Tarzan 101 | Tarzan the Magnificent

Celebrating Tarzan's 101st anniversary by walking through Scott Tracy Griffin's Tarzan: The Centennial Celebration.

Like some of the other Tarzan novels, Tarzan the Magnificent (no relation to the film of the same name) was actually two different novellas. In this case, they'd even been published in two different magazines. Argosy published "Tarzan and the Magic Men" in 1936, about a couple of Amazon tribes led by powerful sorcerers who control their subjects with huge, supernatural jewels. Griffin speculates that Burroughs got the idea from the novel Trader Horn, which features a woman who uses a large ruby to control an African tribe.

In 1937, Burroughs' sequel to this story appeared in Blue Book, titled "Tarzan and the Elephant Men." It has Tarzan following one of the jewels back to Cathne and Athne, the cities from Tarzan and the City of Gold.

In Magnificent, Burroughs describes Tarzan's eyes as being able to "reflect the light of a summer sea or the flashing steel of a rapier." Griffin takes advantage of this to offer a supplemental chapter on "Eyes of Gray," a character trait that Burroughs gave all of his leading men and a lot of supporting characters as well. Tarzan had gray eyes, as did his father and son. So did La of Opar, John Carter of Mars, David Innes of Pellucidar, and Carson Napier of Venus. Griffin lists a total of 25 Burroughs characters with gray eyes, noting that Burroughs "rarely described any other color." In fact, Carson's started out blue in Pirates of Venus before Burroughs changed them to gray in the third novel.

Tarzan 101 | Tarzan the Invincible

Celebrating Tarzan's 101st anniversary by walking through Scott Tracy Griffin's Tarzan: The Centennial Celebration.

Burroughs went political again (like in the anti-German Tarzan the Untamed) for Tarzan the Invincible. This time the villains are an international gang of communists from the Soviet Union, Mexico, and East India. They're taking advantage of Tarzan's still being away in Pellucidar (from the preceding novel, Tarzan at the Earth's Core) to pillage Opar in order to fund their revolutions. Fortunately, Tarzan doesn't spend the entire novel absent, but the question is whether he'll arrive in time to figure out what's going on and stop the commies.

Burroughs was a devout capitalist anyway, but his feelings on communism were likely also fueled by Soviet disrespect for copyright. Griffin notes that Russian bootlegs of Burroughs' work robbed the author of an estimated million dollars. The story's focus on economic ideology makes it appropriate that starting with this book, the Tarzan series was self-published by Burroughs. They were already wildly popular books by then, but it was still a bit of a gamble and Burroughs was warned that the economy of the early '30s wouldn't support the endeavor. It did though, and - boosted by the release of MGM's Tarzan the Ape Man starring Johnny Weissmuller - the book made a profit. Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc. stayed the publisher of Burroughs novels until 1948.

Invincible is the last appearance of Opar and Queen La in Burroughs' novels. A lot has happened since their previous appearance in Tarzan and the Golden Lion, so in addition to saving La from the communists, Tarzan also has to help her regain power from the rival priest and priestess who've overthrown her and taken control of the city.

Griffin's supplemental chapter for Invincible is on Opar, tracing Burroughs' influences for it and its appearances in the novels and on screen. The city owes a lot to H. Rider Haggard, starting with its beautiful and mercurial (and white) Queen La, who's so similar to Ayesha from Haggard's She. The city itself was likely named after the Biblical Ophir, a place of great wealth in Africa that was the source of many of King Solomon's riches (1 Kings 9:28; 10:11, among others). The African origins of Solomon's wealth was of course also the basis for Haggard's most famous novel, King Solomon's Mines.

Tarzan A to Z | Queen La

Tarzan A to Z | Opar

Adventuregallery: Dirty...

The Cownt



By Grant Gould.

The Tactics of Mistake



By Kelly Freas.

Your 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea Picture of the Day



By Anton Otto Fischer.

Found It



By Jeremy Vanhoozer.

Secret of the Coral Creature



By Russ Heath.

Namora



By Craig Rousseau.

Island Air





Both by Matthieu Forichon, who draws places I want to live.

Queen La



By Gene Gonzales. There's also a great John Carter and Dejah Thoris picture in that link.

Jungle Vengeance




By Joe Kubert.

And a Jungle Queen is Born!



By Jim Steranko.

Valkyrie



By Cliff Chiang.

Giant Monster vs. Giant Robot



By Jeremy Vanhoozer again. More Giant Monsters at DrawerGeeks.

Adventureblog Gallery: Siriusly

Action Girl Pulp of the Day



By Robert Gibson Jones.

Mermaid vs. Pirate



Greatest painting ever. Found at Never Sea Land, naturally.

Queen La



By Roy G. Krenkel.

One Action Girl and a couple of runners up

Empire of Jegga



By Robert Gibson Jones.

La



By J Allen St. John.

La's single-minded obsession with having sex with Tarzan disqualifies her as an Action Girl, but I have a nostalgic soft-spot for her. She's beautiful, cunning, deadly, and she lives in a lost jungle city. And it's been a while since I've read those stories, but isn't her lust for Tarzan born out of her desire to continue her race? If true, that makes her more noble than just a hot chick who's tired of fighting off beast-men who want to mate with her.

Rulah the Jungle Goddess



Here's another one who's more cheesecake than adventure, but it's nice cheesecake. The Comic Book Catacombs has three Rulah stories:

"The Secret of the Leathermen" (Part One. Part Two.)
"The Stalking Death" (Part One. Part Two.)
"Devil Ladies" (Part One. Part Two.)