Looking For a Good Book

If any of my local Sunday newspapers printed a color comic like this … Tarzan: The New Adventures, written by comic author/legend Roy Thomas, then I’d be a subscriber in a heartbeat! But while the format of all the installments in this book look very much like a Sunday color comic, these adventures were only available to subscribers to the Edgar Rice Burroughs website – until now.

Roy Thomas is a really top-notch comics writer and his adaptability really amazes me.  Writing in this Sunday newspaper format is very different from plotting and writing in the other comic formats.  It is much more limited and probably really hard to build a continuing story and create some rising action in the half-page story. There are times when I’d flip a page and think “That’s it?”, but in this book compilation it’s important to look at the entire story and not just each segment.

In his introduction, Thomas mentions that it was artist Tom Grindberg who approached him to write this strip. Their format seems unusual to me, and make me admire the writing work even more.  Roy would prepare a general plot, Grindberg would draw the strips and then Roy would go back and add the dialog later.

I liked the inclusion of Greek mythology in the first story. The moment I saw this I raised an eyebrow in a bit of disbelief, but it worked and I didn’t question it after that initial reaction.

Tom Grindberg’s art is fantastic!  It is really reminiscent of Frank Frazetta’s comic work and Hal Foster’s Prince Valiant.

The second story in the book is illustrated by Benito Gallego. Gallego is a talented artist, but the difference was marked because Grindberg’s art was so strong.

The second story was also a bit more fantastical – hard to believe since we had ancient Greece in the first one.

I’ve never been a big Tarzan fan, but I really enjoyed the stories and the art in this collection.  It’s listed as a Volume 1 and I’m already excited to see Volume 2.

Looking for a good book? Tarzan: The New Adventures by Roy Thomas with art by Tom Grindberg and Benito Gallego is an exciting collection of Sunday comic strip-style stories by some of the best creators in comics.

I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher, through Edelweiss, in exchange for an honest review.

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Tarzan: The New Adventures

author: Roy Thomas

artists: Tom Grindberg & Benito Gallego

publisher: Dark Horse Books

ISBN: 150671806X

hardcover, 108 pages