Tarzan versus The Barbarians from Titan Books is the second volume in the series collecting up all the Tarzan comic strips by Burne Hogarth. Hogarth followed the legendary Hal Foster on the strip when the latter went to work full time on Prince Valiant and at first as you'd expect his work was similar to what had come before. But not too far along in the process the individuality of Hogarth began to express itself as he asserted his dominance on the character. In this second volume Hogarth's vibrant artistic styles are even more pronounced and many of the classic touches I associate with the artist become more and more evident. Among those touches are endless movement, with Tarzan in seemingly non-stop motion, only stopping when someone decides to hold him prisoner for a few minutes until he divines a way to swing free. The jungle in which Tarzan lives becomes more and filled with gnarled trees and limbs loaded with multi-colored leaves. In fact, the whole strip seems more filled with vibrant color.
Don Garden is still the writer of the series as he had been throughout Foster's tenure and truth told his storytelling was getting rather predictable. That might be a problem save that such repetition was a staple of ERB's Tarzan novels. Most plots go thusly -- Tarzan sees a damsel (usually) in distress and intervenes to save her but is hated by the villain or villains who begin a series of schemes to trap the Ape Man, all of which fail ultimately. Depending on the sagacity of the baddie the plots run longer and shorter but all end with Tarzan seeing that he'd done justice and chivalry as best he can and then he hops ito the trees and is off for another adventure, usually beginning a few panels later.
The first adventure is titled "Tarzan and the Peoples of the Sea and the Fire" and in this sprawling event the Ape Man must confront two cultures derived from ancient Carthage, one which worships the sea and another which lives on a volcano and worships fire. Both are led by devious men who Tarzan must contend with, but by the end an enormous volcanic explosion puts the rout to both civilizations. It's some of Hogarth's most dynamic art yet.
"Tarzan Against Dagga Ramba" has our jungle hero confront a modern warlord who has plans for vast sweeping conquest. The idea of a malevolent warmonger was a ripe one for the times being as these strips appeared in 1941. Tarzan also runs afoul of a nomadic desert culture but by the end our chief villain has met an appropriately dastardly end, but you already knew that.
"Tarzan and the Fatal Fountain" is to my mind the most outlandish and fantastic of the stories presented in the strip to date. In this one Tarzan encounters a tribe of giants who live in a jungle filled with giant animals. They get their size from the water which has unusual properties to say the least. A malevolent dwarf gets hold of the magic water and makes himself into a deadly giant. Also part of this story is a deadly fellow on an island who hunts human beings and Tarzan proves to be a tempting target. There's more than a hint of "The Most Dangerous Game" in this outing.
"Tarzan and The Barbarians" is actually three adventures rolled under one title. The first takes Tarzan and a crashed British airman up on an escarpment ruled by savage barbaric warriors. After escaping these brutes Tarzan and his seeming ally confront a deadly Queen who rules a sea-going city. There is much derring-do on the waves, with Mastodons yet. The British pilot turns out be a Nazi, a topical reference which will fuel the next volume. This saga wraps with another tie up with the tree-dwelling Amazons and features the return of several of Tarzan's allies from previous adventures.
These are action-filled adventures with Tarzan seemingly always having to make tough decisions to do the right thing, even for those who ought to be his allies. There is a good degree of treachery in these stories with dames falling head over heels for the Ape Man but furious when they are scorned no matter how gently. Next time the Nazis come to call in force.
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They feel a lot like the Technicolor matinee movies that were just cranking up. You almost expect to see Maria Montez and Jon Hall show up in the tales.
ReplyDeleteThey do share that pulp feel with the B-movies, but these have much larger special effects budgets. The jungle Hogarth drew has never been put on screen to our sorrow.
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