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"Fight the Angry Mountain"
Valley of the Dinosaurs #1 (Charlton)
Writer and artist unknown (but story and art, including covers,
for the series were by Fred Himes, according to
Toons of Festology).
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A volcanic flow threatens the village.
Story Summary
Smoke begins to billow from a nearby
volcano and the village elders tell that the angry mountain
demands the residents to leave or it will spew fire that will
destroy all life. But Professor John Butler tells the residents
they must all work together to divert the stream of lava that is
sure to come. Soon, he has calculated that they have about 5
days to put a plan into motion before the eruption comes.
The cave-dwellers and villagers work
together with the Butlers to build a pipeline of hollow bamboo
tubes to carry flammable natural gas from the nearby swamp to
the base of the volcano. When the volcano erupts, the pouring
lava ignites the gas coming from the pipeline, causing an
explosion that diverts the flow away from the valley proper and
into the river, where the water cools the lava into rock
and steam, saving the inhabitants.
THE END
Didja Know?
"Fight the Angry Mountain" is a
7-page story from Charlton's
Valley of the Dinosaurs #1.
On the cover of this issue, if one looks closely at Glump, standing behind Katie and
Digger, he appears to have plates only on the left-hand side of
his spine! In other appearances, he has a parallel row of
plates on each side of his spine.
The first page of this issue paraphrases the narration and
images of the opening titles of the TV series. It erroneously refers to the land
in which
the
Butlers have had to make a home as a "prehistoric
continent". Since they are seemingly only in an isolated
part of the Amazon rainforest, their prehistoric
surroundings are not a continent in themselves.
In the background of the splashpage on page 1 of the story,
what appear to be a Brontosaurus and Pteranodon
are seen.
It's hard to tell from the small image, but the
carnivore seen on page 2, panel 6
appears to have just two claws on its forelimbs, identifying
it as a
Tyrannosaurus.
Somehow, John has calculated that the volcano will blow in
about 5 days. This seems like a typical science-fantasy
trope to have the resident science character,
when the story calls for it, be extremely
knowledgeable about any type of science whatsoever, even
outside their own specialty.
"Forbidden Fruit" and
"A Turned Turtle" reveal that John
is simply a science teacher at a high school.
On page 4 of the story, Katie has somehow taught Glump to
turn the waterwheel with his wagging tail. It seems unlikely
there would be any way of keeping the pet engaged in that
endeavor for any length of time.
At times throughout the story, "Greg" is spelled "Gregg"
instead. Most VOTD publications use the "Greg" spelling.
The carnivore encountered by Greg and Katie is identified in
the narrative as a
Tyrannosaurus, but it is depicted with three claws
on its forelimbs, so it could not be a member of genus
Tyrannosaurus.
Unanswered Questions
Why was there seemingly an extra length of bamboo gas piping already
set up conveniently for Greg's use to deliver a hotfoot to the
Tyrannosaur?
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