Tarzan: The New Adventures, previously only available by subscription, is now in print! It’s a trade collection of all-new stories about Tarzan, written by comic legend Roy Thomas.
The hardcover volume is filled with the equivalent of “weekly colour Sunday strips”, for those of an age to be familiar with newspaper comic strips. In other words, the look and feel of the stories resembles the coloured comic strips of old, in how they flow. One page at a time, with the logo and credits on each page. A full mini-arc each week, with the story recapped and inching forward, week by week.
Thomas pays tribute to the style and content of the original Tarzan, his time deep in the hidden jungle, his animal friends and foes snarling at his side. His ‘woman’, Jane, coming and going, sometimes in mortal danger. It’s golden age, tinted with nostalgia, but earnest and hardworking. This is not a light-hearted parody of the 1930s style of storytelling, rather a sincere revisiting of it.
The art in the volume is done by two artists: Tom Grindberg begins with a heavily Frazetta/Wrightson/Hal Foster style. This gives us powerfully bodied fighters, exotic and lush women, and softly lit backgrounds bathed in twisted vines and sneaky animals. When Grindberg’s pages end, the art is fulfilled by Benito Gallego, more influenced by Marvel artists such as John Buscema; thick linework, stock poses, and plenty of wide-eyed battles. Gallego’s colours go into the green-purple band, with no subtlety and more ‘oomph’.
It’s fun and action-packed, and well-deserving to see print, this throwback-flavoured New Adventure!
Dark Horse, Tarzan: The New Adventures, $24.99 for 108 pages; HC; size is 10 1/2″ x 8”
Newsdesk