BD-Basiliensis

volume 5 1935-1936

série:	Tarzan Sunday Pages
dessinateur / scénariste:	Foster Harold
éditeur:	Flying Buttress EO 1993
genre:	Aventure
classement:	biblio1
date:	1993
format:	cartonné avec jaquette
état:	TBE
valeur:	30 €
critère:	**
remarques:	fifth volume edited by NBM/Flying Buttress (NBM being America's first publisher of graphic novels since 1976, located at New York with imprints such as Flying Buttress Classics Library, Amerotica, Eurotica and ComicsLit) under the supervision of Bill Blackbeard out of a sery of 18 volumes, all being accurate reproduction of the Sunday Pages in their full colour and in full size, each volume has about 52 pages, n.b. the sources of these Sunday pages are mainly from the Los Angeles Times and from the Milwaukee Journal edited by UFS (United Features Syndicate) volume 5 1935-1936 with dust jacket from 22.9.1935 (237) to 13.9.1936 (288) = 52 pages drawn by Hal Foster based on the novel of Edgar Rice Burroughs Tarzan's adventure with the lost viking civilization concludes with the rescue of Sigreda, later Tarzan encounters the villainous and scheming Jim Gorrey who deceitfully takes control of the wealthy city of Balakan by gaining the favors of the beautiful princess Nakonia, Tarzan faces a serious challenge to undo his clever machinations the volume includes following episodes (number of pages): - Tarzan and the Vikings part two: 15 - Tarzan and the Killers: 19 - Tarzan in the City of Gold part one: 18 1/ introduction by Bill Blackbeard - the inception date of the comic strip art has been defined 1896 with the publication of the Yellow Kid drawn by Richard Outcault - reminding the weird practice of some editors to change (or shorten) authors' novels without mentioning it or taking the responsability of these actions; this applies also the film and television and of course to comic strips in which a great number of small workers (and not only the main author) are involved and should also benefit of the whole actuality enjoyed by the comic strips, therefore this implies the significance of the signature on the strips (a good example is made by Hergé who did not want to share his signature with other artists for Tintin) - this can also be the case with Foster's Tarzan strips as mentioned from an active Tarzan strip artist: George Evans who sent a letter in that connection related to volume 2 of Tarzan in which Rex Maxon is said to be an awful artist but it was quite possible that the scriptwriter or even the syndicates may have had some responsability in this failure and this brings again the question of the signature of the artist/author on the comic page: is he to take over the full responsability? (but some authors expressed their disagreement by altering their signature) and if we want to praise a strip, how do we realistically distribute the compliments? - apart of the author Burroughs, possibly Charlie Plumb was the scriptwriter of Foster's Tarzan and Rob Thompson the one of Hogarth but anyway both graphic artists would change the scripts to suit their own artistic vision 2/ the story after his victory in the sea-battle against the viking Erik the Red, Tarzan leaves for the jungle of the cannibals (the lion-people) to rescue princess Sigreda and soon arrives in their village to find out that Sigreda is to be sacrificed to Simba the lion, Tarzan however is trapped by Mengo chief of the cannibals >> p. 240 cannibals can sometimes be also cute! Tarzan is condemned to death by fighting many lions at the same time but he succeeds this trial and incites the lions to charge the cannibals, Mengo is killed by the lions and Tarzan escapes with Sigreda >> p. 245 to 247 the fight of Tarzan against the lions Sigreda believes now that Tarzan is in love with her and makes him prince of the vikings in order to marry him >> p. 248 prince Tarzan >> p. 248 to 251 Tarzan first comes to grip with Sigreda but finally she accepts Tarzan's decision not to stay with her and let him go, whereas Sybil prefers to remain with the vikings, so Tarzan returned to the jungle with Bohgdu the ape >> p. 252/253 but in Bohgdu's tribe, Tarzan has to fight Kon-Gah, the giant-ape, the combat will be interrupted by the killer Gorrey >> p. 252 5-1-1936 entitled "the killers" being Flint and Gorrey which is the beginning of the new story "Tarzan and the city of gold" which will last during 3 volumes >> p. 254 first encounter with the villains Jim Gorrey and Rufus Flint who are leading a safari for Dick Dartly and his fiancé Gloria Flint, being the daughter of Rufus Flint looking for a treasure, Gorrey will get rid of Dick but using fear, Tarzan shall stop his evil activities, as his plan fails, Gorrey managed to kidnap Gloria as an hostage while getting hold of the treasure map >> p. 257 the machin-gun as part of the safari! during the trail, Gloria is taken captive by the savage apes of Kon Gah, she is saved by Tarzan whose will is now to destroy Gorrey or be destroyed himself, however before he can stop Gorrey, Tarzan has to rescue his friends Dick and Gloria from a terrible tropical storm >> p. 263 to 267 Tarzan's struggle against nature's mighty forces after being rescued, Dick and Gloria take leave of Tarzan by rejoining civilization while Tarzan continues on the trail of Gorrey, on his poursuit, Tarzan meets Rufus Flint who also wants to go with Tarzan on poursuit of Gorrey but Flint reveals himself to be a treacherous man, meanwhile, Gorrey - by curious circumstances of fate - saves the life of princess Nakonia of the realm of Taanor who becomes Gorrey's ally and when Tarzan with Flint arrive at Balakan, capital of Taanor, the golden realm of the lions and city of gold, Gorrey demands Nakonia to kill them with her lions, Tarzan takes refuge in the jungle and on a next occasion he slips into the golden city to arrest Gorrey, but it is Tarzan who is arrested and by breaking the law is condemned to die by Lethor, the killer-lion unexpectedly, Tarzan succeeds in taming Lethor which becomes its faithful lion friend afraid of Tarzan, Gorrey runs away after having raided the gold stores of Taanor, but he is stopped by Flint who commands him to return to the city of gold to get more gold; with a royal black sheep hungry of power, the two villains conceive now a plan consisting in marrying Gorrey with Nakonia (the law allows him this because he has saved her life) and by doing this and tricking king Dalkon, father of Nakonia, the two get control of the city of gold, Tarzan however will stop their activities and flees with Nakonia into the jungle where Tarzan creates with some resistants a secret society called "the swords of freedom" in order to fight Flint and Gorrey who now dispose of the army of Taanor >> p. 278/279 the fight against Lethor >> p. 279 like a great shaggy dog, Lethor the lion licked his benefactor's face n.b. the lions are quite expressively drawn by Foster (to compare with the lions drawn by Burne Hogarth) >> see in that connection first drawings of lions by Hogarth in volume 6
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