LORD OF THE JUNGLE #1
Writer: Arvid Nelson
Artist: Roberto Castro
Publisher: Dynamite Entertainment
“Cowards! Scoundrels! How can you
strand us here like this? After Lord Greystoke saved your life. How
can you leave us here?” — Alice Clayton (Lady Greystoke)
Yes, dear readers, the “Lord of the
Jungle” is Tarzan. If you don't know that then you should not even
be allowed to read comic books anymore. Tarzan is also “Lord of
the Apes”, “Lord of the Trees,” and “Lord Greystoke” (or
more accurately “Viscount” but I won't go into that here. With
the roar of a great bull ape, Tarzan comes to Dynamite with the LORD
OF THE JUNGLE comic book. I come into this comic with the baggage of
being a longtime reader of the Tarzan novels, comics, and viewer of
the various films and TV series. It's a classic and archetypal feral
man story with many different iterations and interpretations over the
decades. My overall impression of the comic is positive.
As with many of Dynamite's series, the
first issue has multiple variant covers, my copy is the Alex Ross
cover. It's a dynamic cover design with a crouching Tarzan decked
out in loin cloth, arm bands, wristbands, shoulder strap and wielding
a knife. Behind him are a bunch of gorillas. The colors are a bit
softer than I would expect, but it's still a nice cover. The “Lord
of the Jungle” masthead is a strong design that looks carved from
the wood of a tree.
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| Lucio Parillo cover |
I expected the comic to set out on its
own path with a quick origin recap, so I was surprised to find the
comic appears to be actually adapting the original TARZAN OF THE
APES novel by Edgar Rice Burroughs. And, in the pattern of modern
comic book storytelling, they are adapting it over the course of
several issues as this one comic barely gets through the first 3 or 4
chapters of the novel (and that's by ignoring the set-up with the
mutiny on the ship that leads to John and Alice Clayton being
abandoned to the coastline of the Belgian Congo).
As adaptations go, it is pretty
faithful to the book. The passage of time goes quickly as John
builds an elaborate tree house to keep his pregnant wife safe from
the dangers on the ground. The primary danger is shown to be a tribe
of aggressive and powerful apes. In the novels, they are called
Mangani and are described as a previously unknown species of great
apes that is somewhere in intelligence higher than gorillas (Bolgani)
but lesser than humans.
Most adaptations in film and TV have
just ignored this aspect and made the apes into gorillas for purposes
of telling the story. I'm not sure, yet, where writer Arvid Nelson
is going with his adaptation because the apes in this comic appear to
be gorillas and communicate with your basic “ooh ooh” ape-talk
rather than the Mangani language that Burroughs described. However,
there is an interlude with some Bantu tribesmen entering the jungle
who encounter a vicious tribe of man-eating ape-like creatures that
are identified with this exclamation: “What are these things?!
They're not apes, they're not men—what are they?!”
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| Ryan Sook cover |
They look very much like some of
Frazetta's ape-monsters. They look like apes but are taller and
leaner than the apes seen elsewhere in the comic and they wear loin
cloths, armbands, and use knives. So, I don't know exactly how the
whole Mangani versus Bolgani thing is going to eventually come down
in this title, but what I read is intriguing.
This issue covers the nearly 2 years in
which the Claytons arrive in the jungle, have the baby, and then
meet their end so that the baby, John, can be adopted by a female ape
who has just had her newborn brutally murdered by the bull ape who
leads their tribe. It's a familiar story and retold quite well
(although I'm sure Nelson had to find it funny to be writing things
like “Aah! Aah! Aah!”, “Rah! Rah!”, and “Ooh! Ooh!” into
a script).
The art is reminiscent of Neal Adams'
Tarzan covers and drawings without directly copying it. Clearly
Adams and Frazetta are an inspiration to artist Roberto Castro in his
approach to the this comic book. I am going to once again ring that
bell I ring everytime I review a Dynamite comic book though. It
would benefit from using an inker rather than coloring directly on
the pencils. There are moments where it works, but most of the time
the line work is lacking and the color is overcompensating. It's a
well-drawn comic. It would be stronger with a good inker and more
subdued coloring.
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| Paul Renaud cover |
POSTSCRIPT: Most people these days
seem a bit more knowledgeable about copyright issues than they were
just a mere 10 years ago, so it probably isn't news to anyone about
why Dynamite is publishing a “Tarzan” comic book without the name
“Tarzan” in the title anywhere. In the briefest way possible, it
boils down to fact that while the first few “Tarzan” novels have
slipped into the public domain, thus allowing Dynamite (or anyone) to
adapt and do derivative works based on those; the fact that these
stories are public domain has no bearing at all on the “Tarzan”
trademark still owned by the estate of Edgar Rice Burroughs. If
Dynamite wants to stick “Tarzan” in the title they would have to
get permission from, and pay a licensing fee to, the ERB estate. So,
they chose a descriptive title that evokes “Tarzan” without
violating the ERB trademark.
Being the nerd that I am, I made the
mistake of reading the indicia at the beginning of the comic just to
confirm for myself that there were no attributions to or permissions
from the ERB estate. But what I did find was that “Lord of the
Jungle” is listed not as a trademark of Dynamite Entertainment but
of “Savage Tales Entertainment, LLC.” So, I tried to do a little
research to find out just who “Savage Tales Entertainment, LLC”
happens to be and what I found was a bit confusing. I couldn't find
anyone publicly associated with “Savage Tales,” yet they appear
to be out there just basically squatting on any unused publishing
trademarks they can find. For example, I found “Savage Tales”
claiming trademark ownership of Pete Morisi's “Peter Cannon,
Thunderbolt”...since 1966? “Savage Tales” claims they own the
trademark to “Charlton Comics”, “The Human Fly”, and other
obscure marks like that. I don't know exactly what's happening, but
it appears they are doing like web domain squatters but with
trademarks. I sent a message last week to the attorney listed on the recent legal ruling In Re Savage Tales Entertainment, LLC just
to ask for clarification. He was under no obligation to reply
back...and he didn't. So, the best I can do is speculate. My best
guess is that based on Dynamite's pattern of digging out old public
domain characters and grabbing trademarks on new versions of them,
that “Savage Tales” is a subsidiary of some sort (or a partner)
with Dynamite and they function as the licensing subsidiary of
Dynamite. That would offer some legal protection to Dynamite they
might not otherwise have. Setting up “Savage Tales” as an LLC
gives an even greater degree of personal legal protection.
That's my best guess. I would love to
know for sure but information is hard to dig up online and the couple
of people I contacted to ask about it either had no information or
were unwilling to share. So, there you go. The comic's pretty good,
but I have no clue what's going on with the whole “Lord of the
Jungle” trademark thing.
