First and Only Weekly Online Fanzine Devoted to the Life & Works of Edgar Rice Burroughs
Since 1996 ~ Over 15,000 Web Pages in Archive
Volume 2858
ERB ECLECTICA
ERB-Date: 2009.09
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 Edgar Rice Burroughs' John Carter of Mars Trilogy is published by Barnes & Noble with 60 new black and white illustrations by Thomas Yeates. www.tarzan.org/yeates Gallery 9 www.tarzan.org/yeates/gallery9.html |
Following the 1912 publication of his wildly successful Tarzan of the Apes, Edgar Rice Burroughs authored four bestselling sequels in quick succession. In 1916, Burroughs decided to backtrack a bit by recounting selected adventures from Tarzan's teenage years. The result was Jungle Tales of Tarzan, a dozen short stories bearing such titles as "Tarzan's First Love" and "Tarzan Captures the Moon" and which chronicle the events preceding the youthful hero's ascension to "King of the Jungle."
The Teenage Tarzan
A Literary Analysis of Edgar Rice Burroughs’ Jungle Tales of Tarzan
by Stan Galloway
with Foreword by James Gunn and cover art by Thomas Yeates
http://www.mcfarlandpub.com/book-2.php?id=978-0-7864-3853-2
ISBN 978-0-7864-3853-2 ~ softcover 2010 ~ Price: $35.00
Available Spring/Summer 2010
Thomas Yeates and Stan Galloway
Presenting Yeates cover art for the soon-to-be-released Galloway bookThe adolescent phase of the character is the primary focus of this detailed analysis. The context, themes, motifs, and stylistic techniques of Jungle Tales of Tarzan are all fully explored, as well as the property's literary antecedents and its links to the various comic book and film adaptations of Edgar Rice Burroughs' most celebrated and enduring creation.
About the Author
Stan Galloway has written several articles for The Burroughs Bulletin and has given presentations about Tarzan throughout the United States. He teaches literature at Bridgewater College in Virginia.
Michael Edward Tierney: A superhero to comic-book collectorsMichael Tierney wages a never-ending battle for comics pitched to kids.
His own Wild Stars series has a flock of fans.
Arkansas Online ~ August 9, 2009
LITTLE ROCK — Michael Tierney keeps company with multimillionaire industrialists and other highfliers. He knows the secrets that some of the world’s most famous and powerful figures would bend steel to keep out of the news - the stories of their private lives, their hidden origins, their complicated marriages.Superman, for example, is married to Lois Lane in today’s comic books, Tierney says, catching lapsed readers up to date from the crowded racks of his business, The Comic Book Store, on Treasure Hill Road in Little Rock.
Bruce Wayne is Gotham City’s wealthiest and most eligible bachelor, as always. But Tierney imagines a heart-pounding reversal in the comics’ ever-changing social scene. . . more>>>
LEIGH BRACKETT
Audio Interview with Leigh Brackett
Listen to an audio interview with Leigh Brackett (MP3 format, approximately 70 minutes).
INTERVIEW:
http://tonymacklin.net/audio/brackett.mp3
The interview was conducted by Tony Macklin and was originally published on June 18, 2009 on tonymacklin.netERBzine Article
COLONIAL BARSOOM: LEIGH BRACKETT
Spaceman's Burden by Den Valdron
http://www.erbzine.com/mag17/1783.htmlVisit the new Google Group ListServ devoted to Leigh Brackett
"This site is dedicated to the queen of space opera/sci-fantasy, LEIGH BRACKETT !All of her books, movies[ science-fiction, fantasy, mysteries, westerns]and anything in general about her can be discussed."
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/leighbrackett/
John Carter and the Code of BarsoomReprinted below is a humorous excerpt from the beginning of Ebert’s original review of T.N.T. Jackson (1975), a movie about drug-smuggling in Asia starring Jeanne Bell as the title character. The excerpt is taken from I Hated, Hated, Hated This Movie (2000), a collection of more than 200 of Roger Ebert's most scathing and entertaining reviews.
You remember the story about John Carter of Mars. He was Edgar Rice Burroughs's hero, and he galloped all over Mars on whatever passed for a horse up there. One day he was attacked and chased by a band of villains who started hacking at him with their swords.
Carter of Mars drew his own trusty blade and started hacking back at them, while trying to make it up the castle stairs. But they were too much for him. First he lost a leg. Then an arm. They were gaining on him. "The hell with this," said John Carter, throwing away his sword, drawing his atomic ray gun and zapping the bad guys into a radioactive ash heap.
I think about that story every time I see a Kung Fu movie, because Kung Fu movies depend on the same unwritten rules as John Carter novels: Nobody can have a gun. If they had a gun, they’d just shoot you, and you wouldn’t get to go through the whole “aaaaaiiiiieeeee” number and leap about with your fists flashing, your foot cocked, and your elbow of death savagely bent. It's great to have a black belt, but it’s better if the bad guys know the rules.
Tarzan the Ape Man
Extract of a Variety review from 1932
Refer to the ERBzine Silver Screen coverage starting in ERBzine
http://www.erbzine.com/mag6/0611.htmlCredits: M-G-M. Director W.S. Van Dyke; Producer [uncredited]; Screenplay Cyril Hume, Ivor Novello; Camera Harold Rosson, Clyde De Vinna; Original Story: Edgar Rice Burroughs; Editor Ben Lewis, Tom Held; Music [uncredited]; Art Director Cedric Gibbons
Cast: Johnny Weissmuller; Maureen O'Sullivan; Neil Hamilton; C. Aubrey Smith; Doris Lloyd; Forrester HarveyA jungle and stunt picture, done in deluxe style, with tricky handling of fantastic atmosphere, and a fine, artless performance by the Olympic athlete that represents the absolute best that could be done with the character [created by Edgar Rice Burroughs]. Footage is loaded with a wealth of sensational wild animal stuff. Suspicion is unavoidable that some of it is cut-in material left over from the same producer's Trader Horn (by the same director).
Some of the stunt episodes are grossly overdone, but the production skill and literary treatment in other directions compensates. Tarzan (Johnny Weissmuller) is pictured as achieving impossible feats of strength and daring. One of them has him battling single-handed, and armed only with an inadequate knife, not only with one lion but with a panther and two lions, and saved at the last minute from still a third big cat only by the friendly help of an elephant summoned by a call of distress in jungle language.
Story that introduces the Tarzan character is slight. An English trader (C. Aubrey Smith) and his young partner (Neil Hamilton) are about to start in search of the traditional elephants' graveyard where ivory abounds, when the elder man's daughter from England (Maureen O'Sullivan) appears at the trading post and insists upon going along. The adventures grow out of their travels. (B/W) Running time: 70 MIN.
Variety.com has over 150,000 articles, 40,000 reviews and 10,000 pages of charts.
Sign up for a free trial!: http://www.variety.com/emailfriend
Jet-Propelled Couch:
A true story of a physicist who thought he was a science fiction hero on another planetThis is the incredible true story of a physicist who believed he could project himself to another solar system and live as a swashbuckling interplanetary adventurer. When he was a teenager and living on a Polynesian island, he had read a series of "strange and adventurous" science fiction / fantasy books by an American writer. The protagonist shared his name, and eventually the physicist started thinking he really was the character. But he was still able to maintain a duel identity -- he sort of "astral projected" into that fantasy world while keeping the appearance of a skinny-tie wearing physicist. The article was written by the man's psychiatrist, Robert Lindner, and appeared in Harper's in 1954. The physicist, "Kirk Allen" (his name was changed by Lindner), worked in a government research lab, and his superiors were concerned by his behavior (Allen would often space out at work while his fantastical reveries played out in his head) so they sent him to Lindner.
You can read the story in its entirety at Harper's website:
Part I
http://www.harpers.org/archive/1954/12/0006789
Part II
http://www.harpers.org/archive/1955/01/0006815
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From the Stars and Stripes Archive 
Joe Wesley ©Stars and Stripes Wiesbaden, Germany, October, 1971: Johnny Weissmuller lets out the "Tarzan yell" that became his trademark during 19 movie performances as the jungle hero. Weissmuller explained its origins: "My parents came from Vienna ... I learned to yodel at German picnics." |
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Hilo Hero: Edgar Rice Burroughs
By: David Smay ~ HiLoBrow.com 2009.09.01
There’s a case to be made that the 20th Century begins in America when EDGAR RICE BURROUGHS (1875-1950) published his first story, “Under the Moons of Mars,” in All-Story Magazine in 1912. Burroughs trafficked in all the dominant pop literary tropes of the late 19th century — hollow earth adventures, lost races and cities, Martian canals, astral projection to other planets, and feral children — but stripped them clean of their fusty, Victorian values. His lost race yarns aren’t nearly as racist as those of A. Merritt or H. Rider Haggard. Burroughs doesn’t need to deform science to explain his hollow earth, and his astral projection doesn’t drag in Madame Blatavsky in order to launch a cavalryman to Mars. Burroughs doesn’t give a shit about the ideologies of the genres strip-mines for stories; and he streamlines 19th-century pseudoscience into pure sensation and thrills. What’s more 20th-century American than value-free sensationalism, I ask you? Kreegah Bundolo!
Burroughs Bulletin #81: Farmer issueBurroughs Bulletin #79 has announced that Issue #81, to be published in February 2010, will be a commemorative Philip Jose Farmer Issue: The Tarzan Tales.
"Articles are welcome for this issue, especially concerning his ERB-related works like Tarzan Alive, Lord Tyger, Lord of the Trees, Mother Was a Lovely Beast, Adventure of the Peerless Peer, Flight to Opar, Hadon of Ancient Opar, Dark Heart of Time and any other books, particularly like, such as Time's Last Gift or the Riverworld series."
The deadline for Issue #81 is December 15, 2009. Refer to the bottom of each issue of ERBzine Weekly Webzine for the address to send the articles to for this issue. Payment information for a subscription is also given.
Ref: www.burroughsbibliophiles.com
Tarzan of the Apes: The Original ClassicSteve Allsup review at the Barnes and Noble site ~ August 8, 2009
Tarzan of the Apes is a seminal work-- not only the first book (and origin) of Tarzan, but the first modern mythic fiction superhero that would not only lay the groundwork for the fantasy pulps but the comic book superhero genre. Tarzan is the original modern superman. One of my top favorite books, right up there with King Kull. Here you have the nicest paperback edition of the book ever done, annotated with several pages of notes, and an introduction, and most important, not seen in this outdated photo, is the new Frank Frazetta cover the book now has on its recent printing. Highly recommended!
Frazetta art for the back cover of Mad 106 ~ October 1956
Russ Cochran recently auctioned Frank Frazetta's back cover for MAD #106 (October 1966).
This lovely watercolor-and-ink original is entitled "Early One Morning in the Jungle," and consists of four panels rendered on four individual boards measuring 5" x 14" each.
"Frazetta's delicate watercolors are rare from this time period, during which many masterpieces were created," Russ Cochran said.
"These four watercolor and colored ink paintings contain all the Frazetta trademarks: the lush foliage, the moss-covered log, the phallic mushrooms. This is a treasure for the advanced Frazetta-Tarzan collector."
See our Frazetta Galleries of ERB Art
http://www.ERBzine.com/ff
Original art by Hal Foster ~ October 1932
Russ Cochran recently auctioned the original art for a Hal Foster Tarzan Sunday page from 1932. "In 1932, due to the release of the MGM movie Tarzan the Ape Man, Edgar Rice Burroughs's famous creation was enjoying his greatest popularity. Tarzan was in the movies, both features and serials, on the radio, appearing in pulp magazines and newspaper serializations, and now Tarzan was one of the most popular Sunday comic features.
There was an attempt to bring together the various images of Tarzan: Since the movie Tarzan wore a loin cloth instead of an over-the-shoulder leopard skin, so the writers of the comic strip arranged for Tarzan's costume to change in August.
"The movie Tarzan visited the Elephant's Graveyard, and this story line was incorporated into the comic," said Cochran. "A thoroughly wonderful Foster original! They don't come any better than this!"
Read the Hal Foster Biography in ERBzine 0802
http://www.erbzine.com/mag8/0802.html
Tarzan at Sandy Beach
http://harveyslake.org/text/story_weissmuller.htm
Copyright 2006-2008 F. Charles Petrillo
In June 1931 Johnny Weissmuller visited the Wyoming Valley for swimming exhibitions in Wilkes-Barre and at Sandy Beach at Harvey’s Lake. This ad ran in the Wilkes-Barre Record. The "tank top" men's bathing suit Weissmuller promoted at the time would evolve during the 1930's. By the end of the decade the swim "top" was largely no longer used.
Although not yet a movie star in his famous role as Tarzan, Weissmuller already has earned a household name as the world's most famous swimmer. He had won 3 gold metals in swimming and a bronze with the men's water polo team in the 1924 Paris Olympics. In the 1928 Amsterdam Olympics he won 2 more gold metals. He eventually was credited with 52 US National Championship titles and 67 world records.
The Wilkes-Barre department store, Simon Long's Sons, exclusive distributors of BVD swim suits, sponsored Weissmuller's local exhibitions, which featured BVD's newest line of swimwear. Weissmuller signed on as a commercial model and spokesman for BVD in 1929, a national leader in swimwear. He also completed movie shorts - including appearances in "Crystal Champions" featuring himself and other Olympic swimmers in water shows from Silver Springs, Florida.
Arriving on Tuesday, June 30, 1931, Weismuller visited Long's store in the morning and at 1:00 p.m. gave a demonstration of his swimming techniques near the Market Street Bridge in the Susquehanna River. The river at that time was an open cesspool dumped with both residential sewage and mine waste. Weissmuller was best known for his freestyle, swimming rather high in the water with deep kicks. Coached by William Bachrack at the Illinois Athletic Club for the Olympics, Weissmuller broke the 100 meter freestyle record in 1921 at 58.6 seconds.
In the afternoon Weissmuller, accompanied by another Olympic swim champion, Harold "Stubby" Kreuger (1897-1965), swam at Sandy Beach. An Olympic swimmer from Hawaii, Kreuger was a swimming competitor of Weissmuller. He held many world titles in the backstroke event and he became a master comedy diver. Kreuger appeared with the future Tarzan in an early short comedy file "The Human Fish." Kreuger developed an aquatic comedy persona and appeared in regular film features beginning in 1932. While never a major comedy star he continued in films through the 1950's.
An account of Weissmuller and Kreuger's local exhibition appeared in the Wilkes-Barre Record on July 1, 1931:
Johnny Weissmuller, the world’s fastest swimmer, delighted thousands of persons who witnessed two demonstrations he gave in this region yesterday, one in Susquehanna river, near Market street bridge, and the other at Sandy Beach, Harvey's Lake. In each place he demonstrated the stokes that enabled him to capture the world’s speed record for swimming -- Weissmuller's record for swimming 100 yards is forty-nine seconds. He equaled that in his river exhibition and a few hours later at Sandy Beach. Not only did Johnnie demonstrate that he is the world's champion swimmer, but he also gave exhibitions of plain and fancy diving and stunt swimming that added to the enthusiasm his local admirers have for his all-around aquatic ability.
After Weismuller had displayed his bag of swimming and diving tricks, Stubby Kreuger, nationally known water comedian drew gales of laughter with his original antics of buffoonery, in, on and under the water. Kreuger, who is making a tour of the country with Weissmuller, his pal, recently finished a series of sound pictures that were directed by Grantland Rice, syndicate sports writer. Kreuger is a former world’s swimming record champion. With Weissmuller he captured most of the swimming honors in the 1924 and 1928 Olympic meets. When Kreuger saw his records being shattered by Weissmuller he decided to become to the swimming pools of the country what Charlie Chaplin is to the screen and Nick Altrock and Al Shact are to the baseball diamond. His local comedy swimming exhibitions added emphasis to the belief that he has been preeminently successful.
Assisting Weissmuller and Kreuger in their exhibitions was a group of local acquatic stars. They were Slatz Obits, Miss Ruth Rittenmeyer, Miss Ruth Brown and Miss Ruth Harrison. John Noble, city councilman, introduced the swimming champions to the crowds at Sandy Beach and in this city. Weissmuller's wife, the former Bobby Arnst of musical comedy and vaudeville fame, was scheduled to accompany him to this city, but on Monday she left the party at Harrisburg to return to New York to discuss her next season's theatrical contract.
Visit of Weissmuller and Kreuger was sponsored by Simon Long’s Sons clothing store, local dealer for B.V.D. swimming suits that are indorsed and used by them. Weissmuller and Kreuger were guests of Clinton Long, Cosmar P. Long and Isaac Long at dinner at Irem Temple Country Club. Weissmuller and Kreuger left about midnight for Buffalo, where today they will give three exhibitions.
Tarzan Slots: New Slot game released at Party Casino
Party Casino the world’s largest online casino’s latest product release sees the introduction of new slot Tarzan and a fresh new approach to blackjack in the form of Multi-Hand Blackjack Pro. Tarzan is a 20 line, five reel branded slot game licensed from Edgar Rice Burroughs Inc based on the adventures of Tarzan ™, the Lord of the Jungle. The game features fully animated artwork based on the original Joe Kubert illustrations, a story bonus round, a Tarzan wild scatter which sees Tarzan swing across the screen and turn random symbols wild and a stampede free-spin bonus.
Pixar's live action "John Carter of Mars" is a go
Examiner.com ~ August 28, 2009
Disney’s John Carter of Mars is seemingly moving ahead full-throttle. Several major casting announcements have given the once doubtful-looking project new credibility. Taylor Kitsch, “Gambit” in X-Men Origins: Wolverine, plays the title character, a Civil War veteran who finds himself transported to the even more dangerous planet Mars. Kitsch has also been seen in the TV show Friday Night Lights, as well as the movies Snakes on a Plane and John Tucker Must Die! Willem Dafoe has signed to play Martian warrior Tars Tarkas. Other recent cast additions include Dominic West, Samantha Morton and Polly Walker. Thomas Hayden Church also joins Lynn Collins, who co-starred with Kitsch in X-Men Origins: Wolverine.Pixar director Andrew Stanton (Finding Nemo, Wall-e) makes his live-action directorial debut. The script is by Stanton, Pulitzer Prize winning novelist Michael Chabon and Mark Andrews. John Carter of Mars is based on a series of novels by Edgar Rice Burroughs, author of the Tarzan novels. Tarzan is currently being developed (again) for the big screen, this time by GI Joe: Rise of the Cobra director Stephen Sommers.
Interest in filming the Burroughs fantasy/science fiction series has flared up periodically for decades. Looney Toons director Bob Clampett expressed interest in making an animated feature based on John Carter of Mars in the thirties but was unable to convince backers the idea was viable. A few years later, Walt Disney produced Snow White. Stop motion animation guru Ray Harryhausen wanted to make the project in the fifties, and John McTiernan reportedly made a stab at it in the eighties. John Carter of Mars is currently projected to be released in 2012.
For more info: www.johncarterofmars.ca
http://www.johncarterofmars.ca/news
H. G. Wells Tribute on Google
Google confirmed that a trio of mysterious doodles posted on its homepage over the past couple of weeks is a tribute to British science fiction author H.G. Wells, who would have been 143 years old on September 21st:“Inspiration for innovation in technology and design can come from lots of places; we wanted to celebrate H.G. Wells as an author who encouraged fantastical thinking about what is possible, on this planet and beyond. And maybe have some fun while we were doing it.”
Bob Clampett's Beany & Cecil DVD with Burroughs "Mars" Test Footage - 1936Marking their 60th anniversary in show business, Beany, Cecil and the gang are back in Bob Clampett's Beany and Cecil the Special Edition Volume 2. To make it even more special, we found in our warehouse a limited supply of Beany and Cecil the Special Edition Volume 1, the highly prized release from the year 2000, now out of print. It has become a collector’s item.
This unopened stock of Volume 1 is being offered at its original price while supplies last. The first chance in nearly a decade to own the classic Beany and Cecil cartoons and the Time for Beany puppet shows. Packed with Rare Archival Materials. Interviews with Creator Bob Clampett. Transfers from the original camera negatives. Volume 2 cartoons in English and Spanish.
Of special interest to ERB/JCB and Bob Clampett fans and scholars is the rare footage of the John Carter Animation Project test footage from the 1930s. Only available at beanyandcecil.com
See:
http://www.erbzine.com/mag21/2175.html
and
http://www.erbzine.com/mag21/2176.html
Early '70s photo courtesy of Rob Clampett
Bob Clampett and John Coleman Burroughs with the promotional portfolio of their John Carter project
View a John Carter of Mars Animation Excerpt
Tarzan's Dad at the Hickman TrialBob Clampett's son, Rob, was introduced to the Parker Hickman case some years ago by Delmar Watson the nephew of press photographer George Watson who documented the entire Parker Hickman case and had a unique perspective on several key events relating to the case. Delmar got Rob very interested, to the point that he did extensive research. He videotaped all of the major locations including the interior and exterior of the Hall of Justice, interior and exterior of the murder site, the Parker house, body drop sites, Marian Parker's grave and the Rialto Theater in Pasadena. He also read the trial transcripts at the State archive. Once he had the entire case in his mind's eye he even wrote an unpublished script of the story in which he included a scene of ERB attending the trial. Some of Rob's research, including ERB's involvement may be seen on the insroland.org blog. Read it at:
http://www.insroland.org/tarzansdadRob Clampett referenced some of our ERBzine pages in his feature.
Contents of our ERBzine coverage of the case and ERB's involvement may be found at:
Edgar Rice Burroughs Reports on the Notorious 1928 Hickman Trial
http://www.erbzine.com/mag17/1767.html
Collectors Corner
Pulp collector Frank Robinson disposes of his massive collectionThe Ultimate Tattoo, Tarzan Riding A Lion
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