P.S. I love Ron Ely and hope to see him guesting and or hosting on TV again even if he already has silver hair and wrinkles. I hope he has a son who looks like him.

"However, I agree that they were surprisingly faithful to the first novel."

Well, except for the end.

If it doesn't have that painful scene where Tarzan reads the telegram from D'Arnot, folds it up and sticks it in his pocket, then lies through his teeth about what it said, giving Jane the life he thinks she deserves and kicking a hole in his own life in the process, well... if it doesn't have that, it's not Tarzan.

I can't read the end of that book without crying for the poor bastard a little bit.

I haven't read it in years, but yes, that first issue is pretty good.

It's set in contemporary times, with Tarzan assuming a regular identity and living with Jane in San Fransisco. (I think it's San Fran... a major American city for sure) and the crux of the issue is "Can you take the jungle out of the man?" It's not so much about "civilizing" him as it is about him trying to balance his two heritages.

Which, as I type it, shows just how close Brian was about Tarzan and Supes being similar, if not, the same, archetype.

My one complaint is the complaint I have about alot of Malibu and 90s Image - - I can't stand the colouring. There's a distinct lack of heavy inking (which, for me, is important in say a jungle or urban setting) and the colouring looks like it's been done by water colours. That said, it does kind of aide the tone of the piece.

If you ever see it in a looney bin, I'd recommend picking it up.

It's an issue I have with a lot of Disney films in that time period. They seem to be operating under the belief that all you need to do to make a film all-ages is to put in a bunch of really kiddie stuff and a bunch of really adult stuff, while missing the fact that each one will really turn off the other audience. We, the grownups in the house, may find Rosie annoying, but I went to see Tarzan in the theaters and witnessed numerous bawling kids being hauled out during in the opening sequence when Sabor attacks Tarzan's ape mom (Kala?). I still can't figure out how the movie was rated "G."

However, I agree that they were surprisingly faithful to the first novel. The commentary track to the DVD is pretty interesting to listen to, and how the producers were really into the original novels.

Chud-- Cronin, our Dark Overlord, dispenses the cool points around here, not me. But I am curious, is it any good?

Just FYI for the curious: The scans are usually chosen well ahead of the article being written -- our home computer is so s-l-o-o-o-o-w-w-w-w that I usually will stop in at the public library a couple of days before the column is supposed to go up and steal them off the GCD or Google and load them to the CBR site there. And since the column generally gets written Wednesday or Thursday night I am usually guessing what I'll need in advance of having actual text to illustrate... I generally have a vague idea of what I'm going to talk about but it sometimes changes. The whole thing could be easily avoided by skipping illustrations, I suppose, but I like to have pictures to run with it. You make a rod for your own back sometimes.

Both characters have hidden/surprising backgrounds. (Tarzan was the son of aristocrats, wasn't he? And Superman? Word on the street is he's from a different planet.)

More importantly, both fall into the classic tale of "stranger in a strange land" a concept much much older then Edgar Rice Burroughs.

Do I get extra cool points for owning the Malibu issue you scanned?

Just for the record, it was on NBC, then repeats were used by CBS as a summer replacement show a few years later. The program was NEVER seen on ABC.

One good thing about the Disney version is that it treated the apes as real gorillas instead of fantasy apes (not that I have anything against fantasy apes).