Burne Hogarth had already fashioned a stunning adaptation of the first half of the first novel by Edgar Rice Burroughs about his most famous creation Tarzan of the Apes. We encountered Tarzan's parents and were witness to their sufferings and we followed Tarzan as he grew to manhood in the loving care of his ape mother Kala. We saw him defeat the deadly Kerchak and become King of the Apes and then the story ended. There was no civilization, there was no taking Tarzan back to his ancestral home in England. The Tarzan Hogarth presented was the noble savage of a lush colorful jungle.
He picks up that saga with adaptations of four of the Jungle Tales of Tarzan as written by ERB in the sixth volume of the long-running series. ERB had taken a break from the ongoing saga of his Ape Man to give another peak at his savage upbringing and Hogarth takes full advantage of those whimsical yet still deadly stories to create his most stunning Tarzan art yet. There are four stories.
The first is "Tarzan's First Love" in which we find a Tarzan still missing his ape mother Kala seeking some tender companionship. He is attracted to an ape named Teeka but his considers himself very ugly and doubts his chances of winning her attentions. He competes for those attentions with a young ape named Taug. After saving Teeka's life she gives him some of her long-sought attention but then Taug is captured by humans and Tarzan goes to save his rival. He realizes the differences between himself and his peers is too great for romance.
"The Capture of Tarzan" is just that, a story about how Tarzan is captured in a pit designed to capture Tantor the elephant. He is taken to the village of savage cannibals and escapes by dint of his own wits and strengths with some timely help from the grateful Tantor. The savage battles between Tantor and the natives supply some of the powerful pages in this album.
"The God of Tarzan" has the young Ape Man consider for the first time abstract concepts of a potential deity. He attempts in his naive way to find "God" in the Moon and among the animals but finally after much soul-searching and no small use of his burgeoning imagination comes to grasp that "God" is that which is good. But then he is confused when he tries to account for the deadly and loathsome Histah the snake. Hogarth's drawings of Histah in this story are magnificent.
"Nightmare" showcases some of Tarzan's first dreams, dreams turned to terrible nightmares when he steals and eats some contaminated elephant meat from natives. Sick to his stomach and burning with fever Tarzan dreams of a lion which can climb into the highest branches, a giant buzzard that can catch and fly off with a full-grown man, and a deadly snake with the head of a man. He finally realizes these are not real but then he is confronted by a Gorilla, and it takes him a few moments to realize this threat is no nightmare.
These pages are all in black and white and reproduction in the Dark Horse reprint is superb. This is Hogarth's finest Tarzan work to my eye, lush and robust and filled with the magical wonder he brought to the Ape Man in his best moments. Hogarth's Tarzan never leaves the jungle, but then why should he.
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