Tarzan #1

 

Tarzan! 

Like my recent Godzilla posts, this is a look at a time when Marvel was chronicling the adventures of various licensed heroes- Tarzan, Conan, others. I stumbled across this series and decided to give them a look. So here is a peek at Tarzan issue one- and, bonus, it starts an adaptation of Tarzan and the Jewels of Opar. 

Drums in the night! 

For two nights the tribesmen have been drumming out the beat. Apparently Tarzan is coming- and the animals understand. Here's what the elephant perceives. 

Deep in a continent's dark heart, Tantor senses the meaning of the drums and trumpets his approval. 

We get perspectives of other anaimals too, and also that of a safari venturing deep into the jungle. Led by a man named Werper, a Belgian explorer, they are looking for the lost city of Opar. 

Ominously, the drums now tell of an expedition going where white men are forbidden to go. Then they're attacked, and Werper flees headlong into the bush. 

Tarzan takes a while to show up - and when he does, he rescues Werper from a hungry lion. This pretty much reads just like a Tarzan novel- atmospheric prose, the elemental nature of Tarzan, who is as wild as the surrounding jungle. The tribesmen who killed his porters now show up looking for the horrified Werper, but Tarzan has taken him into his protection. When they therefore attack Tarzan, he gets a little help from Tantor the elephant. 

What matters is that Numa, like all others, takes flight when Tantor comes.

A little riff there on how Numa the lion may be the king of beasts, but perhaps the elephant is the true king. 

Anyway Tantor makes short work of the angered tribesmen, and Tarzan prepares to take the man he's rescued to his home. Not suspecting that Werper wants to kill him!