Tarzan In The Land That Time Forgot!

Many consider Caspak to be the greatest science fiction concoction by Edgar Rice Burroughs. Certainly, it's the story that has the feel of science fiction as opposed to his normal science fantasy so wonderfully wrought in Princess of Mars and such books. ERB presents this land in three linked novels (which some think are really just one broken up into three slim volumes) titled The Land that Time Forgot, The People that Time Forgot and Out of Time's Abyss. It's a weird isolated an uncharted land surrounded by steep cliffs and inside the whole of evolution works itself out in a single generation. The concept of Recapitulation is what ERB picked up on and he uses it with fine imagination to create a land in which man and dinosaurs live together if not in harmony. 

 

The old Amicus movie outfit made a flick of the story back in the 70's starring Doug McClure and a bunch of Brits pretending to be Germans. The screenplay by Michael Moorcock and James Cawthorn for The Land that Time Forgot has a German submarine find its way into Caspak and then the survivors try desperately to find a way home. It's an above average effort for the time and for Amicus. I always loved the cover artist Nick Cardy knocked out for the Marvel Comics adaptation. There is one direct sequel titled The People that Time Forgot which is a strange entertainment indeed, made when Amicus could not get the rights to the John Carter material. 

Russ Manning is considered by some the definitive Tarzan artist. I give the nod slightly to Joe Kubert, but there's little to choose between them as different as their incarnations of the Ape Man are. At the height of his powers before his untimely death, Manning produced four albums starring Tarzan for the overseas markets. Stunningly they were never published in the United States until Dark Horse brought out two of them under the title of Tarzan in The Land that Time Forgot and The Pool of Time. These are stunning examples of Manning's artwork and the story ain't half bad neither. 

Tarzan is contacted by a young man who wants to rescue his love who has entered Caspak to solve the mystery of her birth. They do so and immediately Tarzan is battling not only dinosaurs but also the brutish men who reside in the bowels of the land. They are menaced in particular by primitive man named Gash-Hak who seems unable like nearly all his kind to evolve into a more refined "New Man". The story takes a twist when sailors from the ship that brought them to Caspak also go into the territory and then Tarzan must discover the secret of the Pool of Time which seems to rest at the heart of Capak's many mysteries and he battles the strange flying creatures called Weiroos. The Pool of Time seems to be a window not only to other eras but to the soul of the watcher as well. It's smashing stuff and moves at a breakneck pace. Why these were presented into the American market I'll never know. But I'm glad they were eventually. Now we must see about those other two Manning epics. 

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