Joe Kubert starts DC's Tarzan by adapting ERB first novel & retelling Tarzan's origin.

Look at the cover. This is a different Tarzan than we have seen at Gold Key. This Tarzan is more primal & visceral. Kubert's sketchy art style fits Tarzan perfectly. His Tarzan is lean, muscular & looks battle scarred. His art explodes with action.

A lady is guided thru the African jungle by Klaxton to find her missing father. They are attacked by a panther & Tarzan comes to their rescue.



The lady is stunned & Klaxton begins the tale of an ape man that lives in the jungle. In 1888 John Clayton Lord Greystoke & his wife Lady Alice are sent to Africa by the Queen for England. The crew of the ship mutiny & leave them marooned on the coast of Africa with some supplies. John builds a cabin & they learn to survive in this new environment. Months later Lady Alice gives birth to a boy & dies one year later.

Meanwhile Kerchak the leader of the apes goes on a rampage & Kala's baby is killed. The apes find their way to the cabin & kill Clayton. Kala puts her dead baby in the crib & takes the human baby as her own. She names him Tarzan (white skin in the ape language) & raises him as her own. As he grows he laments that he doesn't look like the others but discovers being human gives him other "abilities" the apes do not have like swimming.

When he turns 13 he explores the cabin. He discovers books with pictures of humans. He also finds a knife. He gets into a fight with Bolgani a rival bull ape & kills him with the knife. The rest of the apes are stunned that puny Tarzan could kill Bolgani. Kala tends his wounds....



To Be Continued.

Without re-reading the issue, though I've read it in the last couple of years, the striking thing about Kubert's Tarzan is that it feels...gritty. There's a sense of musty jungle-ness that was absolutely not there in the Dell/Gold Key issues. The jungle seems oppressive and hot. Tarzan looks just a bit dirty and the people seem to feel the heat and the humidity of their surroundings. The animals seem appropriately feral and you can imagine how they smell.

That cover is just so perfect in capturing the essence and spirit of Tarzan. I had this lone issue without it's cover from trading with a neighbor across the alley when i was a child. It being the only Kubert Tarzan i ever saw other than in house ads in other DC comics of the time. But boy did i want them. This was at a time just before i was old enough to having money and affording comic books on a regular basis. And then when that newly aborning thing called the comic book store burst forth these were always highly sought after expensive collectible issues and the stores here in town had but few odd issues too highly priced for my budget. 

Kubert's Tarzan was lithe, limber, powerful and athletic in ways the movies and television shows never could be. There was a primitive primordial strength envisioned by Kubert's Tarzan which now i can truly appreciate, savor and recognize in Tarzan as a true Lord of the Jungle. 

Kubert continues his adaption of Tarzan's origin. One thing I was surprised about re-reading it was how violent it was for the time it was printed. A lot of killing took place. I was wondering how the CCA approved it. Another point Tarzan desired a female ape as a mate in a short sequence. I remember when I first read it as a teen feeling repulsed. As an adult I was surprised that this scene was allowed. It was implying something disturbing.

The story was good. Kubert shows Tarzan growing into his late teens & how he is becoming a legend in the jungle. It explains why he wears a loincloth. How he acquired weapons, learned to read. And his art is vibrant, raw, explosive. Kubert was truly one of the masters of this art form.

Having only read this recently the fact of showing Tarzan desiring a female ape was part of the evolution and growth in showing Tarzan didn't understand his difference from the apes and thought of himself as an ape. It also underscored his love for his mother Kala the she-ape being a natural emotion. As his learning to read and write eventually teaches him the differences between man and ape and many of the similarities. Yet if reading this a youngster or teen it would appear to be downright eerie. 

Exactly what I was trying to say. When I write these reviews I really try to recall what I felt when I was reading them for the first time. When I read this in my early teen years I was disturbed & disgusted. If this was in the novel I don't recall it because I read that when I was much younger. As an adult I get it. It made sense. I thought Kubert handled it well. I also wonder how the CCA saw it.