Title: The Once and Future Tarzan (Click to go to the release post)
Writer(s): Alan Gordon (Click to see other books from this writer released on this site)
Review source: Elijah Williams (Review 1) and Zack Davisson (Review 2) (Don't click it, read the review here... )
Review 1:
- Previously in The Once and Future Tarzan: - Nothing! Its a one-shot, but I can decipher from the hints dropped that there has been a societal collapse of some sort, the story taking place in a post apocalyptic style version of England. Apparently all of the past Tarzan stories are canon in this comic.
A STORY FOR THE AGES - The Once and Future Tarzan has Tarzan as a jungle man living among the ruins of, what appears to be, England. He is apparently three hundred years old in this story, which I assume to mean he existed during the era of his inception canonically in the Tarzan lore, and has continued to exist ever since. Jane, Tarazan’s lover and companion, is immortal too. Some local villagers tell stories they have heard of his long and storied life. Tarzan stresses that some of these stories are greatly exaggerated, leaving the actual canon of the piece up to the reader. The story itself plays out kind of oddly. Its not paced very well, things happen seemingly randomly, and the villain is only introduced at the very end. They also make the villain a caricature of a hippy hating hunter type. That, coupled with a tribe of strong females and Tarzan’s love of nature and the world, shows the story’s liberal/hippy bias, which is not a problem for me personally (I admit, I have a somewhat left leaning bias), but I definitely saw how it could be a huge problem for other readers. While I am not against the idea of biases in comic, this was done so bluntly and poorly that it just brought the entire story down a peg. On another note, they end the story with quotes from Peter Gabriel’s “Down to Earth” from the movie Walle-E, which was just weird.
FANTASTICAL ART - The art fits very well for this kind of acknowledgment of the roots of Tarzan mythos. It feels very much like art you would find in older pulp comics or in the illustrations for pulp books. The colors are bright and vibrant, not much detail is really needed, and there are no glaring errors. Overall a very fantastical feel to a fantastical story.
BOTTOM LINE: CHECK IT OUT - If you are a fan of the Tarzan property at all, then I highly recommend picking this up. If you are not, then this will not change your mind about the property. If you are on the fence then I would recommend leaving it unless you see it in a bargain bin.
Review 2:
- There is a certain mystique about artists who draw the Prince Valiant newspaper strip -- because frankly, they don’t hire just anyone to inherit Hal Foster’s pen. You have to have be both an incredible draftsman and anatomist, as well as able to handle the pageantry and fantasy of the series. So when I tell you that Thomas Yeates, the artist on The Once and Future Tarzan, also draws the Prince Valiant newspaper strip, that means something.
This one-shot collects the chapters from Dark Horse Presents into a single issue. I enjoyed the story in anthology mode, but it really shines when you read it all together. I have never been a huge Tarzan reader -- never read the original books and I have only dipped into the comics a few times. But I know that his world is so much more vast than "Me Tarzan. You Jane." I don’t know how much this story connects to the established mythos, but it reads with a weight and gravity that makes me believe every panel. This story seems to take place in some post-apocalyptic future where the world has reverted to a jungle-like state with only a few industrial objects traded as reminders of the past. Tarzan is 300 years old, and the sole survivor of this past.
As expected, The Once and Future Tarzan is just a beautiful comic. Both the art and the colors have a careful sense of deliberate choice. For my tastes, too much modern comic art emphasizes style over technique and talent -- every artist is so eager to make an impression and find their own voice they skip over the detail work. Thomas Yeates brings all of his Prince Valiant years to the table and creates something stunning. His animals are impeccable. His Tarzan a lean, muscular man grounded in actual human anatomy. His half-naked jungle women (you knew there had to be some!) are lithe and strong. They look like women who could do battle with monsters, instead of looking like strippers in a B-movie. (Oh, and there is a naked Tarzan scene, just in case anyone was wondering…)
And his monsters -- Yeates draws some freaky, nightmare-inducing monsters. Can I say giant baby heads?
And as much as Yeates’s art is a throwback to the days of draftsment and detail, Alan Gordon’s script is also patient and considerate. This is a comic you read, not something you flip through. You feel like you are getting your money’s worth, that you have to spend some time with this comic. Gordon gives you dialog instead of quick quips and sound bites. This is a comic for people with long attention spans. I loved all of his set-ups, and the way he moved the story from the first burnt-out convenience store to a full-fledged monster attack in a secret jungle compound. It feels like Tarzan.
The only possible flaw I can find with The Once and Future Tarzan is that it is only a one-shot. I don’t know how long it takes Yeates to produce his incredible artwork, but I would love to see a longer series. I hope Dark Horse decides to bring them back for a five-issue Tarzan series, or put them to work on some of the Robert E. Howard properties like King Kull or Solomon Kane. This kind of diversity in art is something the comic world needs.
More info:
- Story: Alan Gordon, Thomas Yeates
Art: Thomas Yeates
Layouts: albabe
Colors: Thomas Yeates, Lori Almeida
Letters: John Workman, Tom Orzechowski
Publisher: