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ECLECTICA v.2012.10

Eclectica Archive

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More Eclectica from the JoN: Jeddak of the North From the ERBzine Office in Okar

The 2012 ERB Centenary  has been a very busy year.  We've appeared in film/TV/podcast documentaries and  have done a long string of ERB-related interviews  for magazines and newspapers worldwide.  Our latest interview was with The Times of India.  Tarzan turns 100 — Part I  www.ERBzine.com/mag39/3913.html Interview with Bill Hillman of ERBzine.com  (Part II features ERB's grandson, John R Burroughs) IndiaTimes.com ~ October 7, 2012 by  Atul Sethi We've mirrored it in ERBzine at: ERBzine 3913 Photo Journal Coverage of the  THREE MAJOR ERB EVENTS March ECOF: John Carter Centennial April Louisiana Tarzan Festival August Dum-Dum Tarzan Centennial

Interview: Scott Tracy Griffin
Tarzan: The Centennial Celebration
List.co.uk ~ October 19, 2012
To celebrate 100 years of Tarzan we ask why the character has remained so popular for so long?
Tarzan is one of the most enduring action adventure characters of all time: created by Edgar Rice Burroughs 100 years ago he still lives on in popular culture after all these years. We chat to Scott Tracy Griffin, author of Tarzan: The Centennial Celebration (Titan Books), about the longevity of the Lord of the Jungle.

For anyone who hasn't heard of Tarzan could you explain the concept?
For generations, Tarzan has been the prototypical feral man: a British peer orphaned in the jungle and raised by the great apes to become a physical, mental, and moral superman in the absence of civilization’s influence. He didn’t wear tights or possess superhuman powers but was, in many respects, the first superhero with a global audience.

What were Edgar Rice Burroughs' inspirations for the character?
Burroughs had a strong academic background in the classics and attributed the story’s genesis to the legend of Romulus and Remus, the founders of Rome who were adopted by a wolf after being abandoned in the wilderness. Burroughs cited Rudyard Kipling’s Jungle Book, too, though he downplayed Kipling’s influence on inspiring Tarzan.

What is it about the character that appeals to yourself?
I’ve always been an animal lover; as a child I was captivated by the notion of interacting with apes, elephants, and other exotic species. When I discovered the original novels by Edgar Rice Burroughs, I found his prose and concept of the character to be engrossing. Burroughs’ ability to portray exotic worlds and breath-taking action is unparalleled in the adventure genre.

Why do you think he has been so popular for so long?
Burroughs taps into our innermost, primal urges, the desire to renounce civilization, return to nature and master it. Tarzan’s appeal is universal, and cuts across cultural, political, and ideological lines.

What is your favourite version of Tarzan and why?
Edgar Rice Burroughs’ original concept, as reflected in the early Tarzan novels, is unsurpassed. Burroughs offered a far more nuanced character than most of the succeeding films, comics, radio and television programs.

Who do you think best personified the Tarzan character on film or TV?
I don’t have a favourite screen Tarzan, because every actor brought something unique to the role. Johnny Weissmuller’s performance was perhaps the most charismatic and memorable, but I’ve always liked interpretations starring actors who played Tarzan as the intelligent, articulate man Burroughs created, such as Herman Brix and Ron Ely.

Over the years Tarzan has cropped up in many strange and wonderful places in official and unofficial versions of the character - what's the strangest you've seen?
Tarzan has endorsed a wide range of products worldwide: bread and gasoline (with ‘The Power of Tarzan’) in the US, ‘Tarzan Grip’ glue in Australia and tinned nuts from Malaysia are several examples. Onscreen, the unauthorized Bollywood Tarzans offer a distinct cultural departure from Burroughs’ concept of a British peer stranded in the jungle as an infant. And I’m amused by parodies of the character, including George of the Jungle, Mad magazine’s satirical comics, and Dudley Moore’s classic ‘One-legged Tarzan’ skit.

Weissmuller Tarzan Yell
BBC Interview with Ron Ely and Scott Tracy Griffin

See More Information on Mr. Griffin and Tarzan: The Centennial Celebration   ERBzine 4016

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OCTOBER 28th EVENT AT LOUISVILLE, KY
Tracy Griffin, Robin Maxwell, Jim Sullos, Denny Miller and John Ralston Burroughs
will come to Louisville on October 28th for book signing at the Burroughs Memorial Collection
The event hosted by George McWhorter
- Curator of the ERB Memorial Collection at the University of Louisville -
and will be attended by many ERB fans and scholars.
Location: ERB Memorial Collection ~ Ekstrom Library - U of L
Time: 2:00 pm ~ Sunday, October 28, 2012


Plans are already being made for
the 2013 ECOF near Chicago, Illinois and
the 2013 Dum-Dum in Louisville, Kentucky.
Dates and progress updates will appear at the
Dum-Dum Dossier as they become finalized.

Bridgeport College Event Including a screening of the re-mastered 1918 film, Tarzan of the Apes with live musical accompaniment and a live production of Burroughs’ only stage play,  You Lucky Girl!

Dr. Stan Galloway's  Tarzan Centennial Conference November 1-4, 2012 Guest Speakers: Denny Miller, oldest living Tarzan actor John Ralston Burroughs, grandson of Edgar Rice Burroughs Jim Sullos, president of Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc. Scott Tracy Griffin, author of Tarzan: The Centennial Celebration "Raz" [Kevin Rasel], Artist-in-residence: artist of Savage Planet Submissions accepted until all sessions full. Registration $90, includes 3 days of lunch,  one ticket to You Lucky Girl!, and  banquet with John Ralston Burroughs.  Other sessions open to the public. Flyer Registration Form Lodging Sponsored by Bridgewater College Department of English Bridgewater College Convocations Program National Capital Panthans Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc.

A BIG DAY FOR ROBIN MAXWELL AND JANE Thursday, October 18th, was a big day for JANE: The Woman Who Loved Tarzan and Robin.  At 8:30am Robin appeared on the KTLA Morning Show, followed by a rather playful (really silly) segment featuring the eight gorgeous "Hunt For Tarzan and Jane" finalists in their skimpy leopard skins, a contest begun last month at the JANE Book Soup event. At 7:00pm that evening, everyone got together again at the Grove's Barnes and Noble Booksellers store, including members of the Edgar Rice Burroughs family and ERB, Inc. staff to choose the two winners.  This was followed by a discussion, reading, signing and multimedia event, featuring both Robin and the marvelous actress, Suzan Crowley, who performed the Brilliance Audiobook version of JANE. Many of the folks who joined Robin and Max at Book Soup or the party at the 29 Palms Inn, also attended the Oct. 18th event.  www.robinmaxwell.com ROBIN MAXWELL FEATURES IN ERBzine Tarzan And I Swing By Comic-Con Part II: The Naked Truth About Tarzan and Jane Meet the Author: Robin Maxwell JANE: The Woman Who Loved Tarzan ~ Book Excerpts Tarzan Never Dies, Part I: 100 Years of Books and Movies Tarzan Never Dies, Part II: Will There Ever Be A Great Tarzan Movie? Jane: Queen of the Jungle Edgar Rice Burroughs and Darwin Revisited: The Science of Jane JANE: Reviews ~ Photos ~ Video.

It's been a great year for ERB! Another Successful ValleyCon 38:  The Fargo Entertainment Expo and Fargo Fantastic Film Festival 10 Celebrating 100 Years of Tarzan and John Carter of Mars! Edgar Rice Burroughs' Creations Well-known ERB supporter RUDY SIGMUND (Burroughs Bibliophile, ERBapan, etc.) founded ValleyCon way back in the 1970s!  Rudy also had the first successful comic book store in our Fargo area, “The Fantasy Collector.”  Many future hellions were inspired by Rudy as he displayed one of the best autograph ollections around, as well as treasures that made every fan drool!  Rudy, a certified Edgar Rice Burroughs expert, was very active in the event, promoting 100 years of John Carter and Tarzan -- including the circulation of a petition to get a sequel to the John Carter film.

Central Library celebrates 100 years of Tarzan Tarzan Centennial Examiner.com  ~  August 30, 2012 A Review by: Steven Rose, Jr. The Northern California Mangani Present THE TARZAN CENTENNIAL PROGRAM SACRAMENTO CENTRAL LIBRARY ~ AUG 25 and 26 Read the complete Examiner Review And see full coverage of the event in ERBzine at: ERBzine 3799 and  ERBzine 3799a

Read the photo journal reports from the  2012 TARZANA CENTENNIAL CELEBRATIONS Hollywood Screening ~ Mingling ~ Presentations and Panels  Burroughs Bibliophiles Meeting and Auction ~ ERB Commemorative Stamp Ceremony Tarzan Yell Contest ~ Banquet ~ Guest Speakers: Jane Goodall and Jim Morris

Read the photo journal reports from the 2012 TARZANA ECOF : CELEBRATING  THE JOHN CARTER  CENTENNIAL Intro to 16 Webpages Coverage  INTRO | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16

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PHOTO COVERAGE ACROSS 12 ERBzine WEBPAGES FESTIVAL 1 : 2 : 3 : 4 : 5 : 6 : 7 : 8 : 9 : 10  : 11 : Songbook : Doc Stories

THE UNAUTHORIZED TARZAN  A Collection of Charlton's Jungle Tales of Tarzan #1-#4. Hard Cover and Limited Edition  Joe Gill (W), Sam J. Glanzman (P/I), Bill Montes (P), and Ernie Bache (I) On sale March 20, 2013 112 pages $29.99 and $59.99 A classic run of Tarzan comics, reprinted for the first time! In the 1960s, believing Tarzan to have fallen into the public domain,  Charlton Comics enlisted Joe Gill (Flash Gordon, House of Mystery)  and Sam Glanzman (Hercules, Our Army at War)  to create a new comics version of the Lord of the Jungle. Only four issues were produced  before Charlton was forced to end the series,  and much of the original print runs were destroyed.  • Includes never-before-seen Tarzan comic strips  by Glanzman and historical essays by Roger Broughton! • Also available in a limited edition of 250 copies, featuring a tip-in signed by Glanzman! www.comicbookresources.com/news

Tarzan of The Apes/The Return of Tarzan Classiccomicpress.com : Homeworld Press Published October 12, 2012 $29.95 USD Edgar Rice Burroughs' Tarzan of the Apes first appeared on the pages of All Story Magazine, dated October 1912. To celebrate Tarzan's 100th year, Homeworld Press (an imprint of Classic Comics Press, Inc.) proudly presents the first two seminal novels starring the mighty Lord of the Jungle under one  cover. This Centennial Edition features the original, unexpurgated text of Tarzan of the Apes and The Return of Tarzan. This special Centennial Edition reprints the original texts for both books and will be  limited to 500 copies.  Hardcover, 488 pages,  with cover art and lavishly detailed black and white illustrations  created by Sal Amendola exclusively for this volume.     "I received my copy of your Tarzan centennial book in the mail today. WOW! It blew me away."  - Raymond LaBeau

TARZAN: THE MOTION-CAPTURE  ANIMATED 3D FILM - 2013 TRAILER The latest iteration of Edgar Rice Burroughs’ classic story will be arriving on the big screen next summer, this time under the direction of Reinhard Klooss (Animals United). Kellan Lutz (Twilight, Immortals) leads the motion-capture cast, alongside Spencer Locke (Resident Evil: Afterlife) as Jane, and Jaime Ray Newman (A Town Called Eureka), Robert Capron (Diary of a Wimpy Kid), Mark Deklin (GCB), and Trevor St. John (One Life to Live). Klooss is directing from a script he co-wrote with Jessica Postigo (The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones) and Yoni Brenner (Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs) Tarzan is set for release in 3D on 25th July, 2013 in Germany.

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click
Tarzan Collage poster by Bill Hillman from
www.ERBzine.com/cards

Johnny Weissmuller (standing) Family Photo circa 1906

Some more great stuff from Ron de Laat's ERB site in The Netherlands
http://www.hollandmeetserb.nl/erb/index_en.html

Preliminary art by R.G. Krenkel for the ACE cover for Otis Adelbert Kline's Port of Peril

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Emmanuel Frémiet (1824 - 1910)  “Gorilla Carrying off a Woman” (1887) ~ National Gallery of Victoria

The Art of Mars By Mike Hoffman Paperback, 64 Pages  Published October 21, 2012 Available online now at Lulu

Buster Crabbe and Jean Rogers from "Flash Gordon, illustrated by German artist Uwe Reber. See more at: www.uwereber.com

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Edgar Rice Burroughs Digital Color Postmark
Edgar Rice Burroughs
First Day of Issue: August 17, 2012 | Tarzana, CA 91356
http://beyondtheperf.com/stamp-releases/edgar-rice-burroughs

Hal Foster’s original art for a very significant 1933 Tarzan Sunday
November Auction Item from ComicLink
“When the consignor approached us about this piece, we immediately recognized that this was hands-down the very best Tarzan Sunday we had ever seen,” said ComicLink President Josh Nathanson. “This piece sums up all the major details of Tarzan’s history in a single Sunday and it also dates from a prime period of Hal Foster’s run on the legendary strip, 1933. Foster Tarzan Sundays have long ranked among the most coveted and sought-after works of original comic art in the world.”

The history of this piece is fascinating.
“In 1933, the decision was made that it would be helpful for Foster to produce a Sunday that could serve as an introduction to Tarzan and his adventures when a new paper picked up the booming Sunday strip. This means that not only did this particular art run more than once in various papers (as opposed to for just a single week like a regular Sunday), but also that it was likely the very first look at Tarzan in the comics that many readers ever got,” he said.

“Edgar Rice Burroughs' Tarzan is one of the most influential and emulated characters in Modern fiction, first appearing in the 1912 novel Tarzan of the Apes and then in a prolific 23 sequels. The Tarzan newspaper strip which debuted in 1929, with a Sunday added in 1931, not only ranks among the most important and successful strips in history, but it was also one of the most direct influences on the artists who launched the superhero revolution at the end of the 1930s. Tarzan was not only the King of the Jungle, but King of the Comics. Tarzan dominated popular entertainment from the 1930s onwards with literally hundreds of comic books, radio shows, movies, television programs, toys, licensed products, and an endless stream of imitators. It is hard to imagine 20th Century popular entertainment without Tarzan and it is equally difficult to imagine that the character will not thrive for another 100 years or more. It is wonderful that the offering of this exceptional piece coincides with the 100th anniversary of the introduction of this monument of popular entertainment!” he said.

This piece is only one of the company’s original comic art offerings in their November Featured Auction. To reserve November Auction placement or to consign to other ComicLink events, email buysell@comiclink.com with your prospective auction list, or call (617) 517-0062 (option 1) to speak with Nathanson, Douglas Gillock, Jason Crosby, Sean Goodrich, Jon Signorelli, or other members of the ComicLink team.

The ERB / Hal Foster Connection in ERBzine www.erbzine.com/mag8/0802.html

It’s hard to picture Tarzan, the iconic ape-man created by American author Edgar Rice Burroughs, wearing a yarmulke, or yodeling “Hatikvah” instead of his usual jungle cry. But when the 100th anniversary of the jungle king’s 1912 pulp fiction debut, “Tarzan of the Apes,” is celebrated this fall by the Edgar Rice Burroughs Estate, it will honor not only one of the world’s most recognized heroes, but a hero of Israel, as well.

“Tarzan was a true cultural phenomenon in Israel,” said Israeli pop culture chronicler Eli Eshed, author of “Tarzan in the Holy Land,” a definitive study published in 1999. “There probably wasn’t an Israeli Sabra who didn’t know Tarzan, or hadn’t played Tarzan games as a child, or read the books and the Israeli Tarzan issues, or not seen the movies. It was part of every Israeli child’s experience.”

Tarzan’s Israeli adventure began in the 1930s, with the Hollywood movies in which actor Johnny Weissmuller played the title role. The movies were based on the Burroughs tale of British Lord Greystoke and his pregnant wife, who are marooned on the shores of Africa by a mutinous crew while sailing to the colonies on a diplomatic mission. Shortly after their child is born, the parents are killed; the Mangani, a tribe of wild but unusually sentient primates, adopt the boy. Schooled in jungle ways while retaining his human skills and wiles, he becomes a heroic adventurer known as “Tarzan, Lord of the Jungle.”

Weissmuller, an Olympic swimmer of the 1920s, was born in Austria-Hungary to German-speaking parents. In 1905 they immigrated with their 4-year-old son to the United States. The family settled in Chicago, where Johnny’s athletic prowess and muscular good looks brought him Olympic triumph and later caught Hollywood’s attention. After starring in “Tarzan the Ape Man” in 1932, Weissmuller became a worldwide sensation, especially among Zionist settlers in the British Mandate of Palestine. Conflating Weissmuller — whom many believed to have Jewish ancestry — with the character he played, they decided that Tarzan was also Jewish, but in a distinctly Israeli way.

“Tarzan was a model for the way the new Jew, the Israeli Sabra, was supposed to be,” Eshed writes, “a powerful man of the land and in contact with nature and the natives and the animals — the absolute contrast to the old weak Jew of the ghetto who was completely cut off from all those elements.”

In his 1979 essay collection, “Beor Hatkhelet Ha’aza,” published in English in 1995 as “Under This Blazing Light,” Israeli author Amos Oz recalled that “Tarzan for us was a Jew since he always fights as ‘one against many’ and because he was smart and full of tricks and his enemies were stupid.”

Tarzan’s appearance in Hebrew pop literature began in the late 1930s with Israeli children’s books, including one by the late Shraga Gafni, best known for his popular “Dani Din: The Invisible Boy” and “The Young Detectives” series. His book, titled “The Young Detectives and Tarzan Attack Solomon Gulf,” presents Tarzan coming to the aid of a band of Israeli children to combat Saudi slave traders, Arab spies and a subversive squad of Egyptians. After triumphing over his adversaries, Tarzan marries his sweetheart and honeymoons in Israel.

At the height of the Tarzan craze, a pulp fiction industry boomed in the Holy Land. Several publishers, most notably Karnaf, (Hebrew for “rhinoceros”), competed for young Tarzan readers, putting out hundreds of 24- and 32-page editions, and often suing each other over copyrights — which was “probably a sore point” for Tarzan’s creator, according to Tarzan fan publication ERBzine editor and Burroughs historian Bill Hillman. “Probably none of the Israeli Tarzan publications were authorized by Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc.,” he told the Forward. “Although he took many countries to task, I’m not aware of a conflict with Palestine/Israel.”

Other Israeli writers who contributed to the ape-man’s mythos included Aharon Amir and Amos Kenan, who were better known for more serious literary work but supplemented their incomes churning out Tarzan stories for the pulps. Many of them were associated with the Canaanites, an edgy Israeli cultural movement whose aesthetic embraced the pre-monotheistic Israel of the biblical past. The Canaanites’ most controversial expression was a statue called “Nimrod,” a carved stone figure of a brawny, naked uncircumcised hunter. According to Eshed, Tarzan could have influenced the controversial work, created by sculptor Yitzhak Danziger and unveiled at Hebrew University in 1939 (it is now displayed at The Israel Museum, Jerusalem).

Fittingly, though Zionists adopted Tarzan, the character was officially banned by the Nazis, who were unhappy that Burroughs, in his 1919 story, “Tarzan the Untamed” (aka “Tarzan and the Huns”), portrayed Germans as stereotypical villains. According to Hillman, Burroughs was no fan of Hitler, either. “He used biting satire in his Venus novels of the ’30s to discredit Hitler and the Nazis… and their promotion of a ‘master race,’ eugenics and their doctrines of exterminating Jews and other European minorities,” Hillman wrote in an email to the Forward.

Following the Jewish state’s founding, in 1948, some of the Hebrew Tarzan stories enlisted the ape-man in the service of the Israeli government as well as in the pre-state Yishuv. In one story, he helped Jews immigrate to Palestine illegally during the mandatory period, for which he was arrested and imprisoned by his fellow Britishers. Another adventure had Tarzan running the Egyptian blockade at Suez, wreaking havoc among the Egyptian soldiers; defying Egypt’s president, Gamal Abdel Nasser, and destroying Soviet troops poised to overrun Israel. On yet another mission, Tarzan teamed with Mossad agents in Moscow to trap a Nazi war criminal.

While Tarzan was helping Zionists, he also found fans in Arab countries. One writer of Tarzan stories was Rabki Camal, the Syrian radio announcer, known as the “Voice of Damascus,” for the an anti-Israel propaganda program broadcast in Hebrew. In Camal’s stories, which were published in Arabic pulps, “Tarzan helps the Palestinians fight the evil Jews and their attempt to achieve world domination,” Eshed explained. “Needless to say, this also was all without the knowledge of the Burroughs estate.”

Tarzan’s popularity has declined in Israel from its peak in the 1950s and '60s, with land and nature bypassed for high-tech frontiers, and global culture displacing old heroes. “Tarzan does not really speak to children who prefer anime and Japanese comics and such,” Eshed said.

But in one respect, Burroughs’s classic stories are gaining a fresh perspective for their 100th anniversary. For the first time since Tarzan saved Jane Porter, a white woman from Baltimore, from jungle perils in Tarzan of the Apes, an officially authorized Tarzan novel has been written by a woman. Jane: The Woman Who Loved Tarzan by Robin Maxwell, a Jewish author of historical novels, tells the Tarzan story from the point of view of his famous mate. The book will be released this fall as the centerpiece of centennial activities organized by the Edgar Rice Burroughs Estate. Primate researcher Jane Goodall has supplied a glowing blurb, stating that the story is “finally an honest portrayal of the only woman of whom I have been really, really jealous.”

Porter, a Darwinian scientist in the first Tarzan story, speculated that the ape-man was evolution’s “missing link.” If we hear a slight Hebrew accent in his blood-curdling cry, that might be because Tarzan is also a missing link to a more innocent time in Israel’s history and a reminder that a nation’s malleable folklore can be derived from unlikely sources — a comic book, a Hollywood movie, or just a writer scribbling to make a living.

~ Forward

ERBzine provided much reference material for this feature and Eli Eshed, who is also quoted in this article  has contributed many illustrated articles to ERBzine starting at:  ERBzine 0990

The roots of “Hollow Earth” theory go back at least as far as the 17th Century, when British astronomer Edmund Halley put forward the theory that Earth consists of four concentric spheres. Under Halley’s concept, the interior or the earth was populated with life and lit by a luminous atmosphere. Under his theory the aurora borealis, or northern lights, was a phenomenon that was caused by the escape of this gas through a thin crust at the poles.

In the 1800's John Symmes vigorously promoted the idea of an inner world and eventually received recognition in the form of “Symmes Hole” … the opening to the inner world. Symmes lobbied publicly for an expedition to the North Pole to find the entrance to the world below.

Another promoter of the hollow earth theory, Cyrus Reed Teed, promoted the idea of a hollow earth for nearly forty years, printing pamphlets and giving speeches and founding a cult called the Koreshans. In 1906, William Reed published The Phantom of the Poles, in which he put forward the theory that the poles are entrances to the hollow Earth. In 1913, the same year that ERB started writing At the Earth’s Core,  Marshall B. Gardner published, privately,  Journey to the Earth’s Interior, which postulated a hollow earth with an interior sun 600 miles in diameter.

It’s unlikely that Burroughs read all of these — it is equally unlikely that he read none of them.  Burroughs's own library contained the fictional Through the Earth, published in 1898 and written by Clement Fezandie.