Besides what others have said about Tarzan’s literacy, Burroughs had a scene in one of his books poking fun at the movie Tarzan. Tarzan was in Hollywood, and auditioned for the role, but was rejected for not being Tarzany.
Dunno about the League, but the Curmudgeon restricts his comic snarking to the Houston Chronicle, which doesn’t carry Tarzan.
I have read most or all of the books, and the two things that struck me were [ul][li]the number of times Tarzan was knocked out, especially with grazing gunshots to the head, and []the number of languages he learned despite multiple concussions.[/ul]A partial list of the languages he picked up - [ul][]French, which he learned from Lieutenant Darnot[]English - ditto[]Arabic - he spoke it to the dancer in The Return of Tarzan[]Ape speak, learned as a child, and seemed a fully fledged language, spoken by apes and monkeys everywhere (and by the priest and priestesses of the City of Gold[]German, in Tarzan the Untamed[]Waziri, which he learned in about a page and a half when he first encountered the tribe that was his main backup[]Whatever the language was they spoke in Tarzan the Terrible[]I think he spoke Latin in Tarzan and the Lost Empire, although I could be mistaken[]Whatever language they spoke in Tarzan and the Ant Men[*]probably some others I’ve forgotten.[/ul]ER Burroughs seemed to have a rather naive, not to say racist, notion about African languages - that they were ‘simple’ and therefore easy to learn. [/li]
Regards,
Shodan
It’s not so much the text, it’s the animation, like most comics, every shot’s a money shot. Tarzan wasn’t gay; the animator may be gay, and probably closeted. Another reason for tolerance towards gays, we might have less sexually ambiguous comics.
I don’t remember that, and it seems odd, since Christopher Lambert grew up in Switzerland and France, and has been made fun of for playing American (or Scots) characters with an inexplicable mixed-European accent.
Which, uniquely to this thread, I misread as “monkey shot”.
The strip didn’t strike me as gay or pedophilic. What it had me wondering was “where did Tarzan get the Brylcreem?”. I suppose he could have made a substitute out of coconut oils or something, but where did he get the idea to grease his hair – from contact with a white man or did he just come up with it on his own? He couldn’t have learned it from the chimps, that’s for sure.
Also, I always thought the T-man wore a loincloth. His boxers looked suspiciously civilized, even designer…
I thought about the hair being too ridiculously clean and tidy on the boy. I have to work hard to keep my kids looking clean and neat with all the help of modern day technology and here Tarzan’s doing it with no wife, no plumbing, no electricity, and as far as I can see, no reason.
Didn’t he have some civilized estate with clothes and family in Son of Tarzan?
In the Sunday strip, Lord and Lady Greystoke hang out with Europeans and wear designer threads.
He died before my mom was born. Who the hell is making these comics?
Old comics never die. They just get handed down to the lowest bidder when the originator dies. Notable exceptions are Bloom County (which arguably didn’t actually end, but took over Outland by osmosis), Calvin & Hobbes and Peanuts (which isn’t being newly drawn but is being endlessly recycled).
As examples:
Blondie (which began in 1930) is still running. Little Orphan Annie (which began in 1924) is still running. Snuffy freakin’ Smith (which began in 1919) is still running. GASOLINE ALLEY (which began in 1918) IS STILL RUNNING!
They’re like the undead…they do not rest easy in the grave…
Hmmm… according to the signatures, the perpetrators appear to be two fellows named “Bill Elliot” and “John Crappo (?).” I’m not sure about that last one-- Jon’s name is a bit unclear, possibly by design; although they both sound like obvious pseudonyms to me. I wonder if Bill and John are roommates.
Alternately, I suppose it could be four guys: “Bill,” “Elliot,” “John,” and “Crappo.”
See the about the artist link on the strip. The dailies are reruns. Today’s is from 1959.
The Sunday strips are current by Eric Battle and Alex Simmons.
You know, that’s why they had no success in the movies…they were an obvious rip-off of the Marx Brothers…
Let me guess which one does the drawing…
Not sure what keeps the others running other than inertia, but I think “Annie” received a tremendous boost from its stage and screen incarnations two or three decades ago (and dropped the “Little Orphan” part of the title around that time). Somewhere along the line it seems to have become a deliberate parody of its former self, and I’ve actually found myself enjoying it since the recent story line involving time travel, espionage, an Amelia Earhart doppleganger and a “Make Way for Ducklings” crossover.
That was…interesting. 
Jane was the gorilla his dreams but she left him when she caught him monkeying around.
Is it just me or does that strip look kinda like one of those fantasy-world Calvin and Hobbes episodes?
-FrL-