battle Turok in an upcoming issue? (In the unlikely event that you’re stuck for ideas, my own favorite is the Triceratops. I know they were herbivores, so maybe Turok could adopt one as a pet. Or as a means of transportation…)
GP: Archeopteryx! And yes!
Triceratops was always a favorite of mine, too. Although my runner up is Stegasaurus. I was rooting for him in FANTASIA. ;-)
MC: I’m certain that new readers are going to love your interpretation of Turok, but how do you think the legions of existing Turok fans will react? After all, Turok has been around in one form or another since the early 1950s, so by my reckoning some of your readers could well be the grandchildren ofkids who read the original comics hot off the presses…
GP: The character's gone through multiple reimaginings over the years, so I'm pretty hopeful that fans are open to new takes. The central concept that drives the action remains the same -- you will indeed see a Native American fighting dinosaurs. I'm hopeful that what we're adding will make the character even more compelling and three dimensional and open up a big world in which to tell a ton of crazy new stories.
Thanks to Greg Pak and Mike Carroll for the interview and make sure to check out TUROK: DINOSAUR HUNTER, available at your LCS today! And check out the rest of this preview below!
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