"Exploring Tarzan’s Africa"
by Alan Hanson
For me, the publication of
Exploring
Tarzan’s Africa is a long deferred vision finally realized. I’ve
been writing articles about Edgar Rice Burroughs’ Tarzan stories for decades.
My first one, “The Allegory of the Ape-man,” appeared in Pete Ogden’s
fanzine ERBANIA in 1977. Since then I’ve written several dozen articles
about Tarzan for ERB fanzines and journals.
Although I’ve enjoyed writing the articles, I’ve long
harbored to a desire to write a book about Tarzan. I took a small step
in that direction with the creation of Waziri Publications, a brand
I created in 1990 for self-publishing projects. In 1990 I published A
Tarzan Chrono-log, but it was not the kind of Tarzan book I’d been
dreaming about. I wanted something more thoughtful; something that would
identify and explain the various elements that Burroughs brought together
to create his magnificent Tarzan tapestry. In the summer of 2020, that
vision piqued my interest again, and so I started down the road on the
project, knowing I might end up abandoning it, as I had several times in
the past.
What to Include?
The contents of the proposed book were
obviously my first concern. I had already written articles about some of
principal characters and themes consistently present in ERB’s Tarzan stories.
They included the physical Tarzan, Jane, Tarzan in the trees, the Waziri,
Tarzan’s country, Nkima, Tarzan’s victory cry, Tantor, La, and Tarzan’s
diet. Even though many of these articles have appeared in the quarterly
issues compiled by the Edgar Rice Burroughs Amateur Press Association (ERB-APA),
I felt free to use them again in my book. After all, the readership of
ERB-APA mailings was limited. Those essays would be new to the eyes of
the wider community of Burroughs and Tarzan fans.
I realized, though, that I would have to write sections
about other Tarzan themes. I had never written anything about the Mangani
apes, and what would any Tarzan book be without including them? The same
went for Jad-bal-ja, the golden lion. Also, I felt something about Tarzan’s
spirituality had to be addressed. So, over the course of a few months,
I worked on essays about those three subjects. The Mangani theme was particularly
difficult to cover. Burroughs provided so much information about his unique
species of great apes that my original draft on them ran over 40,000 words.
Since that was triple the length of any other chapter in the planned book,
I went back and cut out about 7,000 words. In the end, the Mangani chapter
was still twice as long as any other section in the book. For the record,
the chapters on the Mangani, Jad-bal-ja, and Tarzan’s spirituality are
published in Exploring Tarzan’s Africa for the first time.
Eventually, I reached a place where I was happy with the
book’s text. I proofread it all twice, which took some time, as the 15
chapters and the Preface run a total of almost 150,000 words. Along the
way, I consulted through email with John Martin, my fellow ERB aficionado
in Washington State, and when I mentioned that all the text was ready to
go, he offered to proofread it again. Since it’s always a good idea to
have a second set of eyes go over something you’ve written before publication,
I took John up on his offer. I’m glad I did. In addition to finding many
errors in grammar, punctuation, and spelling, John spotted some repetitive
references in the text, which convinced me to remove or alter some passages.
A Title and Illustrations?
After settling on the themes of the
15 chapters (see list below), a good title for the book was needed. John
and I tossed around some possibilities before I finally settled on Exploring
Tarzan’s Africa. The next step was coming up with some illustrations.
I knew there had to be many of them in the book. A mass of 150,000 words,
uninterrupted by some visual images, would kill any reader’s interest.
As I wanted to keep the cost of the book down, paying an illustrator for
a couple dozen originals was out of the question. For three reasons, I
decided to go exclusively with J. Allen St. John illustrations. First,
there was no expense involved in using them. Second, since St. John produced
so much Tarzan artwork, I could find appropriate scenes to accompany almost
all of the chapter themes. Finally, and most importantly, as I grew up
reading the Tarzan stories, St. John’s artwork was the visual framework
that accompanied them. For me, and I’m sure for many other readers of Burroughs’
Tarzan books, St. John’s artwork was an integral visual part of the ape-man’s
life story.
I searched through my G&D reprints and even a few
McClurg editions to find St. John illustrations that fit with each chapter
in Exploring Tarzan’s Africa. I found and scanned 15 images, along with
one more to use as a frontispiece. On the page facing the start of each
chapter of Exploring Tarzan’s Africa is a St. John illustration.
Each measures approximately 4 ¾” by 7 ½”. Scattered in appropriate
places within the text are a dozen other St. John illustrations from The
Beasts of Tarzan and The Son of Tarzan. Altogether,
then, there are 28 St. John illustrations in Exploring Tarzan’s Africa.
(The only non-St. John artwork in the book is a Frank Hoban drawing on
the title page.)
Next on the checklist was the cover artwork. My favorite
St. John image of Tarzan has always been the archer scene from Tarzan
and the Jewels of Opar. Since I knew Bob Zeuschner had high resolution
scans of much of St. John’s work, I contacted him. He graciously emailed
me scans of several different colorized versions of the archer artwork,
from which I picked the one I liked the best for the front cover. Bob also
provided the scan of the St. John color painting used on the back cover.
How Many Copies?
With all of interior pages and the
cover then in place, all that remained was to find a printer. The setup
would be the same one used on my two previous Waziri Publications books
— Heritage of the Flaming God and A Tarzan Chrono-log
— 8 ½” by 11” size with full color laminated paper covers and “perfect
binding.” For the previous two volumes, I used a printer in Florida. With
an eye to keep shipping costs down, this time I chose Alpha Graphics, a
printing company in Seattle. Just two weeks after I sent them pdfs of the
cover design and interior pages, I had a proof copy of the book in my hands.
The last decision I had to make before the presses rolled
was how many copies to order. Since I still have plenty of copies of both
Heritage
of the Flaming God and A Tarzan Chrono-log laying
around the house, I was determined that this time I wouldn’t be stuck with
a pile of unsold copies. Although it would be nice if Exploring Tarzan’s
Africa appealed to a wide swath of the reading public, I judged
that most likely it was going to be a niche book of interest mostly to
ERB and Tarzan buffs. Marketing opportunities would be limited. As it appears
it could be a couple of years before well-attended Dum-Dums and ECOFs are
held, sales of Exploring Tarzan’s Africa would depend on
word-of-mouth advertising and through posts on internet forums like talk
groups, websites, and Facebook. Therefore, I decided on a print run of
only 100 copies.
Making money was never my motivation in publishing Exploring
Tarzan’s Africa. In fact, I’m almost guaranteed not to make money
on it, since I’ve priced the 100 copies at my cost of printing and shipping
them. If I don’t sell them all, I’ll lose money. If I sell them all, I’ll
break even. The bottom line for me is that, finally, Exploring Tarzan’s
Africa has been published. When I’m not around anymore, these 15
essays in Exploring Tarzan’s Africa will still exist. That
means something to me.
Ordering Information
The cost of Exploring Tarzan’s
Africa is $29.95 + $5.00 for media rate shipping anywhere in the
United States. (I can ship to Canada, but the U.S. Postal Service shipping
rate for there is $32.) Payment can be made on PayPal to my email address
— alanh111@comcast.net.
I also will accept checks and money orders sent to my home address: Alan
Hanson, 12007 N. Atlantic St., Spokane, WA 99218. Orders will be processed
on a first come, first served basis. All orders will be shipped the next
business day after they are received. Questions can be addressed to my
email address above.
Exploring Tarzan’s Africa
Chapter Titles
1. The Allegory of the Ape-man
2. The Physical Tarzan
3. Tarzan of the Trees
4. Tarzan’s Country: Backdrop for a Morality Play
5. The Mangani: “The Hairy Men of the Forest”
6. Jane: From Baltimore Belle to Diana of the
Jungle
7. The Waziri: From Primitive to Colonial Tribe
8. Tantor: Dreadnaught of the Jungle
9. The Women of Opar
10. Jad-bal-ja: The Great Black-Maned Golden Lion
11. Nkima: Tarzan’s Jungle Friend and Confidant
12. Tarzan’s Victory Cry and Other Feral Sounds
13. The Spiritual Tarzan
14. Tarzan’s Hunger Game
15. The Hideous Hunter: The Death of Tarzan
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