Tarzan Archives: The Russ Manning Years Volume 1 (Tarzan Archives the Russ Manning Years, 1)

took me a while to get hold of this book for a reasonable price but eventually got a copy from the book depository. so worth the wait ,the art reproduction is just gorgious, a little bit retro but suites the art perfectly. the actual art work is sublime. russ manning is at the height of his career his figure work and story telling are second to none. there is a sense of grace and beauty on every page tarzan is the ultimate noble savage, jane an inevtable female compliment. a critic might say that the characters are just too perfect; but you only need to look at the villains to see manning is equally able to depict the darker side of humanity. do, do buy this book.. and do take a look at mannings other great work, magnus robot fighter.

I am very happy with this purchase although I do have one or two problems with the content.I was hoping to get the full illustrated stories for Tarzan of the Apes (1st novel by Burroughs), The Return of Tarzan (2nd novel) as well as Tarzan the Untamed. Be aware however that significant parts of at least three of these novels do NOT appear in this collection.The 1st novel (Tarzan of the Apes) is only illustrated up to where Jane Porter and the rest of her companions leave Africa, leaving Tarzan behind. The rest of the novel, where Tarzan and D'Arnot make their way southwards to civilization, and Tarzan visiting and saving Jane from a forest fire in Baltimore etc. is not shown at all.The second novel (The Return of Tarzan) only starts about a third of the way in, with Tarzan onboard an ocean liner to Cape Town, with Rokoff and Paulvitch about to dump him overboard. All his previous adventures in the book, in Paris and the Sahara, are simply glossed over. I was looking forward to seeing these parts of the novel come to life and was very disappointed that it was not illustrated.Similarly, Tarzan the Untamed seems to have parts missing from the story. It starts with Tarzan fighting for the English against the Germans - nothing is shown of how his homestead was burnt to the ground and his reasons for seeking revenge against the Germans. The story of his revenge against Schneider is missing from the story, as is the adventure of how he first traversed the desert canyons and almost died.Otherwise I cannot be more pleased with this book.

This volume reprints Gold Key's Tarzan comic issues #155-161, 163, 164, 166 and 167, from December 1965 to May 1967 (bi-monthly to #159, monthly thereafter). The artwork is by Russ Manning (assisted on #163 by Mike Royer) and the scripts are by Gaylord Dubois, adapting Edgar Rice Burroughs' stories in the following 24-page episodes -#155 - Tarzan of the Apes#156 - The Return of Tarzan#157 - The Beasts of Tarzan#158 - The Son of Tarzan#159 - The Jewels of Opar#160 - Flight from Terror (Opar part 2)#161 - Fight for the Treasure (Opar part 3)#163 - Tarzan the Untamed#164 - The Lions of Xuja (Untamed part 2)#166 - Tarzan the Terrible#167 - Incredible Pal-ul-don (Terrible part 2)Although I read the Tarzan novels a schoolboy in the 1970s, I didn't discover the early comic book adventures until Dark Horse reprinted the Jesse Marsh Tarzan archives. I had seen the Joe Kubert stories for DC in the later 1970s, but I was more interested in superheroes back then, and didn't appreciate his artwork until DC reprinted those stories more recently. However, I found Jesse Marsh's (and Gaylord Dubois's) stories to be incredibly good, and I am sorry that Dark Horse appear to have replaced them with this series, as I would rather have BOTH. The Russ Manning artwork is much different to Jesse Marsh (or Joe Kubert's for that matter), having a more 1970s mainstream feel about them - although an exceptionally good 1970s feel, far superior to many of the artists working at the time - but lacking the individuality of Marsh or Kubert. Some of Manning's fight scenes reminds me of Wally Wood in places, and the early newspaper strip artists in some of the more open scenes, especially when the viewpoint is looking down. However, if I can't have Jesse Marsh I will settle for Russ Manning, but not as second best - as joint first with Manning and Kubert, as they all have something of their own to contribute.And I must comment on Gaylord Dubois, who often gets forgotten in the discussions about the artists, probably because his scripting works so well that you forget he's there, as his voice doesn't intrude at all, unlike many comic book writers who don't know when to shut up and let the artist to his job. He adapts these Burroughs' stories excellently, choosing which scenes to edit out and which are important or relevant to the story telling- in the Son of Tarzan, for example, there are jumps of years between scenes, which, while noted in the text, do not affect the flow of the story.One thing that is noticeably different between these stories and the Jesse Marsh years, is the Comics Code, which I noticed in two scenes in the origin story, when Kerchak the ape kills Tarzan's father off-panel, and later when Tarzan kills a native hunter who has been killing apes, and the act is obscured behind Tarzan - subtle, but noticeable when these acts would have taken place `in the open' back in the Jesse Marsh stories, but not graphically so, just as part of the flow of the story.Anyway, yet another great action-adventure archive series begins.