The first thing that must be said of this collection of Foster's groundbreaking Tarzan Sunday strips is that it's HUGE.
Paying closer attention to its dimensions while ordering it from Amazon would've spared me the shock of it's arrival on my doorstep. What did I order that was that
big, and how much did it cost?!!
While skinny in depth -- it contains around 100 strips in all -- the book stands 20 inches tall and 15 inches wide. Open it up and it may eclipse your coffee table. I have no idea where or how to shelve it...
All that said, however, the bigness of the book
does allow you to immerse yourself in Tarzan's adventures, just as newspaper readers did back in the 1930s. And Foster certainly made use of, and gloried in, the enormous canvas those broadsheets provided.
As comics historian Mark Evanier notes in his introduction, the realization of what was possible on the comics page, and the freedom it provided, became more and more apparent to the artist as he continued working on "Tarzan."
A magazine and calendar illustrator, Foster wasn't crazy about doing comics work at first. He figured it was beneath him. But the money was good. Early on, he doled out some of the work to assistants, adding some of the finishing touches. Readers familiar with his later work on "Prince Valiant" may find the first few months of strips on display here primitive. And they are.
But, once Foster's imagination took hold, and he saw the potential of filling these huge pages with his art, he became more hands-on and more creative. By the end of the book, which features several weeks of strips set in Egypt, the art has become much more detailed, beautiful and grand.
Everywhere, there is Foster's love of the human form -- not just Tarzan in action fighting, swimming, swinging through the jungle, but beautiful women and a variety of supporting characters. There's also the animals and fauna of the jungle, in addition to the wide desert, detailed Egyptian temples and more. His detail, fine brushwork and colors (done himself) combine into gorgeous whole.
For a generation of readers without television and only occasional glimpses of the amazing via the movies, Foster opened up wide fields of the imagination to view.
Through the course of the book, we see the creation both of the comic adventure strip, which paved the way for comic book heroes and storytelling, and the creation of Foster the pioneering comic strip artist.
This was a master artist, the inspiration for Alex Raymond and Milt Caniff, who, in turn, went on to inspire nearly every comic strip and comic book artist since, whether they know it or not.
Comic strips and political cartoons had been around for a while by the time Tarzan landed on the comics page. But adventure strips and realistic art were new. Only Tarzan and the crudely drawn Buck Rogers strip, focused on providing suspense and action rather than laughs.
As Evanier notes, many syndicates and newspaper publishers didn't feel there was a market for a realistically drawn, "serious" strip in the comics section. If Foster hadn't proved them wrong, the comics might not have developed, or developed quite differently.
So, this is a collection of important work and nice to have in print once again, even though I'm not sure where I'll put it now that I've finished reading it.
It should be noted that some online reviewers are disappointed in this edition, published by Dark Horse Comics, saying that NBM did a better job in its 1990s reprints of Foster's "Tarzan" run. I can't make the comparison, having missed those books.
I do wish, however, that Dark Horse had used "flat" rather than glossy paper stock for the strips. I don't like art printed on reflective paper, and prefer something that's closer, but more durable, than the original newsprint.
I also agree with some reviewers that some of the line work and colors are on the murky side. The NBM editions reportedly look better. That said, the quality is still quite good for strips this old and they are very readable. The reproduction seems to improve as Foster's linework and art become more detailed later in the book.
If you're pickier than me, and have the patience and funds to hunt down the NBM versions, you may want to go that route. I'm mainly just happy to have another batch of classic comic strips back in print.
.jpg)
