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Volume 0733
and
ERB C.H.A.S.E.R ENCYCLOPEDIA
 A Collector's Hypertexted and Annotated Storehouse of Encyclopedic Resources
. . . by an Exhausted Scholar
present
Dean Williams art: Dark Horse hardcover edition
TARZAN: THE LOST ADVENTURE
Author Joe R. Lansdale's authorized re-working of an unfinished 82 page manuscript by ERB
Cover Art ~ Publishing History ~ Summary
Cast ~ Lord Greystoke's Gallery

PUBLISHING HISTORY (USA)
UNRELEASED & UNFINISHED MANUSCRIPT BY ERB
    82 typewritten pages
COMIC/PULP
Dark Horse ~ 1995: January, February, March, April
    Arthur Suydam: Painted covers ~ Tom Yeates, Charles Vess, Gary Gianni, Michael Kaluta: interiors
    John Coleman Burroughs: reprinting of his A Princess of Mars Sunday pages also included in each issue
FIRST EDITION
Dark Horse deluxe leather bound hardcover
    Dean Williams: DJ painting ~ Interiors chapter heading art by Yeates, Vess, Gianni, Kaluta
    George T. McWhorter: foreword ~ Includes reproduction of ERB's personal book plate by Studley O. Burroughs
REPRINT
Dark Horse trade edition hardcover ~ almost same contents as the deluxe
Ballantine Del Rey Books 1995 - cover by Raymond Verdaguer
Private fan printing of the original 83-page ERB manuscript
For detailed information, see Robert B. Zeuschner's
Edgar Rice Burroughs: The Bibliography (ERB, Inc., 2016).
Click on www.erbbooks.com or call 214-405-6741 to order a copy.


CAST (in order of appearance)
TARZAN ~ Lord of the Jungle
Gromvitch ~ small, wiry white bwana
Wilson Jones ~ big black bwana, ex-boxer
Cannon ~ large white bwana
Charles Talent ~ tall, lean black bwana
Eugene Hanson ~ Texas anthropology professor on photographic expedition
Jean Hanson ~ the professor's daughter
Jad-bal-ja ~ Tarzan's pet lion
Zu-yad ~ king of the ape tribe
Go-lot ~  young bull ape, Zo-yad's challenger
Billy ~ lump-jawed askari
Blomberg ~ legionnaire who earlier told of Ur
Professor Barrett ~ Hanson's mentor and colleague, discoverer of Ur
Hunt ~ Hanson's "professorial assistant" and Jean's beau
Elbert Small ~ Hanson's talented student
Nkima ~ Tarzan's monkey pal
Udalo, Ydeni ~ bearer friends of Billy
Nyama  ~ Jean's fellow prisoner at Ur
Kurvandi ~ blood-bathing king of Ur
Ebopa ~ The Stick That Walks, thought a god at Ur, beast from Pellucidar
Gerooma, Meredoleni ~ sentries at Ur
Miltoon ~ crooked legged servant to Kurvandi
Jeda ~ female warrior of Ur, hates Jean
Cast List Ref: Clark A. Brady's Burroughs Cyclopedia and Ed Stephan's Tarzan of the Internet



Book Blurb Summary
from Ballantine Books
For nearly fifty years, Edgar Rice Burroughs' last Tarzan manuscript lay untouched and unfinished, locked away in a vault. It was the stuff of legend until, finally, the magnificent tale was completed, with the help of award-winning author Joe R. Lansdale.

Once again the roar of Tarzan resounds through Africa as the Lord of the Jungle battles the savage creatures of the wild and helps a beautiful woman search for ancient Ur, lost city of gold. But Tarzan discovers they aren't alone in their quest. For evil follows in his path, and terror awaits him and his fierce lion Jad-bal-ja. Incredible treasures lie in the ancient city, and horrors even more awesome hunger to destroy the mighty hero.

23 un-named chapters ~ 208 pages

A REVIEW
Aping the Ape-man 

A Vine Madness: Tarzan takes on his teeth-baring jungle enemies one more time in "Tarzan: The Lost Adventure."
Long after his death, Edgar Rice Burroughs returns with a brand-new Tarzan novel 
By Andrew X. Pham
WITH THE RECENT rash of posthumous publications, putting a few chapters or an outline into a safe seems to be the best way to get a book published without doing too much of the work yourself. Also, your publisher will likely market it as one of your masterpieces. 

Several decades after his death, Edgar Rice Burroughs, one of the kings of the pulps and grandfathers of science fiction, has a third posthumous novel, Tarzan: The Lost Adventure, on bookstore shelves. Given the great hoopla surrounding this latest unearthing, Burroughs' own explanation of how he became the creator of Tarzan provides a useful perspective: "I had gone thoroughly through some of the all-fiction magazines and I made up my mind that if people were paid for writing such rot as I read, [then] I could write stories just as rotten ... just as entertaining and probably a lot more so" (from The Washington Post, Oct. 27, 1929). 

Burroughs published his first Tarzan book, Tarzan of the Apes, in 1914, and, on average, hacked out about one Tarzan book every year until 1939. After an eight-year hiatus, Burroughs issued Tarzan and the Foreign Legion, his last Tarzan book (penned in his hand), in 1947. The next two Tarzan books rolled off the press after Burroughs' death (1950), one in 1964 and the other in 1965. Another unfinished and untitled Tarzan typescript of 83 pages was discovered in Burroughs' safe, and the publishing vultures have been squawking over the find ever since. 

However, not much happened for 30 years until Dark Horse Comics rustled up one Joe R. Lansdale to beef up the half-finished manuscript. With a strong stable of pulp-era-oriented artists, Dark Horse put out a nice four-part comic-book version in softcover. Sales pronounced it a resounding success, and Dark Horse rushed it out as a piece of hardcover fiction. 

Lost City of Ur 

IN THIS NEW/OLD TALE, Tarzan returns to his African jungle from England, where he has been living with his wife, Jane, under the alias of Lord Greystoke. Back home, Tarzan chances upon a scientific expedition that ran afoul of a murderous group of Foreign Legion deserters. The Ape-man quickly becomes enmeshed in rescuing a beautiful damsel and her professorial father from the bad legionnaires, the dangers of the jungle, a monster from the world at the center of the Earth and the mad king of the lost city of Ur. 

Lansdale imitates Burroughs not at his best but at his worst. If Lansdale has any talent as a writer, he has squandered all of it trying to emulate the Burroughs of the early years. In fact, Lansdale tried so hard that he often begins every other sentence with "Tarzan." Sometimes he even succeeds in crafting pulpy blunders as perversely magnificent as Burroughs'. For instance, in the second half of the book (written entirely by Lansdale), he describes a fight scene: "The impact shattered the jailer's head like an overripe fruit, and the contents of this fruit sprayed the guards and the messengers, and in that instant, a blinking of an eye really, Tarzan swung the chains, one in either hand, fast and rhythmically, taking out heads and knees. In less than an instant, four men lay dead and two were bolting out of the dungeon and down the hall." 

How Burroughs' 83-page manuscript became Lansdale's 200-page novel isn't as surprising as why Lansdale was permitted to contribute such rot to an innocent manuscript in the first place. Several convenient coincidences hurry the plot to a predictable ending. Worse, it's open-ended in such a way that other serials seem quite inevitable. 

It's too bad that Lansdale (and Dark Horse) can't envision something greater. Although Burroughs' particular brand of fiction and his "golden age" have long faded with his passing, the Tarzan series will always have a sizable pubescent readership. Anyone toiling in the genre ought to have enough sense to write decently, so that at least these future writers won't be prematurely stunted. 

Tarzan -- the concept -- still has merit as escapism entertainment for both the adult and the juvenile markets. But what the genre needs isn't someone who can ape Burroughs to a fault. It needs someone who can at least make Tarzan, well, intelligible to a modern age, and maybe not so much like a mechanical action-figure from a distant past. 

Tarzan: The Lost Adventure by Edgar Rice Burroughs and Joe R. Lansdale; Dark Horse Books; 211 pages; $19.95 cloth. 

Pete Janes wrote: "As the editor of this title for DH I was the first to say that the project was going to meet with mixed reviews. Lansdale is a sort of cilantro of writers: love his stuff or it leaves a bad taste, no gray area. DH publisher Mike Richardson loves Lansdale, and between the two of them edits were a constant battle. I relied on Danton Burroughs's/Burroughs Inc. approval of the text and concentrated on the book's illustrations and design. We were trying to simultaneously meet the expectations of older, longtime Burroughs fans and a newer generation of comics readers, and apparently missed. I won't apologize for this project, nor will I throw under the bus any of the hard-working folks who contributed to it, but I will say that it was a blast to pull together."
John Clayton, Lord Greystoke
LORD GREYSTOKE'S GALLERY
DARK HORSE COMICS SERIALIZATION
Covers and Intros
Dark Horse 1Dark Horse 2Dark Horse 3Dark Horse 4
1. Cover by Arthur Suydam. Nearly fifty years ago, Edgar Rice Burroughs' final Tarzan manuscript was locked in a vault, unfinished, never to be read by anyone outside the family. It became the stuff of legend. Now, half a century later, Dark Horse Comics is proud to present Edgar Rice Burroughs' Tarzan: The Lost Adventure.

In this never-before-printed novel (serialized over four issues), Tarzan guides an explorer and his beautiful daughter to a remote, mythical African city, and contends with an outlaw safari which hopes to reach the same destination... first. Tarzan's battles with jungle beasts and a brutal sequence in a tribal village are vintage Burroughs at his best!

We're presenting this long-lost masterpiece in the same format in which the very first Tarzan story saw print: As a pulp! This four-issue series interweaves the text, as faithfully revised and completed by Joe R. Lansdale, with detailed black-and-white illustrations. Thomas Yeates has provided the artwork for this first issue, while Charles Vess, Gary Gianni, and Michael W. Kaluta are respectively slated to illustrate issues 2-4, each to be housed under a gorgeous painted cover by Arthur Suydam. 


2. Cover by Arthur Suydam. Tarzan has been left behind by the outlaw safari, tied to a tree, and left to face the fury of Gorgo the buffalo. Resigned to his fate, Tarzan fails to see the lithe, stalking form of his friend, Jad-bal-ja, the golden lion... For nearly half a century, Edgar Rice Burroughs' final work, an unfinished Tarzan novel, has been locked in a vault where it became the stuff of legend. Dark Horse Comics is proud to present Edgar Rice Burroughs' Tarzan: The Lost Adventure, a four-issue series presented in the classic pulp format. It's the return of the noble savage, and the return of the lost medium. The text has been faithfully revised and the story completed by Joe R. Lansdale, and includes black-and-white interior illustrations by Charles Vess.
3. Cover by Arthur Suydam. Tarzan leads the Hanson expedition onward to the lost city of Ur, but a safari of desperate outlaws is hot on their heels and they're not there to take pictures! For nearly half a century, Edgar Rice Burroughs' final work, an unfinished Tarzan novel, has been locked in a vault where it became the stuff of legend. Dark Horse Comics is proud to present Edgar Rice Burroughs' Tarzan: The Lost Adventure. The text has been faithfully revised and the story completed by Joe R. Lansdale. In honor of Burroughs' first Tarzan stories, this, his final work, is being presented in the classic format of the old pulps, including accompanying black-and-white illustrations by Gary Gianni and a lush painted cover by Arthur Suydam
4. Cover by Arthur Suydam. It's the final confrontation between a dangerously determined group of outlaws and the king of the jungle... a titan clash of wills that resounds through the jungle. The prize is not only a lost city of gold, but life itself!
Page 1 of ERB's original unfinished, 
unpublished manuscript of this, his last Tarzan novel.
Page 1 of the Joe Lansdale rewrite titled 
Tarzan: The Lost Adventure
The Last Page Completed by ERB in the Unfinished Manuscript


Hulbert Burroughs examining rare, unpublished
ERB manuscripts in the ERB, Inc. office safe


Enter
the
Dark Horse
Edition
Art Gallery
Here
Raymond Verdaguer Del Rey

Private printing of the original 83-page ERB manuscript
Ballantine Del Rey Books 1995 - cover by Raymond Verdaguer


Click for full size
 

GO TO PART II
Interior Art by Thomas Yeates
https://www.erbzine.com/mag7/0733a.html



 
Web Refs
ERB C.H.A.S.E.R. Online Encyclopedia
Hillman ERB Cosmos
Patrick Ewing's First Edition Determinors
John Coleman Burroughs Tribute
ERBzine.com
J. Allen St. John Bio, Gallery & Links
Edgar Rice Burroughs: LifeLine Biography
Bob Zeuschner's ERB Bibliography
J.G. Huckenpohler's ERB Checklist
Burroughs Bibliophiles Bulletin
Nkima's ERBlist Summary Comparison
G. T. McWhorter's Burroughs Bulletin Index
Ed Stephan's Tarzan of the Internet
Illustrated Bibliography of ERB Pulp Magazines
Phil Normand's Recoverings
ERBzine Weekly Online Fanzine
ERB Emporium: Collectibles ~ Comics ~ BLBs ~ Pulps ~ Cards
ERBVILLE: ERB Public Domain Stories in PDF
Clark A. Brady's Burroughs Cyclopedia
Heins' Golden Anniversary Bibliography of Edgar Rice Burroughs
Bradford M. Day's Edgar Rice Burroughs: A Bibliography
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