This coming Friday I am presenting a tribute to the anniversary of Tarzan, now 104 years old, and still swinging through the trees. But today I have an issue of Tarzan from Dell Comics, with a couple of dinosaur tales. It has been awhile since I have shown a Tarzan story illustrated by Jesse Marsh, and this is my way of atoning. Pappy’s Sunday Supplement will be a sometime thing (I would like to do it at least once a month, but I am not promising. How is that for equivocation, eh? Like including fine print on a contract, I am not leaving myself open for breaking a promise if I don't get to it some months.) Like the weekly anniversary specials I did last month, I would like to show something special for these supplements.
I believe today’s entry qualifies for that special status. Using the 52-page format, two Tarzan stories could be shown, as well as the U.S. Post Office-decreed 2-page text story, and a serial. Tarzan #24 (1951) has two Tarzan stories with dinosaurs by Gaylord Dubois, drawn by Jesse Marsh, and the final chapter of “Two Against the Jungle," the serial that preceded the more famous and long-running “Brothers of the Spear,” which made its initial appearance in the next issue. Issue #25 was also the last of the 52-page issues, going back to 36-pages with #26. All of that information will be on the quiz. I hope you are taking notes.
I very much doubt I will ever get enough Jesse Marsh! Thank you!
ReplyDeleteMan, it's always a pleasure to see more of Marsh's graceful work and fine-arts sensibility here, Pappy. This stuff is just so great. I love the shapes-based landscapes and the formal compositions: landscape with dinosaur, arboreal copse with ape-man. I also dig on the somewhat ornamental quality of his panel backgrounds, the way different elements are only indicated by overlapping or contrasting textures. I'll bet these pages would be a real treat in person, stripped of all the hard color parameters of these printed pages (though I like that look, too).
ReplyDeleteThanks a bunch. Looking forward to even more--though perhaps intermittent--Sunday Supplements in the future!
Mr. Cavin...I love Marsh's work, and despite complaining sometimes that Tarzan's Africa must be jam-packed with lost civilizations and dinosaurs, I love these old Tarzan comics. No one draws like this anymore. I like the old Caniff style drawing, and Marsh was someone who made use of the brush, not to mention solid composition and storytelling skills.
ReplyDeleteRath Raq, thank you for your note, and if you want more Marsh, go to the search engine in the upper left corner, or to the label at the end of the posting and click on Jesse Marsh. Lots of good stuff awaits you.
A nostalgic element to Marsh's Tarzan and John Carter comics exists for me. Yet, further, I just enjoy his particular style. thanks for this considerable job of scanning. Enjoyable.
ReplyDelete7f7, thanks to you for your comments, and you are welcome for my scans!
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