Tarzan Sunday Comic Strips by Archie Goodwin & Gil Kane

Tarzan has been a mainstay of the Sunday comics page since the 1930s and the work of Hal Foster. Notable artists over the following decades include Burne Hogarth and Russ Manning. I came along in the late 70s, enjoying the work of Gil Kane, and later Mike Grell and Gray Morrow, artists I was familiar with from comic books.

Archie Goodwin and Kane were on the Sunday strip for 83 weeks. During this time Kane did this illustration which was used as the cover of The Comics Journal No. 64.

Following that are the first three strips from the 1979/80 story “Refuge from the Rich and Famous”, which was reprinted in black & white by Blackthorne Publishing in their Comic-Strip Preserves: Tarzan, Book 4. Fresh colour by me.

New colour and book cover design by myself.

THE COVER

As originally published.

A scan found on the web. It shows the extreme fading resulting from Kane’s use of non-permanent markers.

Restored art. Thankfully, while faded, the details were still there and were recoverable with a bit of redrawing. And for the Comics Journal, the art had been extended so that was re-created here as well.

New colour.

New book design. Remember, it isn’t a real book, but it is a real design.

THE STRIPS

MEANWHILE IN FRANCE

This forthcoming French edition went a different route, commissioning Joe Jusko to do a painted homage to Kane’s illustration.