George A. Carlin

Tarzan exploded into the newspaper funny pages on January 7, 1929 with the extraordinary art of the then unknown Hal Foster. An adaptation of Burroughs' first Tarzan novel, Foster's worked graced the black & white strip for its first ten weeks. Though extremely popular, the artist had accepted more lucrative advertising work and was replaced by the inferior Rex Maxon, who, over the protestations of Burroughs, stayed on the strip until 1947. A color Sunday comic, also drawn by Maxon, premiered on March 15, 1931. While Burroughs failed to get him removed from the everyday strips, Foster returned and began illustrating the Sundays on September 27, 1931. For the next six years, Foster produced some of the most impressive adventure strips ever and his vision help to define Tarzan. He left the character for his seminal creation Prince Valiant. The Tarzan strip survived with original dailies until July 29, 1972 and Sunday originals through 2000.

Complete with an insightful introduction by comics historian Mark Evanier, Dark Horse's Edgar Rice Burroughs' Tarzan: The Sunday Comics Volume 1, 1931-1933 collects the first two years of Foster's gorgeous strips. The handsome over-sized book chronicles the evolution of the extraordinary artist, whose worked noticeably improved each week.… (mer)