Garth Story 002: Children of the Dawn

Writer: Don Freeman

Artist: Stephen Dowling & John Allard

Published: 13th March 1944 - 5th August 1944 (C62 - C186)

Number of Episodes: 125

Garth’s balloon crashes in icy mountains, and he encounters an isolated race of cave people. He rescues a girl from a ritual sacrifice (whom he christens ‘Dawn’) and teaches her rudimentary English. Dawn wants Garth as her mate! Embarrassed by her attentions, Garth moves on down river in a log canoe, rescuing the beautiful dark-haired Karen Karolenskaya from drowning. Karen is hard and sophisticated, the antithesis of the clinging Dawn. She introduces Garth to Professor Jules Lumiere, the leader of her scientific expedition that includes a Japanese explorer looking for mammoth remains.

Garth shows Lumiere the lost tribe, and they are joined by the besotted Dawn, to the cynical amusement of Karen (who also has designs on Garth). They find an entire mammoth preserved in a glacier, and after Garth saves the party (with Karen’s help) from the treacherous Japanese, they transport the mammoth (encased in ice) back to Lumiere’s island laboratory.

Synopsis by Philip Harbottle

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