Exit Stage Left: Tarzan, Lord of the Jungle #29

Tarzan #29 represents the end of an era. I’m not talking about the simple fact that the Marvel series was canned just two years after its much hyped launch, but rather that a monthly Tarzan title would no longer be on US newsstands. Since 1948, four different companies had produced nearly 300 issues full of Tarzan comics. I’m not even including his pre-1948 appearances in various anthology titles or even his brief, and controversial Charlton appearances. Personally, I feel that the decision by the people of ERB Inc. to pull the title from Gold Key and then bounce it around from DC and then to Marvel screwed all of us Tarzan fans in the long run. Sales were going to be poor, as the character’s popularity in North America had waned over the decades. The Burroughs people should have minimized their interference and offered the license for less money, if only to keep the character in funnybooks. It is really too bad as that short-sighted approach has played a role in Tarzan's fading from popular culture. I have a double page spread from this issue – it’s Sal Buscema inked by P. Craig Russell, and features Tarzan clinging to a rope ladder dangling from a bi-plane. It is beyond gorgeous.