Conan Of The Paperbacks!

As potent as I find Robert E. Howard's Conan stories, there's little doubt I would not know about them at all if Lancer Books had not decided to take the Gnome hardback series from the 1950's and present them to the world all over again in affordable paperback beginning in 1966. Paperbacks were after all the equivalent in many ways of the pulps from which Howard's brawny barbarian had emerged decades before.  And further one can fairly speculate that without the hiring of the late and great Frank Frazetta to paint covers for many of those paperbacks, their impact on the racks of the day might well have been less potent. 

So many people of my generation were struck by the absolute powerful image of Conan by Frazetta which graces the debut volume titled Conan the Adventurer. Now Frazetta didn't do all the cover paintings. John Duillo was the artist for Conan the Freebooter, Conan the Wanderer, and Conan of the Isles. Boris Vallejo painted the final cover in the series Conan of Aquilonia, but only after the series had lapsed due to the collapse of Lancer and had been transferred to Ace Books. 

Boris Vallejo went on to do more paintings for the Ace series, replacing all of the Duillo covers. I like Vallejo's work in general, but I for my part really like the original Lancers better. 

It should also be noted that Lancer came out with a King Kull volume as well, a proper companion to its Conan series. This cover was done by Roy Krenkel. Robert E. Howard was brought forward in time, and to no small extent immortalized, something the author likely could have hardly imagined. 

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The Unauthorized Tarzan - Ace Books!

The Frank Frazetta cover above for Tarzan and the Lost Empire is my all-time favorite image of ERB's famous King of the Jungle. Frazetta has captured the very essence of what makes a Tarzan novel magnetic, the supreme physicality of the hero, his unique relationship to animals and the natural world and the allure of splendid hidden territories. We are privileged to see the Tarzan's world from over his shoulder, we share his viewpoint perched atop a cliff dangling with assurance by a single arm and considering the lost city in the misty distance. I also love that Nikima is clutching onto Tarzan as Tarzan is to the twisted root which is all that keeps him from certain death. 

I found this ACE papeback in my local library when I was but a lad and it was one of my first Tarzan novels. I knew the character from television and had read at least one Whtiman book featuring him, but this novel and more importantly this image by Frazetta projected me into Tarzan's world as nothing else had, and in some ways I've never returned. 

The ACE paperbacks were produced when the publisher (like some others such as Charlton Comics) thought that some of the Ape Man's adventures had fallen into public domain. ACE produced many Tarzan novels and many other ERB books in the Pellucidar and Mars series among others. But the folks who tended to ERB's properties cracked the whip and so these errant publications were halted abruptly. Below are the Tarzan novels ACE was able to get to the newsstands before the hammer fell. The cover art is by Frazetta and Roy Krenkel. 

 

And that my friends pretty much wraps up my looks at all things Tarzan and Edgar Rice Burroughs, a journey that has occupied much of 2022. Tomorrow the widow strikes. 

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The Man Who Met Tarzan!

Tarzan is alive. Philip Jose Farmer wrote as if he truly believed this utter impossibility. He famously (or perhaps infamously) wrote Tarzan Alive - The Definitive Biography of Lord Greystoke. I'll be taking a closer look at that classic bit of "mythography" next week. But that was hardly all that Farmer wrote exploring the "true" facts of Tarzan's identity and history. The Man Who Met Tarzan from Meteor House Press collects most of the other articles and whatnot. Included in this entertaining and eclectic tome are prefaces to books, articles from other collections, articles for publications dedicated to the study of Tarzan and even speeches Farmer delivered to like-minded Tarzan fans. Nearly all of it pushes the key notion that Tarzan was and likely is alive for real. 

The collection begins in earnest with small but tasty items like a few introductions to Farmer and his methods in "Creative Mythography" from fanzines like The Burroughs Bulletin and ERBivore. We get delightful items like "The Princess of Terra" which inverts the story of John Carter and is written from a Barsoomian's perspective should he end up on Earth. Also included is "From ERB to Ygg" which is an early practice in genealogy which plots the connection of Woden to Burroughs himself. These are speeches and articles from assorted ERB fanzines and such, some light and frothy and others with a somewhat weightier mission.

The book is divided into sections but really the articles are pretty much of a piece. The premise that Tarzan is a real live person, and the point is to explain to varying degrees how ERB's novels reflect that "truth". "The Outsider" and "The Feral Human in Myth and Society" are both items from the collection Mother Was a Lovely Beast which Farmer edited, and touch on the very core notion of Tarzan's uprbringing. 

There are several articles dealing with apparent problems with ERB's chronology in the novels such as "The Great Korak-Time Discrepancy" which tackles the potential confusion of Tarzan's son's birthday and his later being reported fighting in WWI. Farmer takes elaborate steps to suggest a surrogate for the son is still related to Lord Greystoke and who marries Meriem. Likewise, articles such as "A Reply to "The Red Herring" and "The Lord Mountford Mystery" seek to rectify contradictions in the timelines and between ERB's stories and those of writes such and H. Rider Haggard. 

In a section called "Parsing the Legend" we get several pieces that go to the heart of Farmer's fascination with Tarzan and the seductive La of Opar. There is also an elaborate explanation of the coat of arms of the family. (The coat of arms is represented in glorious color on the back cover as well.)

The truly juicy bits though are "Excerpts from, the Memoirs of Lord Greystoke" and the infamous "An Exclusive Interview with Lord Greystoke" from a 1972 Esquire magazine. These two presentations go to the essence of Farmer's conceit that Tarzan is real and still living a robust life thanks to some African juju which has gifted him with nigh eternal youth. These are best understood in conjunction with the book length Tarzan Alive "biography" which Farmer wrote. (I'll have more to say on this next week.) 

If you're a Farmer fan this is an essential bit of reading. If you're a Tarzan fan it's less so, but I adore this kind of frivolous but yet compelling tomfoolery. I don't need Philip Farmer's illusion that Tarzan is a real person to enjoy the stories but thinking about them that way does add unexpected spice. I know Philip Farmer didn't meet Tarzan but it's fun to imagine that he did. 

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The Eternal Lover!

This Edgar Rice Burroughs story is marketed as The Eternal Savage these days but its original title was The Eternal Lover and I frankly prefer that, though I admit I might not have bought under that title years ago. I only now just got around to reading it under the name The Eternal Savage and Nu of the Neocene. It's the story of a caveman named "Nu the Son of Nu" and comes from a tribe of prehistoric "Cliff Dwellers" and ends up in the modern world (more or less) on the estate of one Lord Greystoke. Yep, that's right this is a story which has continuity with ERB's most famous character of all Tarzan of the Apes. 

Nu is out hunting one fine prehistoric day for the head of a sabre-tooth tiger and is successful, but an earthquake causes him to be buried alive and by means unexplained become transported to the twentieth century on the grand estate of Lord Greystoke. He is confused by his new surroundings and even more confused when he spies a lovely young woman named Victoria Custer from Nebraska who is visiting the Greystokes with her brother after events in ERB's The Mad King. She is his lost love Nat-ul reincarnated. For her part, she dreams of a lusty ancient lover who just happens to look just like Nu.

After much folderal with wolfhounds, frustrated modern beaus, and some Arab slavers the couple are hooked up in the original cave when another earthquake erupts. In part two of this tale we along with Nu are transported back to the Stone Age where he pursues his lost love Nat-ul when a tribe of Boat Builders hold her captive. 

It's a vintage ERB yarn with mighty-muscled heroics and fantastic coincidences but true to his style it never lags. After the two are again reunited another earthquake strikes destroying much of the world that Nu knew and a deadly secret is uncovered by Victoria Custer.  

The thing about ERB tales is the sheer propulsion of the storytelling. In grand pulp style he never allows the story to slow much, nor does he allow it to overleap necessary details. After casting about for many years in many trades we are all immensely lucky that the natural storyteller Burroughs at last found his calling. This story, his tenth overall to see publication is a delightful example of his pulse-pounding art. For continuity buffs it falls between The Return of Tarzan and The Beasts of Tarzan and features the first appearance of baby Korak. I was also struck by how much the general scenario of the last half of the story set in the prehistoric era reminded me of movies like One Million B.C. Coincidence? I wonder. 

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Once More To The Earth's Core!

Edgar Rice Burroughs' Pellucidar At The Earth's Core from Dark Horse (sporting an eye-catching Mark Schultz cover) finally puts back into print some of those luscious little stories which appeared in the back pages of DC comics way back in the early 70's.

The stories adapt the ERB novel At The Earth's Core which begins the saga of David Innes and his trip to the weird world inside the planet where he encounters a prehistoric world full of different kind of people and infamous creatures called the Mahars.

When DC Comics first picked up the Tarzan license from Gold Key there was a considerable push to maximize the opportunity and impressive efforts were made to bring to the stands not only the high profile Tarzan property but other lesser characters such as Korak, John Carter of Mars, Carson of Venus and David Innes. When the John Carter movie was being made Dark Horse published the John Carter stories from those days, (I discussed those here some years ago.) And the Tarzan material has long been in print from the company. Sadly other stuff has not been available until now.

The Pellucidar stories began as back ups in the pages of Korak Son of Tarzan because when the comic first debuted DC was still experimenting with its twenty-five cent format. But quickly the format went away and the material produced both for Tarzan and Korak needed a new home.

And so was born Weird Worlds, specifically designed to showcase John Carter and David Innes who alternated cover appearances in the tried and true tradition once used by Marvel for its split-books of the previous decade. The original Pellucidar stories adapt the first novel by ERB and offer up some neat scripting by Denny O'Neil and some handsome artwork by Alan Weiss. But sadly for this reprint that great artwork is ill served by an indifferent reproduction which appears to be simply scans of the original pages. Given the quality of the work, one could hope for more in this regard.

The story is pretty good, and it's good to have this adaptation complete in one volume. Several of the chapters are inked by the famous "Crusty Bunkers", the gang of talented young artists who worked in the studio of Neal Adams and Dick Giordano and would become Continuity Associates.

The story told is vintage Burroughs -- David Innes and scientist Abner Perry use their mechanical drilling machine to head through the Earth's crust and end up in Pellcidar, a vast territory which exists in perpetual light and is filled with people, apelike creatures called Sagoths who serve weird dinosaur-like creatures called Mahars.

The story is a twisting yarn and has the heroic Innes fall immediately in love with the resident beauty who calls herself without an inkling of self-awareness "Dian the Beautiful".  But unaware of Pelucidar's customs he manages to insult her and then they are separated.

Innes spends much of the rest of the series trying to surive Pellucidar's deadly environs and trying to find Dian and also Perry who he loses track of. 

Eventually the series closes its adaptation of the debut ERB novel. But not before the creative team of Len Wein and Alan Weiss are replaced by Denny O'Neil and Mike Kaluta and later Dan Green. It is this creative team which tells the story of how David Innes returns to the Earth's surface and because of circumstances works diligently to return soon thereafter to save Dian and Abner.

The series comes to a close a bit abruptly. But we do get a sense of closure and certainly the door is left open for further adventures in the future. Those never come as the ERB license moves on to Marvel and later to other ports of call. Pellucidar is rarely a regular part of that alas.

Now it's important to caution anyone seeking to buy this collection, a very reasonably priced item, but one nearly overcome by shoddy reproduction. It's really rather distressing how bad some of the pages look. Alan Weiss is a great artist and he deserved better here, as do Kaluta and Green. Dark Horse unfortunately has a history with this sort of thing, but this is maybe the worst example I've come across. So buyer beware.

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