The covers above for the Tarzan of the Apes novels rendered by Neal Adams are without question the most personally potent images of the apeman I've come across. While I adore the work of Frazetta and Krenkel and Kubert and Yeates and others, it was these magnetic covers, dubbed by fans "The Black Edition", which literally forced me to give up food when I was a mere college freshman so that I could own the first six issues of this defintive paperback run.
Later of course I got the rest, and others by Boris Vallejo (more on those another time), and they are the Tarzan books I used to read the canon through the first time. I've read and taught Tarzan many times since with different editions of the books, but these are the ones I adore. While not really on model perhaps in all regards, Adams captured something of the essence of the Apeman, is exquisite blend of high romance and savagery. It's there in those pictures somehow.
I was able to get the the three Tarzan Portfolios that Adams developed out of the images. These are some of the very few portfolios I've bothered to collect up, and they are handsome indeed. But somehow the image blended with the logo makes it work even more effectively to kindle my imagination as good book art should do.
Here's an interview link where Adams talks about this project in addition to many other things.
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