The Return Of Tarzan By Yeates!

I found these at a wonderful dollar-bin sale the other day. I used to follow Dark Horse's ERB books back in the 90's then a financial downturn caused me to set aside most of the new books I followed at the time, and so I missed out on these later Tarzan books. I don't in fact even think I knew these existed until the other day when I found them. Tom Yeates is a great Burroughs artist, bringing a blend of personal style and old-fashioned class to the story. This is a pretty accurate adaptation, focusing in the first issue on Tarzan's relationship with the Waziri and how he came to be their chieftan. It's a compelling story, my favorite ERB tale in fact, and this version doesn't disappoint.

The second issue gets us properly into Opar and we meet the ravishing La. Though here Yeates in an attempt to be more realistic underplays her somewhat. Nonetheless she's a beauty and the majesty of La is well on display. The Beast Men are nicely done. The saga of Jane though is the most powerful of this second issue, with the struggle for survival with William Clayton and the villain Rokoff at center for much of the issue. Like in the original ERB novel, I really get a sense of the deprivation aboard the lifeboat, lost at sea as the sailors and passengers slowly die and go mad. It's surprisingly the most engaging part of the story this time.

And then it all comes together as it always does in an ERB story. Tarzan gets his gold, reclaims his leadership of the Waziri, and rescues Jane as you knew he would. I mentioned that Return of Tarzan is my favorite of the novels. It's the richest in pure character and Tarzan is still an unfolding individual, someone we're still learning about as he continues to learn about the world at large. And Opar is one of the great literary creations, still the best of ERB's lost civilizations, the template for the others really. He never struck gold again like he did with Opar, with it's illogical but potent blend of beast men and lovely women and gold, gold, gold. It's a fantastic creation worthy of a hero like Tarzan.

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