Black Cat Bone

One of the top five pop cultural icons ever? Which do you think has been the best representation of The Lord of the Jungle, the original novels by Edgar Rice Burroughs, the many fine comics, or the not so many fine movies? AAAIIIAAAIIIOOOUUUHHH!!!

I have fond memories of the tv series with Ron Ely.

But the answer has to be the books,surely.

The books.

I used to be a Burroughs maniac in high school. I read about half the Tarzans, the first three John Carters, some Pellucidar, Carson of Venus, the Mucker, the Return of the Mucker, etc. I went back and read the first three John Carters a few years ago, and found they still were enjoyable.

I never saw a TV or movie adaptation of Tarzan I really liked a lot.

That having been said, there have been some good Tarzan comics, particularly by Russ Manning (Gold Key), Joe Kubert (DC), and Roy Thomas/John Buscema (Marvel).

Velvis wrote:I never saw a TV or movie adaptation of Tarzan I really liked a lot.

Doesn't "George of the Jungle" count?

Let's say it did count...still no.

Velvis wrote:I used to be a Burroughs maniac in high school. I read about half the Tarzans, the first three John Carters, some Pellucidar, Carson of Venus.....

Yes, I read a lot of those in my youth, as well; I was quite hooked on them! So it's the books for me.

I haven't seen or read them since - would I find them too a bit too 'pulpy' now, do you think?

I can still recall bits and pieces after all these years - an ending where Dejah Thoris (or was it another character?) is imprisoned in a slowly revolving stone chamber, and it will take a year until the room revolves until the door is open again.

Another episode where John Carter is clambering slowly and dangerously down a perilous cliff face, after a native Martian girl that he's just met...

A sequence in the first (?) Tarzan novel where Tarzan is teaching himself to read, from his parents' surviving books...

I might be getting the individual details a little confused there, but the point is that they clearly made a big impression on me at that tender age!

They're fun to revisit. And yes, they're pulpy. I wouldn't subsist on a steady literary diet Of them, but they're a good palate cleanser.