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<HEAD><TITLE>Don Markstein's Toonopedia: Tor: One Million Years Ago </TITLE> <script language="JavaScript"></script> <META name = "author" content = "Donald D. Markstein"> <META name = "description" content = "Hypertext encyclopedia of comics and animation"> <META name = "subject" content = "Hypertext encyclopedia of comics and animation"> <META name = "keywords" content = "comic books animated cartoons animation comics comix syndicated comic strips"> <META name = "publisher" content = "Donald D. Markstein"> <META name = "format" content = "text/html"> <META name = "language" content = "EN"> </HEAD><BODY> <body onload="if (self!= top) top.location = self.location"></body> <BODY BGCOLOR="FFFFFF" TEXT="000000" LINK="0000EE" VLINK="551A8B"> <TABLE><TR><TD WIDTH=310 VALIGN="CENTER"><IMG GALLERYIMG="NO" ALIGN="LEFT" HEIGHT=291 WIDTH=300 ALT="Tor and Chee-Chee. Artist: Joe Kubert." SRC="tor.jpg"> <TD VALIGN="CENTER"> <H1>TOR: ONE MILLION YEARS AGO</H1><FONT SIZE=4> <B>Medium:</B> Comic Books <BR><B>Published by:</B> St. John Publishing <BR><B>First Appeared:</B> 1953 <BR><B>Creators:</B> Joe Kubert and Norman Maurer<FONT SIZE=3> <! BEGIN DONATION CODE> <HR><FONT SIZE=2 COLOR="993366"><CENTER> If this site is enjoyable or useful to you, <BR>Please contribute to its necessary financial support. <BR><A HREF="http://s1.amazon.com/exec/varzea/pay/T1237L0BCY25QA" TARGET="_blank">Amazon.com</A> or <A HREF="https://www.paypal.com/xclick/business=don%40toonopedia.com&no_note=1&tax=0&currency_cod e=USD" TARGET="_blank">PayPal</A> </FONT></CENTER><HR> <! END DONATION CODE> <P><A NAME="cont"> Joe Kubert, a legend in the comics field, has been at least partially responsible for a vast array of features — <A HREF="hawkman2.htm">Hawkman,</A> <I><A HREF="greenbrt.htm">Tales of the Green Berets,</A></I> <A HREF="enemyace.htm">Enemy Ace,</A> <A HREF="vikingpr.htm">The Viking Prince</A>  Of all  <P ALIGN="RIGHT"><A HREF="#cont"><FONT SIZE=2><I>continued below</A></FONT> </TABLE> <CENTER><! BEGIN ADSENSE "LEADERBOARD" CODE> <script type="text/javascript"></script> <script type="text/javascript" src="http://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/show_ads.js"> </script> <! END ADSENSE CODE></CENTER> <P><TABLE><TR><TD VALIGN="TOP"> the many comics he's worked on, he's told interviewers his favorite is Tor, a cave man who lived a million years ago, and whom he created in collaboration with <A HREF="glossary.htm#cartoonist">cartoonist</A> Norman Maurer back in 1953. <P> Tor came from a long line of cave men in comics — <A HREF="oop.htm">Alley Oop,</A> <A HREF="piltdown.htm">Peter Piltdown,</A> etc., all the way back to <I><A HREF="antedilu.htm">Our Antediluvian Ancestors,</A></I> by F.B. Opper (<A HREF="alphgast.htm">Alphonse & Gaston</A>). But for audience appeal, he stood out from the crowd, with reader demand facilitating repeated revivals, by one publisher after another, over a period of decades. <P> Of Tor's creators, Joe Kubert (who did most hands-on work on the character) was best known for his work at <A HREF="dc.htm">DC Comics,</A> where he drew <A HREF="hawkman1.htm">Hawkman,</A> <A HREF="vig-1.htm">Vigilante</A> and other features. Norman Maurer had worked mostly at Lev Gleason Publications, on such features as <A HREF="crimebst.htm">Crimebuster</A> and <A HREF="wiseguys.htm">Little Wise Guys.</A> Together, they were also responsible for bringing 3-D technology, which was all the rage in movies, to comics. <P> Tor himself was a loner, adventuring around in a world of dinosaurs, exploding volcanos, near-human troglodytes and suchlike, with no supporting character except his pet monkey, Chee-Chee. He first appeared in <I>One Million Years Ago</I> #1, dated September, 1953. The publisher was St. John Publishing Company, which at the time was also licensing <A HREF="terrytoo.htm">Terrytoons</A> characters such as <A HREF="dinky.htm">Dinky Duck</A> and <A HREF="gandy.htm">Gandy Goose.</A> With its second issue, the series was re-titled with the simple name of its main character: <I>Tor,</I> with "One Million Years Ago" a subtitle on the cover but not the <A HREF="glossary.htm#indicia">indicia.</A> <P> The second issue (October) was produced in the 3-D process, a follow-up to the Kubert/Maurer <I>3-D Comics</I> #1, starring <A HREF="mightym.htm">Mighty Mouse,</A> which had come out a month earlier. It was also published in a magazine-sized edition. With #3 it was back to normal. The comic lasted only five issues, the last dated October, 1954. <P> Tor seemed gone, a short-lived title from a short-lived publisher, but readers didn't forget him. More than 20 years later, one of the majors took notice. DC Comics brought out its own <I>Tor</I> #1 with a cover date of June, 1975. The first issue contained new work by Kubert (Maurer had left comics to work in movies). Other than that, it reprinted the St. John series (converting the 3-D work to the regular format). Not surprisingly, it ended after six issues. <P> In 1977 and '78, Kubert published two issues of a <A HREF="glossary.htm#tabloid">tabloid</A>-sized comic book titled <I>Sojourn,</I> designed to present outstanding comics in a package that particularly favored the artwork. Tor was featured, alongside the work of Doug Wildey (<A HREF="jquest.htm">Jonny Quest</A>), John Severin (<A HREF="mad.htm"><I>Mad</I> magazine</A>), Lee Elias (<I><A HREF="beyond_m.htm">Beyond Mars</A></I>) and other master comics creators. <P> Tor's 3-D issue was reprinted in that format in 1986, by Eclipse Comics (<A HREF="airboy.htm">Airboy,</A> <A HREF="dnagents.htm">DNAgents</A>). <P> The character's next appearance was in <A HREF="marvel.htm">Marvel Comics'</A> epic line, which featured creator-owned work. (Kubert had long since established legal ownership of Tor.) Epic's four-issue <I>Tor</I> mini-series, which featured new material by Kubert, began in June, 1993. <P> Most recently, DC Comics reprinted the entire <I>corpus</I> of Tor material in a deluxe, three-volume hardcover format, one volume a year starting in 2001. <P> The hardcover would seem to be the definitive edition. But since his re-discovery in the 1970s, Tor has been back in print at least once in each decade, so there's plenty of room to speculate on what the future may bring. <P ALIGN = "RIGHT">— DDM <P><A HREF="index.htm">BACK</A> to <I>Don Markstein's Toonopedia</I> Home Page <BR><A HREF="today.htm">Today in Toons:</A> Every day's an anniversary! <P><! BEGIN ADSENSE BANNER CODE><CENTER> <script type="text/javascript"></script> <script type="text/javascript" src="http://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/show_ads.js"> </script> </CENTER><! END ADSENSE CODE> <TD WIDTH=10><TD WIDTH=180 VALIGN="TOP"> <! BEGIN ADLINKS CODE><script type="text/javascript"></script> <script type="text/javascript" src="http://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/show_ads.js"> </script><! END ADLINKS CODE> <P><! BEGIN ADSENSE REFERRAL CODE><script type="text/javascript"></script> <script type="text/javascript" src="http://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/show_ads.js"> </script><! 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