ERB Collection----Tarzan anyone?

[Comics-n-ERB]

 

Tarzan >Thunda

 

 

 

Wow!! I used to own a Thunda 1 and did not put that together! Simply amazing.

[tth2]

There are interior illustrations by Foster?

 

Very cool! (thumbs u

 

It is very cool. A highly underrated book imo. This reprints all of the first daily strips by Foster from earlier in the year (1929). The series of strips is actually the adaptation of the novel Tarzan of the Apes. So this is really one of the first true "graphic novels" in many ways, from 1929, by Hal Foster from cover to cover.

This reminds me of a thread that was discussing a page by O'Mealia in a pre-hero DC, when I said the lay out of the panels was very much like a comic strip and O'Mealia was probably influenced by the comic strips by guys like Hal Foster. Scrooge said that Foster's Tarzan work would have started too late to have influenced O'Mealia. Maybe not.

 

And the Foster artwork is gorgeous! It may have become more refined as the years went by, but it started off pretty great already!

[tth2]

Frazetta's early 50s art was powerfully influenced by Foster's Tarzan.

"Powerfully influenced" is a very kind way of putting it.

 

There was another thread I remember where someone posted some other Frazetta comic work that was directly copied from Prince Valiant.

[Theagenes]

 

Tarzan >Thunda

 

 

I familiar with and a very big fan of Foster! I read that someone put together a list of Lou Fine innovations only to be rebutted by another that showed Foster using the techniques even earlier. Frazetta's early 50s art was powerfully influenced by Foster's Tarzan.

 

There's at least one more Thunda panel that was swiped from one of the first Prince Valiant sundays. I remember having a little chuckle when I was watching Painting with Fire and Frazetta said he never swiped anyone.

 

[tth2]

Well then the only thing I can figure out is the DJ is the second state and the book is a 1st state.

 

Very interesting!

 

Now you have me curious.

 

We have to find out if tth's copy is any different.

Same as BZ. Inside back page has Chessmen of Mars as the last book, while the back of the dust jacket has the Mucker at the bottom.

 

 

Here`s a description that Heritage helpfully included with the book to describe what makes it a first state (which I never bothered to read until now). It indicates that the Mucker is supposed to be the last book in the dust jacket.

 

[Aman619]

you guys know a lot more about this than I do, even these two artists full bodies of work, but, how many ways do you think there are of drawing a man carrying someone on their back? In the jungle?

 

I dont see any more swiping that that going on in these two examples at least.

[Scrooge]

Frazetta's early 50s art was powerfully influenced by Foster's Tarzan.

"Powerfully influenced" is a very kind way of putting it.

 

There was another thread I remember where someone posted some other Frazetta comic work that was directly copied from Prince Valiant.

 

You're probably thinking of Dan's thread: Hidden Treasure - Happy Comics 33, Frazetta Story.

 

However, that was even earlier Frazetta work so maybe we shouldn't hold it against him as much ... even though it's a little TOO obvious. Here's a story page Dan posted and below is a nice Aleta panel from September 22, 1946 I posted.

 

 

[Theagenes]

you guys know a lot more about this than I do, even these two artists full bodies of work, but, how many ways do you think there are of drawing a man carrying someone on their back? In the jungle?

 

I dont see any more swiping that that going on in these two examples at least.

 

 

 

[Comics-n-ERB]

Well then the only thing I can figure out is the DJ is the second state and the book is a 1st state.

 

Very interesting!

 

Now you have me curious.

 

We have to find out if tth's copy is any different.

Same as BZ. Inside back page has Chessmen of Mars as the last book, while the back of the dust jacket has the Mucker at the bottom.

 

 

Here`s a description that Heritage helpfully included with the book to describe what makes it a first state (which I never bothered to read until now). It indicates that the Mucker is supposed to be the last book in the dust jacket.

 

 

But if you read it closer is says there is only 25 books listed on the DJ, both yours and BZ's have 28??

[ciorac]

 

Tarzan >Thunda

 

 

I familiar with and a very big fan of Foster! I read that someone put together a list of Lou Fine innovations only to be rebutted by another that showed Foster using the techniques even earlier. Frazetta's early 50s art was powerfully influenced by Foster's Tarzan.

 

Except Frank had the good sense to put a hottie on the back of his jungle hero, as opposed to a business man......

[Aman619]

you guys know a lot more about this than I do, even these two artists full bodies of work, but, how many ways do you think there are of drawing a man carrying someone on their back? In the jungle?

 

I dont see any more swiping that that going on in these two examples at least.

 

 

 

 

are there more? I see that the pose is the same, hanging off a tree in one, a cliffside branch in the other. I guess my point is (until I see more or purer evidence) that both men were amazingly talented artists, and should be allowed to draw the same human poses in their own ways w/o us calling it swiping, which usually refers to laziness and lack of talent!

 

How else would you lay out the scene of an apeman spying something in the distance from higher vantage point. It would have to be an over the back shot.

[Theagenes]

Except Frank had the good sense to put a hottie on the back of his jungle hero, as opposed to a business man......

 

That's true. Lots of people swiped Foster - Only Frazetta could improve on Foster.

[Comics-n-ERB]

Here are a few more items that I got scanned today:

 

This is a rare pocket-sized paperback edition issued in 1943 by the Armed Services, Inc., a non-profit organization established by the Council on Books in Wartime. Despite the small size, the paperback is complete and unabridged. Another neat piece of info on this book is the number in the top left corner of the cover; 0-22. This comes from Burroughs' Tarzana telephone number during this time: Owensmouth 220. The cover is a picture of the British Methuen edition dust jacket but the book has no interior illustrations.

 

 

 

 

 

[Comics-n-ERB]

These next two books are Tarzan Ice Cream Cup Give-Aways:

 

Tarzan and His Jungle Friends, 1936. The cover artist is unknown but the are 62 interior illustrations by Juanita Bennett. This give-away is an abridgment of the last half of the Tarzan of the Apes Big Little Book.

 

Tarzan in the Golden City,1938. The cover is a copy of a Hogarth panel. There are 31 interior illustrations taken from the several hundred Rex Maxon drew for the 1929 newspaper strip of The Return of Tarzan. The story was rewritten. My copy of this book is incomplete unfortunately

 

.

[Comics-n-ERB]

Next up is the Dell Fast Action Story book, John Carter of Mars, 1940. Interesting thing about this book is the cover is copied from a Flash Gordon drawing by Alex Raymond. The interior has 95 illustrations reprinted from Dell's The Funnies and story adapted from the first 19 chapters of ERB's A Princess of Mars. 48 illustrations by Jim Gary and 47 illustrations by John Coleman Burroughs.

 

[adamstrange]

 

are there more? I see that the pose is the same, hanging off a tree in one, a cliffside branch in the other. I guess my point is (until I see more or purer evidence) that both men were amazingly talented artists, and should be allowed to draw the same human poses in their own ways w/o us calling it swiping, which usually refers to laziness and lack of talent!

 

How else would you lay out the scene of an apeman spying something in the distance from higher vantage point. It would have to be an over the back shot.

There might be many ways to depict that scene but I don't think it's an accident that he decided to use that particular scene for the cover of the book. It's a powerful image, a good design and it's most likely that Frazetta thought of using it because of seeing it first in the Tarzan strip. Frazetta modified for his own purposes so it's not a swipe but it seems fair to me to give some credit to Foster.

 

Here's a very nice write-up of Foster's influence on many artists, including Frazetta. I've always thought that Frazetta's comic work showed him to be the heir of Foster, just like Williamson is the heir of Alex Raymond.

 

http://frazfritz.blogspot.com/2008/06/fosters-tarzan-good-stuff-4.html

 

I'm pretty certain there are more example of Foster's influence on Frazetta (esp. in his White Indian stories) but I've not done the work to track it down.

[Scrooge]

Thanks for the excellent link AS (thumbs u

[tth2]

you guys know a lot more about this than I do, even these two artists full bodies of work, but, how many ways do you think there are of drawing a man carrying someone on their back? In the jungle?

 

I dont see any more swiping that that going on in these two examples at least.

You are being extremely generous. Transpose the images on each other and they are almost identical. It`s not just coincidence, particularly given that it`s 2 sequences in a row from the same source.

 

And to answer your questions, there is almost an infinite number of ways to draw carrying someone on your back or hanging off a tree to look over into a valley. Come on, they`re almost line for line perfect copies.

[tth2]

But if you read it closer is says there is only 25 books listed on the DJ, both yours and BZ's have 28??

 

Is there some ERB equivalent of these boards where we could post the question and have some knowledgeable collectors what is to them probably a super basic question?

[Aman619]

are there more? I see that the pose is the same, hanging off a tree in one, a cliffside branch in the other. I guess my point is (until I see more or purer evidence) that both men were amazingly talented artists, and should be allowed to draw the same human poses in their own ways w/o us calling it swiping, which usually refers to laziness and lack of talent!

 

How else would you lay out the scene of an apeman spying something in the distance from higher vantage point. It would have to be an over the back shot.

There might be many ways to depict that scene but I don't think it's an accident that he decided to use that particular scene for the cover of the book. It's a powerful image, a good design and it's most likely that Frazetta thought of using it because of seeing it first in the Tarzan strip. Frazetta modified for his own purposes so it's not a swipe but it seems fair to me to give some credit to Foster.

 

Here's a very nice write-up of Foster's influence on many artists, including Frazetta. I've always thought that Frazetta's comic work showed him to be the heir of Foster, just like Williamson is the heir of Alex Raymond.

 

http://frazfritz.blogspot.com/2008/06/fosters-tarzan-good-stuff-4.html

 

I'm pretty certain there are more example of Foster's influence on Frazetta (esp. in his White Indian stories) but I've not done the work to track it down.

 

I can buy that. I can believe that Fosters influence was great on many contemporary artists, and in the years since, as he was a trailblazer in comics. And that Frazetta must have read and even studied the classic Foster strips.

 

But even at this point in Frazetta career, I find it hard to believe that he did more with Fosters panels than recall them, whereas a swiper traces and/or copies while looking at the original work. Frankly, in these panels shown so far, there isnt much else for Frazetts to learn from them. They are pretty crude compared to Fosters much tighter work later on. All they have to copy from is the poses.

 

I dont see that here! Frazetta took the pose, and completely redrew it, and rethunk it, adding his own details, making it his own,, not to HIDE his swiping, but because he was creating his OWN scene. And as I said, and stand by, drawing a guy hanging from a branch naturalistically has one arm above and the other hanging, and both legs finding the ground to stabilize on.

 

They are similar because both artists arent faking it... they know anatomy... as opposed to most modern comics artists who learned to draw from aping earlier artists.

 

and since Im speaking heresy, Ill stop. Im not very invested in this, but, Im just not seeing Bob Kane type swiping going on here.