I have to admit I was confused for many years by the numbering of the DC comic Korak, Son of Tarzan. Growing up in the 1970s I loved reading Korak’s adventures, each bearing a cover by Joe Kubert. But the copies I could find were all in the 40s and 50s. What I didn’t know until much later was that DC had continued the numbering from the older Gold Key comics (which I never saw). So, though it was good to find out what was going on, it was sad to realize there weren’t 40+ more issues of Kubert out there. (What I also didn’t know was Edgar Rice Burroughs wrote The Son of Tarzan (1915) as a logical way of continuing the series, then regretted ever writing it. Burroughs had to revive the Tarzan series by going back to Tarzan’s youth in Jungle Tales of Tarzan. The comics embraced Korak because it brought a younger vine-swinger into the fold (ala Kid Flash) but ERB largely avoided the character.)
The earlier Gold Key comics (January 1964-January 1971) began with the excellent Russ Manning but then transitioned into a less interesting and admittedly younger person’s comic book. I’m not going to dwell on these early issues for they weren’t part of my original experience though I might have seen some of the Manning work later as reprints.
I am gong to talk about the DC issues (#46 (May-June 1972) to #59 (September-October 1975) as well as the larger Tarzan Family that incorporated Korak into a bigger Edgar Rice Burroughs magazine. It also continued its numbering from Korak. (#60 November-December 1975 to #66 November-December 1976). The Korak “lead story” was the centerpiece for all these comics. After a short transition from the Gold Key character in #46-48 Korak changed with #49 as he began “The Search”, Korak’s endless quest to find Meriem, his true love who was taken by Arab slavers. It’s a macguffin but so what? The quest is a long-standing traditional form and Len Wein, Joe Kubert and Robert Kanigher weren’t above using it. In the art department the early issues were drawn by Frank Thorne looking a bit like Joe Kubert. Later Murphy Anderson and then Ruby Florese would drew with a straight forward look. The entire project was over-seen by Kubert and because of this the issues have a sameness to them that holds together.
The stories were often similar. Korak, searching for Meriem, would happen upon a strange group of people, get involved and then have to fight his way out. It worked for The Fugitive, The Incredible Hulk, Kung Fu and many others on TV, right? There were Lizard men, eyeless under-dwellers, Molten men, Mongols, giant insects, many-headed dinosaurs, regular dinosaurs, giants and the lost people of Atlantis. Not to mention many girls Korak kissed though his heart belonged to Meriem. He never really found her – the last issue of Tarzan Family features Korak back in the jungle with his father and mother—you can always read the book The Son of Tarzan if you want to find out how it all ended up. The back-up features are worthy of a mention too.
How can I forget Mike Kaluta’s Pirates of Venus? With its elegant style and cool monsters. (I’m surprised that one was never collected and put in a hard cover graphic novel format!) Pellucidar and Barsoom.But amongst the filler (Dc was always looking for ways to add to the back pages, whether it was a still from some old Tarzan film, or ERB talking about how he wrote the Tarzan novels. My favorite was always Neal Macdonald’s Creature Pin-ups.
Neal Macdonald was an artist who came out of the fan press from fanzines like ERBdom or Mike Resnick’s The Forgotten Seas of Mars. Here are those wonderful fantastic creatures:
