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Volume 5867

Eclectica Archive
Edgar Rice Burroughs

ECLECTICA v.2016.12

Eclectica Archive

Ed Burroughs brawls with hoodlums in Toronto
From the Danton Burroughs and JCB Tarzana Archive
www.erbzine.com/mag11/1177.html
.
Ed suffered for a number of years with bad headaches from the blow he received in that fight,
and attributed one or two subsequent short periods of amnesia to the rap.
The scar on his forehead -- similar to that he described on Tarzan -- was quite visible for many years.
Emma used to jokingly attribute his success to that blow
from which he suffered regular fantastic nightmares and dream fantasies.
Read more about the event, including ERB's take on it, in ERBzine 1177
John Martin has written a highly fictionalized piece about that Canadian adventure:

One Night in a Canadian Bar

  "You look like a man after some good Canadian whiskey, eh mate?" said the wiry bartender.

  Ed Burroughs, who had just swaggered into the bar with some of his privileged friends, glared at the innkeeper as he placed his right forearm on the bar and leaned over, reaching out with his left paw, calloused from many bar fights, and grabbed the little alcohol pusher by his shirt.

  "Listen, you little piece of possum puke," Ed snarled. "I don't want any of your Canadian rotgut. You can give me a sarsaparilla, and make it snappy."

  Ed released the bartender, who hurried to do his bidding. The minor fracas caught the attention of another bar patron, a 300-pound northwoods logger, unshaven, filthy dirty, and clenching a half-burned cigar in his yellowed teeth, though the fire had gone out because it had burned far enough to interact with the saliva-soaked end of the wad of brown leaves.

  "Sarsaparilla?" he mocked. "Anybody drinks at this bar had better drink whiskey. Bartender! Give this guy a shot of CCC, on me. And he better drink it all. Besides," his eyes traveled over ERB's receding hairline, "it'll put some fur back on that shiny dome of yours."

  Ed took the proffered drink, sniffed it, and then splattered it into the face of the lumberjack.

  "Why you...." the behemoth sprayed. He wiped off his chin with the sleeve of his red and white-checked shirt. "I'm gonna murdelize you."

  Before the logger could even clench his fist, however, Ed glided into his whirling dervish stance which he had studied for some years in Persia, with slight modifications of his own design, which included flying fists and surprise kicks in sensitive spots of his opponents. Within seconds, his hapless adversary was lying on the barroom floor, curled up into a fetal position, moaning, "No, don't hit me anymore."

  Ed, ever the gentleman, helped the besotted woodsman to his feet and handed him a glass of sarsaparilla. "Here," he said. "This will make you feel better."

  The ax-man gladly took the refreshment and began sipping it gingerly. "Say, dat's not bad," he said. "In fact, I kinda like it."

 "It grows on you," said Ed.

  "Hey," said the Canadian. "You ever thought about writing adventure stories. You probably have a lot of experience to draw from."

  "As a matter of fact," said Ed, "my imagination has been running wild lately. I've got this idea for a kind of a super specimen of mankind who was raised among savages and can clean anybody's clock."

  "Savages?" said the Canuck. "You mean like a man who was raised in de jungle?"

  "Oh no," laughed Ed. "I don't know anything about the jungle. My character will be much wilder. He'll be from the streets of Chicago and his name will be Bill the Burner, or Billy Burner, or something like that.

  "But," he continued. "Your idea about the jungle is a good one, too. I'll give that some thought. But you realize, I hope, that as an ignorant day laborer from America's northern provinces, you really have no business telling such story ideas to me or any other."

~ John "Bridge" Martin

Much more about Edgar Rice Burroughs in the ERBzine
ERB BIO TIMELINE 1875-1950
www.ERBzine.com/bio

ART and COMICS
A Rare Foreign Edition from Quebec

In Parade magazine, 10/23/16, in an article written by the great film critic and historian
Leonard Maltin, the great comic character creator Stan Lee, 93, says, regarding his working
class upbringing in NYC, reading offered Stan both an escape and something to reach for.
"I wanted to be like Tarzan." ~ Dan Viets

From www.morttodd.com


Tarzan Sketch by Wallace Wood
For Alan Kupperberg with joke about him working under Jack Adler at DC
See more Wally Wood in his
Prince Violent and Warmonger of Mars parodies featured in ERBzine


AIRSHIPS OF BARSOOM by Robert "Skip" Olson

ERBzine features many more versions of the Mars airships in our
GALLERY OF ERB'S BARSOOMIAN AIRSHIPS
www.erbzine.com/mag28/2806.html
Kevin O'Meara art from ERB-dom 10



EDGAR RICE BURROUGHS CREATIONS and INTERESTS
2015: The Year The Son of Tarzan was released


The ERB Perpetual Calenday
12 Months Annotated and Illustrated
Collated by Bill Hillman

Click for full-size collage poster
http://www.erbzine.com/mag5/0560.html


For years we have been sharing information on
ERB's TARZAN, JR. MINIATURE BOOK with JCB Art
http://www.erbzine.com/mag8/0865.html

Interestingly there were two reproductions recently offered on eBay: TARZAN, JR. A dollhouse miniature book reproducing the Tarzan book
that Edgar Rice Burroughs wrote for Colleen Moore to be placed in her famous Fairy Castle that is now on display at the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry.

Edgar Rice Burroughs' TARZAN JR. MINIATURE BOOK :: Art by John Coleman Burroughs

Also reproduced for eBay sale was a miniature version of Tarzan of the Apes (only Ch.1 is included)


STAGE and SCREEN
On Starz network "Blunt Talk"..Bedtime story options for Walter Blunt's (Patrick Stewart) man servant, Harry,
included "Tarzan of the Apes". Season 2, Episode 5


"Tarzan of the Apes" Music Hall song sung by Ernie Mayne C 1924
 ERBzine.com Presents
A 1920 song by popular British Music Hall Performer
ERNIE MAYNE
TARZAN OF THE APES
Recorded by Ernie Mayne c. Nov 1920

They say everyone, everyone on this earth
    possesses a double somewhere
Somebody like them in figure and feature, 
     someone with the same kind of hair
It seems very strange but it's known through our race
Just for example, well take my own case

Everyone calls me Tarzan, Tarzan of the apes
It's all through my wonderful figure, don't snigger
His figure's big but my figure's bigger
The flappers all flock around me
When I feed on bananas and grapes
Everyone calls me Tarzan, Tarzan of the apes

I'm so much like Tarzan we're so much alike 
     no matter where ere I may be
All of the people they're certain I'm Tarzan 
     and Tarzan himself's heard of me
He's so much afraid that he's keeping in trim
for fear that his wife should mistake me for him

Everyone calls me Tarzan, Tarzan of the apes
It's all through my wonderful figure, don't snigger
His figure's big but my figure's bigger
The flappers all flock around me
When I feed on bananas and grapes
Everyone calls me Tarzan, Tarzan of the apes

 

TARZAN OF THE APES
Recorded by Ernie Mayne c. Nov 1920
(Who was shall we say a large comedian - think a singing Fatty Arbuckle)
 and was written by Tilsley & Swift
Submitted by Neil Kirton

They say everyone, everyone on this earth possesses a double somewhere
Somebody like them in figure and feature, someone with the same kind of hair
It seems very strange but it's known through our race
Just for example, well take my own case

Everyone calls me Tarzan, Tarzan of the apes
It's all through my wonderful figure, don't snigger
His figure's big but my figure's bigger
The flappers all flock around me
When I feed on bananas and grapes
Everyone calls me Tarzan, Tarzan of the apes

I'm so much like Tarzan we're so much alike no matter where ere I may be
All of the people they're certain I'm Tarzan and Tarzan himself's heard
of me
He's so much afraid that he's keeping in trim
for fear that his wife should mistake me for him

Everyone calls me Tarzan, Tarzan of the apes
It's all through my wonderful figure, don't snigger
His figure's big but my figure's bigger
The flappers all flock around me
When I feed on bananas and grapes
Everyone calls me Tarzan, Tarzan of the apes


Ernie Mayne was born in Topsham, Devon, in 1871.
During a lifetime on the Halls, he played a range of pantomime dames, including Mother Goose.
He was responsible for some 180 songs between 1898 and 1928.
He weighed in at about 20 stone, had red hair and a bad temper.
He died of complications following an appendectomy in the Royal Sussex Hospital, Brighton, Sussex in 1937, a
nd was laid to rest in the graveyard at nearby Shoreham by Sea, near the pub he owned in his later years.


For more see ERBzine
A COMPENDIUM OF QUOTES RECOGNIZING THE INFLUENCE OF ERB
http://www.erbzine.com/mag28/2875.html

STAR WARS CONNECTION
Some have even criticized the JOHN CARTER (OF MARS) 2012 film as being a rip-off of Star Wars.
George Lucas has admitted to being heavily influenced by the John Carter stories of a hundred years ago.

"Originally, I wanted to make a Flash Gordon movie, with all the trimmings, but I couldn't obtain all the rights.
"So I began researching and found where (Flash Gordon creator) Alex Raymond got his idea:
The works of Edgar Rice Burroughs, especially his John Carter series of books.
"I found that what sparked Burroughs was Edwin Arnold's 'Gulliver on Mars' published in 1905, 
the first story of this genre I've been able to trace....
"Young people today don't have a fantasy life anymore.... The films they see are movies of disasters,
insecurity and realistic violence. They seem to be having a very boring childhood."
~ George Lucas in Science Fiction Review 24, 12/77
http://www.erbzine.com/mag8/0871.html

THE INFLUENCE OF EDGAR RICE BURROUGHS
IN POPULAR FICTION OF THE 20th & 21st CENTURY
Master of Adventure ~ Creator of John Carter and Tarzan ~ Grandfather of American Science Fiction
http://www.erbzine.com/mag28/2875.html
Many Star Wars-related quotes here.


 
PHOTOS


We've done many features on Danton Burroughs' huge collection of juke boxes and records.
Dan took great joy in sharing these treasures with family, friends and fans when they visited.
His juke boxes and pinball machines ringed his huge living room.
He would dazzle visitors to the room
by throwing a master switch that turned on the spectacular lights of all the juke boxes.
The machines were loaded with 78s of blues, jazz and doowop
. . . as well as a number of very collectible Tarzan-related records.
More at our many Tarzana features as well as:
THE HOUSE THAT DANTON BURROUGHS BUILT
 http://www.erbzine.com/mag23/2310.html


H. P. LOVECRAFT

A rare HP Lovecraft photo
Viewers of a recent Murdoch Mysteries episode--
a long-running Canadian CBC series set in turn-of-the century Toronto
were treated to an episode centered around a young Lovecraft.
Season 10 Episode: MASTER LOVECRAFT
 The discovery of a young girl's body and some grotesque sketches
leads Murdoch to suspect a gang of death-obsessed teenagers
- which includes a young H.P. Lovecraft.

RELEASES


This is Tarzan, the wonder horse of cowboy star Ken Maynard during the 1930s--1940s.
They appear in David Lemmo's upcoming book Tarzan, Jungle King of Popular Culture, published by McFarland & Co.


 
ARTICLES

Comics’ Sweeping Graphic Novel, Prince Valiant, Turns 80
by Brian M. Kane ~ An Article for King Features Syndicate

Before television, when most films were still black & white, theSunday comics were an oasis of color in a Depression-era gray world. Highly popular comic strips drove newspaper sales in the early twentieth century, so it is little wonder why their creators were regarded as celebrities. The epic Prince Valiant in the Days of King Arthur by Harold Rudolf “Hal” Foster premiered in the color comics section on February 13, 1937. Prior to Prince Valiant, Foster originated the adult protagonist adventure strip genre by adapting Tarzan as a black & white daily strip in 1928, which was followed by the Tarzan color Sunday feature from 1931-1937. Faced with imposing financial and creative constraints as a work-for-hire artist, Foster focused his considerable skills as an illustrator towards producing his own strip. The extraordinary effort resulted in international prominence for both Prince Valiant and Foster. Today, after 80 years, “Val” remains one of the few adventure strip characters still in print.

It is difficult to imagine the impact Foster’s Prince Valiant had on 1930s and 1940s popular culture. When Prince Valiant began, Superman’s debut in Action Comics #1 was still over a year away. Many of the first two generations of comic book creators owe a great debt to Foster. Young comic book artists studied Foster’s technique, sometimes copying panels from his strips. “Swipes” of Foster’s art can be found in the origin of Batman, and comics drawn by Jack Kirby, the cocreator of many of today’s movie heroes, including Captain America, The Avengers, The X-Men and Thor. Most importantly, Val epitomized a knightly moral code, creating an ethical standard of conduct that exemplified truth, justice, and what it meant to be a hero.

Seminal works such as The Hobbit, The Sword in the Stone, and The Chronicles of Narnia were nonexistent in February of 1937. By the time Joseph Campbell’s groundbreaking The Hero with a Thousand Faces was published, Prince Valiant had already spent twelve years on his own monomythic hero’s journey. Yet, unlike Campbell, Val’s adventures included strong, self-reliant, heroic women; attesting to Hal’s wife, Helen’s influence on the strip. To the uninitiated, Valiant, a lowly Prince of Thule, fell in love with and eventually married Aleta, Queen of the Misty Isles. To Hal’s and Helen’s credit, Aleta became a role model for the millions of capable women running America during World War II; fighting off offenders with her wit, charm, intelligence, and, on occasion, a hidden dagger strapped to her thigh. Aleta was kicking butt long before Princess Leia, Katniss Everdeen, or most of the Disney princesses were even a thought.

Though set in the time of King Arthur, Foster’s Prince Valiant was surprisingly contemporary. During World War II, Val fought the Huns, resulting in the strip being canceled in German newspapers. In 1943, Val befriended a boy with a withered leg who could not “play soldier” with the other boys. Nevertheless, the boy was encouraged to hone his skills so that one day he could be “arrow-maker to King Arthur.” The story appeared a year into a polio epidemic and 16 months after Pearl Harbor, and was a call to service to all who could not go off to fight. After the war, as American troops returned home, Val and Aleta sailed to the “New World” and had a son, heralding the coming baby boom. Then, as the demographics of 1950s America changed, multi-cultural couples in Prince Valiant married and had children just as they did in the popular sitcom I Love Lucy.

Foster’s Prince Valiant is not just an adventure, or romance, or humor strip—though it is sprinkled with all those elements. Prince Valiant is a graphic novel about life where people fall in love, wars are fought, children are born and grow older, hearts are broken, friends die in battle, couples marry,and even disfigured and disabled characters young and old, male and female have a place and purpose in this brave world Foster fashioned. While some may feel Prince Valiant is archaic by today’s standards, perhaps its unabashedly inclusive “Might for Right” message is simply ahead of its time. Long live Val!


Brian M. Kane, Ph.D. is the author of the IPPY Award-winning biography Hal Foster: Prince of Illustrators, and edits the New York Times Best-Selling Prince Valiant reprint series from
Fantagraphics Books.


 
CARTOONS
Thanks to John Martin for submitting many of these funnies

JOHN CARTER CARTOON by JEFF JONES





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