Customer Reviews

Jungle Tales of Tarzan (Tarzan Series #6)

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Most of the reviews written here are not for Burne Hogarth's "Jungle Tales of Tarzan" but are for the original Tarzan novel by Burroughs and not the beautiful Burne Hogarth comic book/trade paperback 1976 adaptation. I now own the Burne Hogarth edition and love it. It is boldly done and Hogarth's art is at its best and most detailed. The only drawback is that it is not colored---it is only black and white---and only available in paperback (unlike the hardback and colored 1972 "Tarzan of the Apes" Burroughs/Hogarth edition). Still it is a pleasure to behold, and is larger than the 1972 "Tarzan of the Apes" edition. About half of the tales in Burroughs' original "Jungle Tales of Tarzan" are there. The forward is interesting and shows some pages from both Hogarth/Burroughs' books. Burne Hogarth definately brings Burroughs' amazing works to life like no one else. A perfect match. Hogarth is to comic book art as Frank Frazetta is to paperback covers.

"Jungle Tales of Tarzan" is the sixth volume in the Tarzan series by Edgar Rice Burroughs and pretty much goes back to the beginning for a collection of short stories set in the time when Tarzan still lived among the great apes. Tarzan has learned how to read from the books he has found and it is opening his young mind to new questions, like where do dreams come from and where he can confront Goro, the supreme being that is the moon. There is also the love triangle between Tarzan, his first love Teeka, and their rival Taug, as well as his adventures tormenting the people of the local Mbonga tribe. "Jungle Tales of Tarzan" is actually a nice companion volume to the original "Tarzan of the Apes," provide more depth and detail to the early years of the Lord of the Jungle. It also marks a coda to what we would now consider the original story arc of the Tarzan novels. Burroughs would write another 21 Tarzan novels but they would become increasingly formulaic. In many ways this is the last time we would see the original Tarzan; you can think of "Jungle Tales of Tarzan" as sort of being the "deleted scenes" from the original "Tarzan of the Apes" novel.

In 1972 Watson-Guptil published what is now considered the first contemporary graphic novel, "Tarzan of the Apes" with a text adapted from the Edgar Rice Burroughs novel and art by Burne Hogarth. A large format hard cover book, it was pictorial fiction previously unseen in sequential art. Moreover, it was intended for an adult readership. Published in 11 languages, it proved influential in many creative fields. Other comic strip/book artists took note and tried their hand at this new format with mixed results.
In 1972 Hogarth was a veteran of the comic strip, having drawn the Sunday "Tarzan" for the newspapers from 1937 to 1950. He was also an educator, the founder of the New York School of Visual Arts, and an author of anatomy books for artists that are now standards around the world (witness the recent Kong issue of Wired - it's Hogarth's drawings all over the wall behind the CG artists). After having trained most of the Silver Age comic artists at his school, Hogarth reapproached the Lord of the Jungle. The results are the definitive vision of the Ape Man, the point at which Renaissance fine art finally meshes with dynamic movement and a pop culture medium.
Hogarth completed his Tarzan work with Jungle Tales in 1976, the pinnacle of 20th Century sequential art. His use of hidden images and negative space imagery are brilliant details in page design concepts that are far beyond other comic art.
It is sheer beauty and grace that pervades this book, resulting in a profound visual expression. These stories of Tarzan's young adulthood are explorations of humanity's questions of existence and are as relevant now as when Burroughs first wrote the novel in 1919.

When Tarzan became a household world, readers of Edgar Rice Burroughs began to pester him to write about a more personalized, more gossipy side of the apeman. ERB obliged his fans by writing a dozen stories that detail his growing up in Africa during his teenage years. In JUNGLE TALES OF TARZAN, ERB portrays a Tarzan that might have fit in well in any number of television sitcoms or domestic dramas. This Tarzan shows a side to his development that is only hinted at in the events of the first novel of the series, TARZAN ON THE APES, in whose events it runs concurrently.

Many of the same themes and plot devices that run through the entire series are explored here, several of which show ERB at his literary best and worst. Plotting and pacing are ERB's strongpoints. He constantly captures the interest of his readers with exotic yet believable storylines. Yet, his insistence on coincidence to make his plots mesh combined with more than a touch of blatant racism intrude to the point that if ERB published his books today, a formidable array of political correctness would howl for his scalp.

The first story, "Tarzan's First Love," describes a teenage Tarzan who has a love crush on a lovely gorilla female named Teeka. Tarzan declares his love for her, and battles a childhood chum for her favors. By the story's end, Tarzan recognizes the genetic differences and reluctantly gives her up. What is of interest here, is the psychological battle that he goes through. More than once, ERB mentions the impact that Kala, Tarzan's foster ape mother, has had on Tarzan, an impact that endures throughout the entire series. There is a strong Oedipal undercurrent as Tarzan compares the love for Teeka with that of his love for the deceased Kala.

In several of the stories, ERB describes blacks in such a manner that he constantly harps on what he sees as their physical, emotional, and intellectual shortcomings. In "The Capture of Tarzan," the apeman singlehandedly fights off more than fifty black cannibals. In "Tarzan and the Black Boy," ERB is unabashedly racist as he notes, "Imagination it is which builds bridges, and cities, and empires. The beasts know it not, the blacks only a little." Tarzan often baits blacks in this book and others by killing them at random or playing gruesome jokes on them. In "A Jungle Joke," ERB explicity suggests the low intelligence of the cannibal blacks by making it seem as if Tarzan could metamorphosize himself into a lion at will.

If racist themes turned off some readers, other more universal ones attracted generations of readers. When Tarzan was not involved in the day to day affairs of the reality of jungle life, his human side forced him into a philosophical contemplation of the mysteries of the universe. In "The God of Tarzan," the apeman attempts the age-old human quest for the meaning of life. He attempts to track down God in the same way that he would follow the spoor of a wounded deer. In "Tarzan Rescues the Moon," Tarzan sees a lunar eclipse and in his efforts to rescue the moon, shoots arrows into the moon until the moon re-emerges from the eclipse. In both stories, Tarzan goes through the same mental anguish that his human forebears must have endured. And like them, his conclusions about his place in the universe are tentative at best. It his Tarzan's reaching out to further distinguish himself from his anthropoid tribe that makes him as fascinating to today's readers as it was to past generations.

It's a shame that illustrators like B. Hogarth growth old and not give us enjoinment
until the end of time,, probably with Alex Raymond, Al Foster, and Jose Luis Salinas the 4 greatest adventure drawings of all time!!

Having only seen copies of the artwork from this book, I can still say that it lives up to the reputation of the forerunner, Tarzan of the Apes, also illustrated by Burne Hogarth. the only disappointment is that it was printed in black&white, not full color as was the 1st volume.

One of the most fascinating Tarzan books to his fans. The stories fit into the first Tarzan novel, Tarzan of the Apes, as an expansion of his life before he met people from the outside world. Its a nice little account of what a feral child might think, but of course, highly romanticized. If you enjoy this book, you will love The Son of Tarzan which explores these themes from the standpoint of a child raised in civilization who returns to live in the wild.

Definately my least favorite ERB book that I have read so far. It consists of 12 tales (chapters) of Tarzan's youth before he discovered his civilized heritage. Each has him discovering a little piece of his humanity, but with each little piece comes much savagery.

The twelve tales are:

1) Tarzan's First Love
2) The Capture of Tarzan
3) The Fight for the Balu
4) The God of Tarzan
5) Tarzan and the Black Boy
6) The Witch-Doctor Seeks Vengeance
7) The End of Bukawai
8) The Lion
9) The Nightmare
10) The Battle for Teeka
11) A Jungle Joke
12) Tarzan Rescues the Moon

While each chapter is essentially a self contained short story, it probably is best to read them in order because there are recurring characters and references back to previous events. This book shows its age in ways that do not reflect well on ERB, while he admires the physical prowess of the African natives that populate Tarzan's jungle, and there are a few exceptions for some characters--he portrays them as a man who has not risen above his time's sterotypes, making for some very judgemental commentary.

The best story of the lot is The God of Tarzan, some truly great story telling and how ERB worked out Tarzan's logic in this was great, and the way it ends, fabulous. The rest of them though I wasn't too drawn too, they sort of illustrate how Tarzan slowly dominated the ape tribe (with lots of opposition and only a few really loyal, but powerful allies).

I never received the book. I e-mailed the seller, no responce.

Terrible, terrible, terrible!

The customer review written here is about the ERB tarzan novel. All the used books being sold here are nothing but ERB tarzan novels. I put in the ISBN number and as you can see this is the jungle tales of Tarzan the big 10 by 13 book illustrated in comic book forum by the great Burne Hogarth not the tarzan novel by ERB. The people that wrote comments and the sellers of so called used copies are confused they are referring to a different book. I know I own the real one.