Indian Comics Irregular #27

After Tonto, Turok is probably the most famous Native character in
comics. He's been doing his dinosaur-hunting schtick since the
1950s. Turok is the prototypical Indian "brave" and a model for such
later barbarians as Conan.

In 1993 Valiant Comics revived the TUROK comic. Though this is old
news, it isn't ancient news. Let's see what TUROK reveals about the
state of minorities in late 20th-century comics.

The good: Turok talks and thinks in proper English, not
Tonto-style. His skin is more brown than red. He invokes the Great
Spirit often. He feels remorse and prays when his arrows hit a tree
or a jungle cat.

The bad: Turok is a standard-issue, stereotypical warrior. While
fighting futuristic enemies, Turok thinks, "...their weapons, greater
than any shaman's magic." Indian tribes generally didn't have
shamans. Thinking he's about to die, Turok intones, "Great Spirit,
take me into your lodge!" The Indians in Turok's homeland, the
desert north of the Rio Grande, didn't live in lodges.

The ugly: While tracking dinosaurs, Turok thinks, "The way is too
clear. A squaw could follow it." Many Indians consider "squaw" a
vulgarism.

Expecting huge sales, Valiant printed a million copies of TUROK.
750,000 of them were returned. Coincidence? Or is making characters
real more important than comics creators realize?

ZORRO Takes on Indians

A recent storyline in Don McGregor's Zorro comic strip, "Dead Body
Rising," centered on the Spaniards' contact with California's Native
people. The story involved a murdered Indian woman's body found in
the La Brea Tar Pits and featured the first black character in the
Zorro mythos.

This follows the first appearance of Native characters in the ZORRO
comic book McGregor did for Topps in 1993. ZORRO #4, titled "The Man
Who Wasn't Felix Quintero," was about an Indian named by the mission
padre who becomes Moonstalker. McGregor says he wanted to create a
"young, virile, unsafe character, motivated by what has happened to
him and his people."

To see some of the Zorro strips, visit
http://members.xoom.com/peaceparty/gallery.htm. For more on
McGregor's multiracial storytelling, head to
http://www.donmcgregor.com.

More Developments at Blue Corn

Say hello to John Wedmark, a Metis from Vancouver, British Columbia,
who has joined our Board of Advisors. Read about him and the other
advisors at http://members.xoom.com/peaceparty/advisors.htm.

PEACE PARTY is now available at http://www.fun-e-books.com, a new
site that "scours the earth for the coolest stuff around." And
thanks to Karen Strom for listing PEACE PARTY (under Media) at
http://www.hanksville.org/NAresources, arguably the best site for
Native information on the Web.

Perhaps appropriately, on April 1st I announced the winner of our
first Stereotype of the Month winner: Doug Hardwick, for his
citation of the Wal-Mart subsidiary's "Indian" training program. See
the latest entries, or submit a stereotype of your own, at
http://members.xoom.com/peaceparty/stertype.htm.

Rob Schmidt
Blue Corn Comics