Recently pre-ordered this gem of a little Tarzan book. These Library of American Comics Essentials volumes are dandy if a might unwieldy. I've never popped for any, but all have been handsome. This time I'm making an exception because of the exceptional nature of the material.
This is the very first Tarzan comic strip by Hal Foster, which adapts the first novel. It was done as a try-out of sorts to see if there was any marketability for the character in the format. It's been proven I'd suggest that there was. To see this work online go here.
This volume has all of Foster's original sixty strips adapting the debut novel by Edgar Rice Burroughs. He then handed off the strip to Rex Maxon who is represented with several more storylines. These are the dailies, not the Sundays which Foster later turned his attention to and which are currently being reprinted by Dark Horse in gargantuan volumes.
These Brobdinagian tomes are a bit hard to handle. I just got in the second one a few weeks ago and I am eager to explore Foster's key work here.
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Life would be great if the cash were endless! These are so intriguing, but probably won't make it to me at any time in the near future.
ReplyDeleteIn other news, I'd mentioned a few weeks ago that I'd ordered the John Romita Artifact Edition. I received it last week, and you want to talk about huge and unwieldy! I'd highly recommend it -- it is much larger than the Artist Editions, with the twice-up art pages being displayed in all their glory!
Doug
I had kind of talked myself out of getting all of these since the price was so big, but the second volume has been discounted on Amazon which made it a bit more attractive. I promised myself some years ago I'd get this material if it ever became available again. And I've been reading some comic bios lately and all of them point to the Foster Tarzan as the genesis of what we think of as adventure comic book art.
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