Home › Comics › Shout it from the treetops! Tarzan comic collections heading your way from Dark Horse and Dynamite Entertainment in 2022

Shout it from the treetops! Tarzan comic collections heading your way from Dark Horse and Dynamite Entertainment in 2022

By John Freeman on February 19, 2022 • ( 1 )

Dark Horse Books has just announced it’s to publish Tarzan of the Apes Volume 1 in August, a collection of comic strips previously available only to subscribers of the Edgar Rice Burroughs website – and never before in print until now, offered in a handsome hardcover edition. But this isn’t the only Tarzan comic collection in the works due for release in 2022.

Published in Sunday newspaper strip landscape format, these adaptations of Edgar Rice Burroughs’ classic tales are scripted by comics legend Roy Thomas (Conan the Barbarian, Avengers, Tarzan: The New Adventures), illustrated by Pablo Marcos (Savage Sword of Conan, Star Trek: The Next Generation, Creepy), and coloured by Oscar González.

Tarzan of the Apes (Novel Adaptation) - Sample Strip

The strip is an adaptation of the original classic Tarzan of the Apes novel. The story was first written in 1912 by Edgar Rice Burroughs, the most prolific writer of the 20th century, revealing the origin of the Jungle Lord and his earliest adventures.

The collection will land in comic shops from 24th August 2022, followed by book shops on 6th September, and follows up on the release of Tarzan: The New Adventures in June, a collection of the Tarzan webcomic published by Edgar Rice Burroughs Inc., by Roy Thomas, Tom Grindberg, and Benito Gallego, launched in 2012, retitled The New Adventures of Tarzan in 2013.

Tarzan: The New Adventures - Sample Strip - art by Tom Grindberg — *Tarzan art by the Frank Frazatta-inspired Tom Grindberg*

The webcomic continued the numbering from the last syndicated Sunday page of 2002 by Alex Simmons and Eric Battle. Grindberg moved on from the strip in 2016, replaced by Benito Gallego.

This incarnation of the Jungle Lord is also presented in Sunday newspaper landscape format, with stunning illustration by Thomas Grindberg, whose work stands alongside classic Tarzan illustrators such as Hal Foster, J. Allen St. John, and Frank Frazetta.

Tarzan: The New Adventures - Sample Strip - art by Benito Gallego — *Tarzan art by the John Buscema-inspired Benito Gallego*

Roy Thomas has been writing for film, television, and especially comic books since 1965. With notable runs on Marvel’s Avengers, Uncanny X-Men, Conan the Barbarian, The Incredible Hulk, and Star Wars, he served as a Marvel editor from 1965 – 80 and editor-in-chief from 1972 – 74. He currently edits the comics-history magazine Alter Ego, and writes two online Tarzan strips for Edgar Rice Burroughs Inc., as well as the occasional comic book. He and his wife Dann live in South Carolina.

He also, of course, wrote early issues of Marvel’s Tarzan comic, launched in 1977, working with John Buscema, and August will see the release of Tarzan: The Buscema Years Omnibus from Dynamite Entertainment, collecting in its entirety their classic 29-issue run of Tarzan, plus all three Tarzan Annuals.

Beginning in June 1977, the creative team of Roy Thomas and John Buscema astonished readers with spectacular escapades of Tarzan. In the Mighty Marvel Manner, “Big John” delivered peril, romance, and heroics month-in and month-out, culminating in the ten-part “Blood Money and Human Bondage” saga, an epic that saw an artistic passing of the torch to his younger brother, Sal Buscema — who would continue to visualise the feral hero’s exploits until the series’ thrilling final chapter in October 1979.

The Edgar Rice Burroughs site publishes numerous comic strip adaptations of his work, available to read on monthly subscription, including John Carter, Warlord of Mars, also adapted by Roy Thomas, Carson of Venus and The Land That Time Forgot.

• Pre-order Tarzan: The New Adventures from AmazonUK (Affiliate Link) | Available 2nd June 2022 | ISBN 978-1506718064

• Pre-order the Tarzan: The Buscema Years Omnibus from AmazonUK (Affiliate Link) | ISBN 978-1524100643 | Available from 10th August 2022 in comic shops

About the Author
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John Freeman

John is the founder of downthetubes, launched in 1998. He is a comics and magazine editor, writer, and Press Officer for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. He also runs Crucible Comic Press.

Working in British comics publishing since the 1980s, his credits include editor of titles such as Doctor Who Magazine and Overkill for Marvel UK, Babylon 5 Magazine, Star Trek Magazine, and its successor, Star Trek Explorer, and more. He also edited the comics anthology STRIP Magazine and edited several audio comics for ROK Comics; and has edited several comic collections and graphic novels, including volumes of “Charley’s War” and “Dan Dare”, and Hancock: The Lad Himself, by Stephen Walsh and Keith Page.

He’s the writer of comics such as Pilgrim: Secrets and Lies for B7 Comics; “Crucible”, a creator-owned project with 2000AD artist Smuzz; and “Death Duty” and “Skow Dogs”, with Dave Hailwood.