Friday, March 09, 2018

Number 2152: Tarzan bugged

Three things I like about this story from Dell Giant #25, Tarzan’s Jungle World (1959):  First, Tarzan’s wife, Jane, shows how capable she is, taking their son, “Boy,” along with her to rescue her husband. She also shows why Tarzan keeps coming home to her.  She is resourceful and beautiful. Second, I like that African scientists are shown working on projects. As the wise one says, “Our purpose is to help mankind! In the hundred years that we of Uru have searched for knowledge we have learned much that white men only dream of...but it’s not enough.” I find it admirable for its time. I wonder how many African-American readers saw this portrayal of black people.

And third:  As a youthful reader of Dell’s Tarzan I really loved that giant eagle, Argus. I still do.

Credits for “Wings in the Morning” go to Gaylord Dubois for the script, and Jesse Marsh for the artwork.

























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4 comments:

  1. J_D_La_Rue_673:01 AM

    I'm not familiar with this version of Tarzan, it comes from the movies I guess.

    The portrayal of the wise black people is cool indeed.

    Seeing a brunette Jane, and no Korak, was strange enough, but the eagles are wonderful. They add a little "Herculoids" touch.
    Art is quite crude, but effective, and we have a nice plot device (the elixir) to prevent the same old question "Why does he age so slowly?".

    The only problem is: what to do now? If I were him, I would probably beg the Wise Man to grant a dose of the elixir to my woman (not wife, I've read in this version they're not regularly married) and kid, and then forget all about such a desirable brew, but who knows... maybe Tarzan thinks differently...

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  2. Kirk8:25 AM

    Boy, not Korak? Is this comic based on the MGM/RKO Johnny Wiesmuller Tarzan?

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  3. Pappy3:49 PM

    J.D. and Kirk, just as I answered J.D.'s comments about the Shadow in the last posting, so do I answer both of you about this version of Tarzan. When Dell negotiated the rights to do a Tarzan comic book, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc. ERB was still alive, but died in 1950. The folks who oversaw the licensing wanted Tarzan to speak good English, not the pidgin he spoke in the movies. They allowed Boy, and I believe it was because the movies were still popular. The movies went from Johnny Weismuller to Lex Barker as Tarzan, and kept Boy.

    (Lex Barker showed up on the covers of many issues of the Tarzan comic, so they wanted to attract the movie audience to the comic book.)

    Jane and Tarzan were married. Dell's internal code would not have allowed an unmarried couple to live together.

    It is what I understand from information I remember reading years ago, probably in one of the fanzines published about the works of Edgar Rice Burroughs.

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  4. Mr. Cavin11:50 AM

    Thank you so much for more Jesse Marsh Tarzan, Pappy. He is certainly one of my favorite artists to be introduced to me by this blogzine. It's a delight to see this kind of material produced by an creative aesthetic more akin to Paul Gauguin than the usual Frazetta or Buscema type. I'd frame the bottom of page twenty-two for my wall if I could find a big enough print.

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