The new magazine has meant that the already overworked
creator has had to discontinue the daily syndicated TARZAN strip, which
he has written and drawn for six years, at least for the next several months.
(The final Manning daily feature appeared July 29th, completing "Return
to the Earth's Core," possibly the best of all the Tarzan newspaper adventures.)
Manning, who will continue the Sunday strip, was perhaps unique among current
adventure strip artists, doing virtually all his own work, writing, penciling,
inking, and lettering TARZAN with very little assistance. When he discontinued
the daily strip, Manning told the WORLD, "It's impossible for a single
person to write and draw an adventure strip, daily and Sundays over several
years. The workload becomes too great."
United Features Syndicate has scheduled six months of
reprints, beginning -- curiously -- with the current Burne Hogarth-Dan
Barry adaptation of the original Pellucidar story, At the Earth's Core,
which appeared for the first time in 1947.
The new stories will be all-original, not adaptations
-- though, like ERB himself, Manning will set some of the tales in already
established locales. The first in the series, "Tarzan in the Land that
Time Forgot," is well underway, and although a final decision had not been
reached at press time, it may become the first part of a two-part
-- 96-page -- graphic novel laid in ERB's famed lost world near the South
Pole, Kaspak. (Film production of Burroughs' own novel, The Land That
Time Forgot, has now started in England.
Edgar Rice Burroughs' stories and characters are enormously
popular in Europe, where he is recognized as a major writer, a creator
whose stories are often described as "the most Burroughs-like" of all the
sequels to ERB's own, marks the first time any American graphic story creator
has had the opportunity to tell his stories at album-length, without the
problems of serialization, and it may represent a new step in the development
of the graphic story.
At least for the time being, however, this new series
will not be published here. Current plans call for National Comics to produce
all the ERB comic books in the U.S., and for Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc.
to produce all foreign comics editions. The possibility does exist, nonetheless
-- and graphic story fans and enthusiasts will be following developments
eagerly.
Debut: Gold Key Comics in 1963
Creators: Chase Craig (editor) and Russ Manning (writer/artist)
Ref: www.toonopedia.com
When cartoonist Russ Manning heard Gold Key Comics
editor Chase Craig was seeking a writer for a new series set in the year
4000 AD, he instantly applied for the job. Manning, a long-time fan of
Edgar Rice Burroughs and other writers of fantastic adventures — in addition
to being an artist with credits throughout the Dell/Gold Key line — was
loaded with ideas.
What emerged, from an initial concept by Craig fleshed
out by Manning, was a sort of future Tarzan. Magnus (whose name, Manning
said later, was inspired by Maximus, a character in Leonard Starr's newspaper
strip, Mary Perkins On Stage) was raised apart from human society,
by Robot 1A. Physically perfect and expertly trained in martial arts, Magnus
was capable of taking on a steel-plated robot with his bare hands. In addition,
1A had built a device into Magnus's head, enabling him to receive robot-to-robot
radio signals. Magnus's mission was to save the world from over-dependence
on robots — particularly those that had inexplicably turned evil. All this
came out in the first issue of Magnus, Robot Fighter, 4000 AD, which
was dated February, 1963.
Story-wise, Magnus was one of the better science fiction
series in comics — but where it really excelled was in Manning's art. The
city of North Am (which covers most of the North American continent in
Magnus's time) is a direct descendant of the futuristic cityscapes of pulp
magazine artist Frank R. Paul, as is seen in cartoon art from Adam Strange
to The Jetsons. But Manning's clean, clear touch made it seem even brighter,
more open and airy, than usual.
The Magnus series was about as successful as
most of the non-licensed adventure comics the company launched in the early
1960s. It flourished while the superheroes were at their peak, then languished.
Manning's last issue was #21 (February, 1968). Dan Spiegle (Crossfire,
Space Family Robinson) and Paul Norris (Aquaman, Brick Bradford) then did
a few issues, after which it went to reprints. It was published only sporadically
during the 1970s. The last issue was #46 (January, 1977).
In the late 1980s, comic book characters belonging
to Western Printing (the company behind the Gold Key imprint) were acquired
by a start-up company. First under the name Valiant Comics and then as
Acclaim Comics, the new publisher began putting out new comic books about
the character in 1990, and continued for most of the decade. But there's
been some tinkering with the basic concept.
As envisioned by Valiant Comics' first editor, Jim
Shooter (who started his comics career writing The Legion of Super Heroes
and went on to become the controversial 1980s editor-in-chief of Marvel
Comics), Magnus's world became less unambiguous in terms of moral values.
The "evil" robots, it turns out, are merely those that have developed free
will, and thus can oppose humans. Is it right to re-enslave them? Also,
in keeping with the '90s style of comics, things became grimmer 'n' grittier.
For example, some of the truly evil robots in this version consume the
energy of human bodies — they "eat" people, in other words. And Magnus
himself was turned into a fanatical hater of all things technological.
This version seems to have been a good deal more successful.
Since his revival, Magnus's story has become intertwined with that of Dr.
Solar, Turok and other Dell/Gold Key characters, as well as new ones owned
by Valiant/Acclaim, all of which have been woven together into a typical
superhero universe. He's had crossovers with Nexus, Predators, and other
established characters, just like the other '90s guys. And over twice as
many issues of the new version have been published — there aren't any coming
out right now, but that may be a temporary condition.
As science fiction writer Frederick Pohl once remarked,
"The future ain't what it used to be."
