It's all in color for the final of the four Tarzan collections from IDW collecting Russ Manning's Tarzan comic strip work. Tarzan - The Complete Russ Manning Newspaper Strips Volume Four has strips from across five years, from 1974 to the end in 1979. At the same time as he and his studio were hectically producing this strip, they were also contracted to created full-color graphic albums for the overseas market. These wonderful tomes were not available in the United States so as to not compete with DC's Tarzan material. It was a project full of more promise than accomplishment as the ERB people were trying to find ways to have full control of the comics produced.
But let's begin.
"Tarzan Returns to Castra Sanquinarius" finds Tarzan mysteriously captured and aboard a slave galley which is headed to the lost Roman outpost of Castra Sanquinarius which Tarzan first encountered in Tarzan and the Lost Empire. He finds another outsider named Gino Moscatti who is also a slave. Tarzan is drawn into the court intrigues of the vile empress Claudia. After some terrific fights in the arena and outside of it Tarzan and a group of slaves are able to escape.
"Tarzan and the Valley of the Mist" is a strange outing which finds Tarzan exploring a bizarre little valley in which strange mists make animals and people able to cast off their basic instincts and live side by side as is suggested in the story of the Garden of Eden. This world is overseen by a girl named Luz who wants Tarzan to stay but he rejects this false paradise and sees to it that the valley is closed.
"Korak and the Amazons of the Elephants' Graveyard" has the son of the Ape Man carried off by balloons to a strange world which turns out to be yet another lost outpost of ancient Atlantis like Opar. In this weird place only women rule, a strange sort of harem maintained by a warrior named Hunlaka who uses ancient powerful armor to maintain control. This yarn had one of the more surprising endings of any I've read. The reader is surprised to learn that the beautiful but deadly women of this city use phrases like "Spa Fon!" and "Squad Tront!" which sound familiar to many a comic book fan.
"Tarzan and the Giant Insects of Opar" is a sprawling and truly strange epic of an adventure that spans most of a year. It begins when Tarzan and Jane must return to Opar for more gold to help feed the tribes who live around them. Soon Jane is captured by the wild men of Opar and offered up as sacrifice. La for some reason is not in control but soon she and Jane are rescued only for Tarzan and La to fall into another world beneath Opar filled with giant spiders, beetles, dragonflies and other insects. Men live here too but have adapted to life by attempting to become more like insects and seek to make La the mother of thousands of people. What she might become is kept behind the curtain by Manning.
"Tarzan and the Emigrants" is a story about the classic struggle between those who want to fence in territory and those who want to leave the ranges open for natural migration. When farming settlers build an enormous wall that stops the animals Tarzan goes to see about getting it down and faces a great deal of hostility. But a flood caused by the wall changes things. Tarzan with the help of Tantor fights to save the day.
"Tarzan and the Jungle Revolution" picks up immediately after and co-stars Jane. She and Tarzan go to town and meet with hostility. Confused they discover a revolution has divided folks and made them wary. When they and a friendly captain are kidnapped along with a paddle boat by revolutionaries they are in for a fight for life. But it's not just soldiers who are a deadly threat when in the middle of vast swamp dinosaurs appear to prey on everyone. It's a very close call for Tarzan and Jane indeed.
"Korak and the Sacred Lake of Karakao" is a peculiar tale about the son of Tarzan and how he becomes impossibly infatuated with an impossibly beautiful woman from a society which lives inside a volcano. She was bred to be so beautiful that men fall helplessly in love with her if they see her uncovered face. Weird priests protect against the day when she will be sacrificed to the "god" which lives in the waters of the sleeping volcano. That god is an enormous squid and Korak is barely able to escape with is life when the volcano erupts. His heart is well and truly broken.
"Tarzan and the Dead Moon of Pellucidar" is a delightful adventure which sees Tarzan and his Waziri hop aboard the dirigible which takes them to the world at the center of the Earth after receiving a message from David Innes. Whatever the threat to Pellucidar it is also a threat to the suface world which has been experiencing earthquakes. Tarzan finds arms of varied Pellucidarian populations in arm fighting each other until he is able to galvanize them into a single force to approach Pellucidar's only source of darkness, it's strange moon. He is taken to the surface of that moon and into its interior by Mahars who are using a strange crystal to expand their mental might to create earthquakes. Tarzan's limitless will is all that saves the day.
"Tarzan and the Games of Ibizzia" is a short adventure in which Korak and Tarzan who follows him are forced to take part in strange games by a mad despot. Instead of actual sport he creates deadly spectacles for a worldwide audience. But Tarzan is more than capable of ending his threat. So ends Russ Manning's run on the comic strip. He signs the final panel of the final Sunday strip with both is names and his assistant Mike Royer.
These vintage Russ Manning stories of ERB's famous Ape Man are almost all new to me. Reading them was an exquisite pleasure and among the very best comic strip reading experiences I've ever had. The stories flowed delightfully well with a great pacing which never allowed the reader to relax. Sometimes comic strips are burdened by sluggishness but not these. One gets the sense that Manning couldn't wait to get to the next batch of ideas and that communicates to the reader.
Reading the support pieces in these collections has also given me a greater understanding of the man Russ Manning was as well. I knew he was a great artist, that's obvious. But I've discovered by that was a good man and responsible to his community. He was gracious by most accounts and created a workspace which proved effective and enjoyable to an extent for many artists. His Tarzan was idealistic and sleek, a thoroughly modern interpretation. It's one I've gained an even greater affection for after reading years of Manning's work on the famous ERB creation.
Rip Off
No comments:
Post a Comment