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DELL #1 JANUARY/FEBRUARY 1948 ~ 36pp. 10cents
Front/Back Covers and Interior Art: Jesse Marsh (name label in first panel)
Writer: (Rob Thompson- unconfirmed)

Cover: Jesse Marsh - Both front and back covers concern themselves with the story contained between them. This is a good touch that will be discarded in later issues. 

Inside Front Cover:  Ink drawing called ‘Tarzan’s Ape-English Dictionary’. Six "A" words are listed and illustrated here. A (light); Ab (boy); Ara (lightning); Arad (spear); Argo (fire); and Aro (shoot/throw).
The inside front and back covers starts the Ape-English dictionary from Burroughs’ “The Official Guide of the Tarzan Clans of American.” The inside front cover lists six out the possible thirteen ‘A’ words. The choices of these particular words are good choices.

“Tarzan and the White Savages of Vari” - 32pp.
Type -- Lost City - Evil Empire Overthrown (Tarzan the Magnificent)

READ IT HERE
ERBzine 2401: Dell No. 1:  White Savages of Vari

Tarzan, Muviro, and Lt. Paul d’Arnot hear a human moaning. They go to investigate. They find a man, Walter Paige, with a fatal spear wound. Before he dies he tells them that his brother, Randolph, and he were searching for Muata Yamivo’s mines. The white savages of Vari captured them. He somehow managed to escape. He asks them to help his brother with the aid of Naranee. His dying words spoke of the secret entrance to Vari just south of the Peak of Moon. He gives Tarzan a ring that will identify him as a friend to Naranee. They bury him and examine the ring, which has the shape of a gimla rapped around it - tail inside of an open mouth. Muviro tells of the mysterious mine and of the Vari people with their crocodile god. Tarzan sends Muviro to bring Waziri warriors as he and Paul go to search for the secret entrance. At the base of Peak of Moon, Paul trips over a branch thus revealing the secret entrance. They leave a sign for the Waziri warriors and go through the tunnel.

As they move into the valley, suddenly white savages with spears surround them. They speak a mixture of Ushanti and Ga, which Tarzan understands. Tarzan tells Kroog, the leader of the group, that they come as friends. Abruptly, Kroog replies in English that they are prisoners. Kroog plans to take them to Tomara, the king, who will probably give them to Ma-amu. Tarzan asks who Ma-amu is. Kroog says one day he will see Ma-amu. Along the way Tarzan asks who Naranee is. Kroog explains that she was once the queen but soon will be given to Ma-amu. Tarzan smells a leopard. Sheeta attacks Kroog. Tarzan kills sheeta with his knife. A grateful Kroog is now taking Tarzan to see Tomara as a friend. Tarzan asks about Randolph Paige. Kroog tells of two strangers, one dead and one a prisoner. They approach the savage city of Vari. Paul calls the city, medieval in appearance. Tarzan and Paul talk about rescuing Paige and the questionable friendliness of the Vari people. They comment on the cruel faces of the people. They see Ma-amu, the huge crocodile god of the Vari.

They are brought before King Tomara. Tarzan tells him they are in search of Randolph Paige. The withered old king asks why they search here. Tarzan tells Walter Paige’s dying story. Tomara flies into a rage. He accuses Kroog of lying about Walter’s death and has Kroog thrown into prison along with Tarzan and Paul. Tarzan tells Kroog that he is sorry that he was responsible for his imprisonment. Kroog says it was just a matter of time anyway. King Varo had died and the high priest Tomara has made himself king. He imprisoned Varo’s daughter, Naranee, the queen. Many hate Tomara and are loyal to the queen, making them susceptible to imprisonment. Kroog is loyal to Naranee.

Tarzan decides to escape through the barred window despite the black leopard in the compound below. Tarzan rips out the entire framed bars. He breaks up the frame and distributes the wood bars to everyone to be used as clubs. Tarzan intends to capture Tomara, whose sleeping quarters are on the other side of the compound through an open window. While sheeta is asleep Tarzan enters the compound. Agu, the black panther, awakes and attacks. Tarzan kills it with his club. Tomara is watching through his window. Tarzan enters Tomara’s empty quarters. He follows the scent to the next room where he is captured in a rawhide net. Tomara enters and says Tarzan will die a slow death, tomorrow. He leaves with Tarzan still hanging in the net. Tarzan uses the club to loosen the rawhide and then breaks free with his bare hands. With guards now placed outside the door and window, Tarzan examines the fireplace. He discovers a ledge up the chimney, which leads to a secret passageway. He follows the corridor to another fireplace. Smelling the scent of a woman, Tarzan enters the room noiselessly and finds Naranee. He says, “Do not be afraid. I am a friend. I will not harm you.” Tarzan shows her the gimla ring (her father’s ring) and tells her his story.

They leave via the fireplace in search of other passageways. They come to a staircase, which leads to other fireplace entrance. Below they hear Tomara ordering Paul and Kroog sent to the Cave of the Condemned, Ma-amu’s cave. Armed with a torch from Tomara’s room, they discover another staircase, which they follow deep below the palace. At the end of the corridor they stand on a ledge of a great cavern. In the cavern below are Paul, Kroog, Paige, and other prisoners loyal to Naranee. Guards come in and take Paul and Paige away. Tarzan pulls Kroog and the others up to the ledge. Tarzan sends Naranee to a place of safety, Thula’s house, a friend of Naranee. He then has Kroog send a messenger to Muviro and enters the throne room via a fireplace. The throne room is empty. From the window he sees Paul and Paige being thrown to the giant crocodile. Tarzan dives from the window and slays Ma-amu with his bare hands. Kroog’s men come and the revolt starts. Outnumbered ten to one, it looks grim when suddenly the Waziri warriors appear and the tide turns. Tomara flees to his palace. Tarzan enters through a fireplace and captures him. Tomara is banished. Naranee is enthroned as queen and presents Tarzan with her father’s ring. End

Although the story borrows some elements from Tarzan the Magnificent, it has its own variation of the plot’s ‘search and rescue.’ The direct lifting of the king’s anger at his henchman through Tarzan being caught in a rawhide net plus the secret corridors of the fireplaces helps give the story an authentic Burroughs’ feel. The story allows Tarzan to kill with his knife, a club, and his bare hands. He is very stoic about his succession of captures. Eventually he gets to defeat the evil king and restore power to the rightful ruler. Jesse Marsh does use a number of variations of the number of panels per page. Quite frequently using five rather than the normal six panels per page. This helps break up the pages visually. Also used to help stimulate more visual interest, he frequently puts some of the figures in the shadows and at times, almost silhouettes. The use of an ink border around each panel is common even to this day. In this issue Marsh allows the color of the background be the edge of the panel fifteen times and most dramatically during the Tarzan’s struggle to free himself from the rawhide net. Marsh depicts the white savages of the Vari with a low forehead, which is a typical Burroughs’ description when writing about a low intelligence races. He also draws them consistently with very small heads and short stubby legs. Their bodies are quite large and hairy with animal fur clothing. 

There are a couple of minor points that need to be noted: page four, panel two Paige is spelled Page and the use of the name Varo as the king and Naranee’s father. The problem is not that he is a non-character. The problem is with the name. Varo is the name Burroughs used for a general of Amtor in Carson of Venus. If the writer was aware of this, he probably would not have used it because he seems to have strived hard to give this, the first of the Tarzan series, a true authentic Burroughs feel. Aside from these minor problems, it is a wholly satisfying first adventure. It has just the one thirty-two-page story and no advertisements.

Inside Back Cover: Ink drawings (Ape-English Dictionary). Eight "B" words are illustrated here. Balu-den stick/branch/limb); Bar (battle); Bolgani (gorilla); Buto (rhinoceros); B’wang (hand); B’yat (head); B’zan (hair); and B’zee (foot).

The inside back cover lists eight of the possible seventeen ‘B’ words. Here there is a questionable exclusion of ‘balu’ (baby) and ‘bundolo’ (kill) because these two words are so prominently used in the novels and subsequently in the comics.

Back Cover: Tarzan wrestling with gimla, the crocodile, in the water with his bare hands. The center of the image is Tarzan’s hands on the upper jaw of the crocodile pulling it open. This relates to story when Tarzan kills a huge crocodile god of the white savages of Vari with his bare hands.

SEE ALSO - Dell #1 Comparison Study Tarzan the Magnificent in this web site.

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DELL #2 MARCH/APRIL 1948 ~ 36pp. 10cents

Front/Back Covers and Interior Art: Jesse Marsh (name label in fifth panel on the first page)
Writer: Gaylord Du Bois Cover: Jesse Marsh
The front and back covers relate nicely to the story contained within even though Marsh needed to add an eland, not in the story, for the sake of balance.
Inside Front Cover:  Ink drawings of “Tarzan’s Ape-English Dictionary.” There are six "D" words listed here. Dak-lul (lake); Dako-zan (meat, flesh); Dan (rock, stone); Dango (hyena); Dum-Dum (tom-tom, drum); and Duro (hippopotamus).

The inside front cover presents six out of the possible thirteen ‘D’ words in the Ape-English Dictionary. (Note: There are no ‘C’ words in the Ape-English dictionary.) They are a good limited choice. Curiously, the ape used to illustrate the word dum-dum is more ape-like than Marsh uses in the actual story. 

Tarzan and the Captives of Thunder Valley” - 32pp.
Type: Arab slavers - Scientist rescued

READ IT HERE
ERBzine 2402: Dell No. 2

Manu, the monkey witnesses the Lubamba village being plundered by savages and flees to tell Tarzan. He finds Tarzan wrestling with Gufta, a great ape, and tells him about the tribesmen being led away in ropes. Tarzan leaves to investigate but comes across Muviro and some Waziri warriors who want to help in the investigation. Tarzan travels ahead and discovers an M’boko spear at the destroyed village. He leaves a mark for the Waziri.

A young boy awakes in a tree. He is searching for Tarzan. Tarzan catches the scent of numa. The lion is about to attack the boy. Tarzan kills the lion with his bare hands. The boy knows it is Tarzan and tells him how he, Tommy, and his father, Dr. Harvey Newsome, came in search of thorium, a radioactive ore. They were betrayed and have been held captive by an Arab by the name of Ayoub. A guide, Luba, told Tommy about Tarzan. He escaped and went to look for Tarzan to help his father.  Tarzan feeds Tommy, leaves Tantor to guard him. Tarzan leaves him a message for Muviro. Using Tommy’s description of the Arab camp, Tarzan goes to scout it out. After discovering the valley with the waterfall he rests for the night. In the morning, he looks over the camp and goes back to meet with Muviro.

Muviro and the warriors find Tommy. He tells them Tarzan went to Thunder Valley. They have a meal of yams and manioc roots and lie down to sleep. That night, the M’boko kill the Waziri guard and capture all the other Waziri plus Tommy. Tarzan sees them marching the prisoners to the Arab camp. Tarzan sneaks in and frees the Waziri and arms them with spears. Bolobo, the chief of the M’bolo, awakes and a fight commences. Many M’bolo escape.

They head for the Ayoub’s encampment. Tarzan overpowers a guard and tells the Lubambas that they will soon be free. He goes back to the Waziri to discover that Tommy has disappeared. Tarzan decides that they must attack the Arab camp first. Leaping to the top of palisade, Tarzan silences the guard but not his gun. Quickly he dons the guard’s clothes and calms the Arabs who were alerted by the gunfire. He eliminates the three other guards and the firing pins from their machineguns. He opens the gates and leads the warriors to the arsenal so they can have guns also. As Ayoub comes out of his house, Tarzan disarms him. Ayoub cries out an alarm and a gun battle follows, which the Waziri win. In the search of Ayoub’s quarters, Tarzan finds a servant who tells him that Dr. Newsome is being held in the Cave of the Winds. Behind the waterfall Tarzan enters the cavern and finds Dr. Newsome. The doctor explains that he has been refining thorium for Ayoub who intends it to be used in atomic weapons. He wants the thorium returned to the earth and the machinery destroyed. Tarzan pours out the refined thorium, sends the Arabs north, sends the Lubambas home with guns, and says he will destroy Thunder Valley.

Tarzan and Dr. Newsome follow Tommy’s trail. Tarzan learns that he has been captured by the M’bokos. As the natives sleep, a passing great ape group, including Gufta, hear Tommy whisper Tarzan’s name. Gufta slips in and grabs him. Bolobo awakens and throws a spear hitting Khako, another great ape. Khako removes the spear and throws it into Bolobo. After a night’s rest Tarzan takes to the trees with Dr. Newsome on his back. They come to the M’boko camp and the bones of Bolobo. Tarzan talks with Dacco, a hyena, and learns of the battle with apes. Further on the trail they come upon the dying Khako who tells him that Gufta has Tommy. Tarzan buries Khako under a gigantic boulder. They follow Gufta’s trail for three days and nights losing it at the edge of a mangrove swamp. Tarzan spots a floating island. They swim for it. Gimla, the crocodile, heads for them. Tarzan kills it with his knife. The floating island takes them to Gufta and Tommy. A motor launch comes. Gufta and Tarzan disappear.

A week later, Tarzan and Muviro return to Thunder Valley. They blow up the camp and the waterfall causing the river to cover the valley. Tarzan says the river will cover the secret that has poisoned men’s souls. End

This is a new story, which starts out strong with an incident involving manu, the monkey, excellently portrayed. It slides into the investigation of a savage take over of a village. The story shows Tarzan at his best: as friends of the apes, Tantor, and even talking with a hyena; as a man of great strength in slaying numa, gimla and in ripping open of a shed; as a great tracker; and of his cunning in dealing with the M’bolo. Allowing the Waziri to be surprised and captured by the M’bolo then later losing track of Tommy is disparaging to the great warriors. These incidents were probably needed to extend the story to 32 pages. It does become a bit preachy when dealing with the thorium question -- talking about how mankind is not ready to use radioactivity for good rather than evil. (Understandably because this is only three year after the first use of atomic weapons in World War II.) The story appears to be finished after the rescue of Dr. Newsome, but the disappearance of Tommy requires his rescue also. This seems a bit forced. (Also interesting is the writer’s use of the word ‘clew’ as Burroughs liked to spell it. Now days we are more use to seeing it spelled ‘clue.’)

Marsh’s use of almost exclusively six panels per page does not help the static pace of the story. His great apes still look like gorillas, but they are nicely done. The battle scenes with numa and gimla display a lot of action. In fact, Marsh seems to be at his best when dealing with animals. As in Tarzan #1 he uses a number of shadow and silhouette panels that help break up the panels visually. He has quite a number of scenes with Tarzan flying through the air or on vines with or without people on his back. He designates the different tribes by placing different types of hairdos on them. Bolobo is differentiated from Muviro by a toothy necklace. Muviro has a double ring necklace. He started Muviro out in Dell #1 with this necklace but dropped it after the first couple of pages. In Dell #2 he left it out once in the middle and is completely missing on the last page. 

Inside Back Cover: Ink drawing entitled “Tarzan Ape-English Dictionary, continued.” There are six "E" words listed here. Eho-lul (wet); Eho-kut (hollow); Eho-nala (top); Eta (little); Eta-koho (warm); and Etarad (arrow).
The inside back cover illustrates six about of a possible eleven words.

Back Cover: Tarzan wrestling with an ape. He has a full-nelson on the ape as he bends its head towards the ground. Behind the wrestlers is a large ape, which looks as if it is clapping its hands. The entire scene has a diagonal composition going from the lower left to the upper right. The apes have a very gorilla-like looks to them. This relates an opening scene of Tarzan wrestling with an ape.

Over all this is neither as an interesting story nor in the art as Dell #1. There are still neither advertisements nor extra non-Tarzan stories.

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DELL #3 MAY/JUNE 1948 ~ 36pp. 10cents
Front and back covers and interior art: Jesse Marsh
Writer: Gaylord Du Bois

Cover: Above the Tarzan logo is ‘Edgar Rice Burroughs’s.’ This is the first appearance of Burroughs name on a cover. From this date onward all comics that have Tarzan, as their main story will contain the master’s name until the Dark Horse published Disney’s Tarzan comic. (Note: Dark Horse’s BATMAN and the Claws of the Cat-Woman TARZAN gives Batman top billing so it is not strictly a Tarzan title.) The cover again relates to the story carried therein. There are five dwarf priests with bird-headgear on the cover, yet there is only one priest in the story.

Inside Front Cover: Ink drawing called “Tarzan’s Ape English Dictionary.” Six "G" words are listed and illustrated. Gando (win); Gom (run); Gom-lul (river); Gorgo (buffalo); Goro(moon); and Gund (chief).
The inside cover lists six of the possible eighteen ‘G’ words in the Ape-English Dictionary. The exclusion of gimla (crocodile) and gomangani (Negro/great black apes) are curiously left out.

“Tarzan and the Dwarfs of Didona” - 32pp.
Type -- Lost City - Boy is rescued

ERBzine 2403: Dell No. 3

Jane calls for Boy. He brings fruit to the tree house which manu promptly knocks off the table. Jane explains that they were poisonous fruits. Tarzan appears and tells Boy he will take him hunting for horta. As a boar drinks from a pool of water, Tarzan drops from a tree and kills it with his bare hands. On the way home Tarzan senses sheeta and signals Boy to climb a tree. The leopard is stalking a baboon and her balu. Tarzan intervenes; the leopard attacks Tarzan; he kills it with his knife. Tarzan gives the victory cry of the bull ape. He tells the ‘people of the rocks,’ the baboons, to protect Boy. They feed Boy some wild plantains. Back home, Jane nags Boy to study. So does Tarzan as he leaves to investigate Arab slavers in the area. During a week of studying, the future Lord Greystoke, Boy, often daydreams of his father’s heroic deeds.

At play with manu, Boy and the monkey notice baboons playing with something shinny. They join them. Boy catches the shinny, jeweled knife. The baboons explain that they found it at the Lake of Rocks. They take Boy through the trees to the lake. They sleep there that night and the next morning Boy makes a boat out of a log and a giant leaf for a sail. Suddenly sheeta appears. The baboons run off. Boy paddles further out into the lake to avoid sheeta’s claws. The wind takes his craft out into the lake. 

Jane is looking for Boy as Tarzan comes home. Jane tells him that manu said that the baboons took Boy off through the trees. Oremba, Muviro’s son, enters and wants to help Tarzan search for Boy. They follow the trail to the Lake of the Rocks. They circle the lake in opposite directions. Oremba finds Boy’s makeshift boat. Tarzan notices the fog in the middle of the lake and sends Oremba to tell Jane what has happen. He swims towards the fog bank.

Once through the fog he discovers an island. He comes upon dwarf farmers who panic at the sight of him. Tarzan tries a dozen dialects with no success. With more dwarfs coming he takes to the trees. Tarzan goes through their village at night and cannot catch Boy’s scent. He explores more of the island and finds the rim of a crater. He detects Boy’s scent mixed with the scent of others in the mist of the crater. He sleeps for the night. In the morning he returns to the chasm and finds guards and a rope bridge. As he approaches, they prepare to cut the ropes. Tarzan discards his knife to show them that he means them no harm. They fall on him with clubs and beat him until he fakes unconsciousness. An old man stops them and directs them to bind him and bring a litter. They carry him across the bridge where Tarzan breaks his bonds and runs away. He runs into the royal garden where stands the dwarf king. He attempts to communicate with the king about Boy by drawing pictures in the sand. Suddenly, the dwarf guards appear. Tarzan grabs the king’s son and takes him to an elevated spot. The king turns away the guards. Tarzan succeeds in convincing the king to take him to Boy.

Along the way the old king keeps referring to Didona. They come to a temple. Tarzan enters. A priest is about to sacrifice Boy to a large stone idol, Didona. Tarzan crashes through the people, frees Boy and wreaks havoc as they run for the exit. Back at the rope bridge, they encounter the dwarf king and his son. The king gives him his necklace (it fits Tarzan’s wrist) to get pass the guards, but he fears the priests. As they hurry across the bridge the guards on the other side cut the ropes. They make an attempt to climb the fallen bridge, but the priests cut the other end as well. Tarzan and Boy jump into the chasm and hit water. The current takes them to a place where water and cliff meet. They swim under the cliff to a lake. Land is four miles away. With Boy on his back and the knife of the Didona priests Tarzan swims for shore. Jane and Oremba meet them on a log boat. Tarzan explains their adventures and races them to shore. Happily at home, Tarzan says he will keep the knife. Boy says he will not trust the baboons anymore. End 

Many people have voiced objections to the comics taking a turn towards the movie Tarzan, which Dell did in issue number three, but it was probably a good decision. As comic artist, Gil Kane, pointed out, “Today the films are comic and pulp based and comics are having a hard time adapting and competing.” Issue #1 was a good variation of Tarzan the Magnificent. Unless they continued to clone Burroughs’ novels, they needed a new source of material. Issue #2 attempted a new story with a modicum of success. This story, Dell #3, takes some elements from the movies, but it is a new story not cloned from another source and produces a very tight story line. Yes, the literal ‘tree house’ is quite silly, but it is a minor element in the story. The addition of Boy is an influence more from the movies than the novels’ Korak, the killer. But the general public is more familiar with Johnny Sheffield than the serial killer, Korak. It has a very sappy Hollywood/TV sitcom type of happy ending. The important thing is that the writer and artist seem to be getting into a grove that could produce bi-monthly offerings, which the public would enjoy.

There are quite a number of firsts in this issue: Edgar Rice Burroughs’ name on the cover, first appearance of Jane, first appearance of Boy, first mention of the title of Lord Greystoke, and the first victory cry of the bull ape given by Tarzan. The plot is typical Hollywood. However, it does allow Tarzan to display many Burroughs’ Tarzan qualities: to kill with stealth and courage; to communicate with animals; to track by the sense of smell; and to rescue the person in distress. The story line is well thought out and easy to follow with no convenient coincidences needed to fill the thirty-two pages. Tarzan does manage to lose his knife (his father’s knife?) to the dwarfs. This is disturbing, and it is not wholly satisfying that he has replaced it with the sacrificial knife of the dwarfs of Didona. 

Jesse Marsh’s name no longer appears anywhere on the first page. Jane is a dark haired woman who is given five costume changes with four of them being full-length dresses. The farmer dwarfs’ huts are quite African looking, but the king’s palace has more of the look of a Southwestern American adobe dwelling. The temple of Didona has more of a Central American look to it, as does the stone goddess herself. Marsh is using less and less of the shadow and silhouette in the panels. He does his typical fine job when dealing with the animals in this issue.

Inside Back Cover: Ink drawings entitled “Tarzan’s Ape-English Dictionary (continued) ...” There are six "H" words listed and illustrated. Hista (snake); Hoden (forest); Hohotan (tribe); Horta (boar); Ho-wala (village); and Ho-Wa-Usha (leaves). The inside back cover lists six out of a possible nine H words. 

Back Cover: Tarzan flying through the air, reaching for a branch. Same extreme diagonal as on the front cover, but this time the feet are in the upper right and the arms reach towards the lower left. There are two monkeys above Tarzan making the same leap as they repeat Tarzan’s pose. There is only one monkey in the story, but the second is needed here to help balance the picture.

All in all a more interesting story and art than the second issue. There are still neither advertisements nor extra non-Tarzan stories.

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DELL #4 MAY/JUNE 1951 ~ 36pp. 10cents

Front cover, back covers, and interior art: Jesse Marsh
Writer: Gaylord Du Bois

Cover: Jesse Marsh - The scene on the cover has absolutely nothing to do with the story.
Inside Front Cover: Ink drawings entitled “Tarzan Ape-English Dictionary” There are six "K" words listed here: Kagoda (do you surrender or I do surrender); Kalo (cow); Kando (ant); Kordo (dance); Kota (tortoise); and Kreeg-ah (beware).
The inside front cover presents six of the twenty-one possible ‘K’ words in the Ape-English Dictionary. (Note: there are no ‘I’ words in the Ape-English Dictionary. They skipped the two possible “J” words.) They are a good limited choice.

“Tarzan and The Lone Hunter”- 32 pp
Type -- Pal-ul-don -- Pan-at-lee Rescue

ERBzine 2404: Dell No. 4

Jane requests that Tarzan and Boy fill gourds with water for the tree house. Boy wants a pipeline of water to the house. As they return with the gourds a group of natives approach. They have been driven from their village by the Bongus, a fierce tribe of witch people. Tarzan allows them to live in the clearing by his house and near his protection. In exchange they will help build a pipeline of water to the tree house. Boy, becoming bored with the construction tasks, takes Tarzan’s rope and goes looking for adventure. A man with cat-like ears comes. He is being stalked by numa. Boy ropes the lion from a tree and calls for Tarzan. The stranger kills the lion with one blow from his club. Tarzan recognizes Om-at, chief of the Waz-don, his friend from Pal-ul-don. They take him to see Jane. Om-at explains that he lost his wife Pan-at-lee’s trail in the Thorny Desert and that he came here by accident.

Om-at explains the whole story. While Om-at and his men were out chasing Ho-don robbers, Tor-lot, son of Es-at, was plotting his overthrow. Tor-lot and his gang slipped into Kor-ul-ja at night and killed all who were loyal to Om-at. He then proclaimed himself chief. Next, he made his way to Om-at’s cave. Pan-at-lee realized he was coming. As Tor-lot climbed up the rock cliff to the cave, she pounded his fingers with a stone club. Pan-at-lee escaped up the side of the cliff as Tor-lot and his men came in pursuit. Pan-at-lee jumped into the Kor-ul-gryff, gorge of gryffs. She had learned from Tarzan how to control gryffs. She hit a gryff with her club and rode it to the Ro-don plains. Om-at returned to learn of these events. Om-at left O-dan in charge and followed Pan-at-lee into the Kor-ul-gryff. He trailed Tor-lot and his men to a swamp where he killed three of them but one managed to escape. He followed Pan-at-lee’s trail to the thorny desert which guards Pal-ul-don.

While they eat, Luga, one of the natives living in Tarzan’s clearing, tells them he saw a woman with cat-like ears living in a cave near his former village. Om-at follows Tarzan through the trees for three days to Luga’s village. They go to the caves that are inhabited by baboons. They learn from the baboons about the Bongus raid and wonder if Pan-at-lee was captured by the witch people. They follow her trail to a river where they recover Pan-at-lee’s belt. Deducing she was captured while bathing, they travel to the Bongus village. They climb a kopje to overlook the village. They see Bookrai, the Bongus witch doctor, interrogating a woman accused of poisoning Dongool, the chief. The witch doctor uses the ‘smoke of truth’ to get her to confess. She doesn’t. He threatens to turn her into a black panther. Tarzan picks up Pan-at-lee’s scent. They enter the village and find her drugged wearing a panther skin. Two apprentice witch doctors come to get Pan-at-lee. Tarzan quickly subdues them. Om-at takes her place in the panther skin as Tarzan carries Pan-at-lee to safety.

Meanwhile Bookrai puts a powder into the caldron, which creates a great deal of smoke. He sends two more apprentices to bring Pan-at-lee. They carry the disguised Om-at to the scene and replace him with the accused woman. As the smoke clears Bookrai realizes the ruse. The Bongus approach the supposedly tied Om-at. He surprises them with his attack. Tarzan joins the melee. He carries the wounded Om-at over the Bongus’s wall to where he left Pan-at-lee. Om-at applies a healing powder from Pal-ul-don to his wife’s wounds. The Bongus are coming so Tarzan carries the groggy Pan-at-lee and adds Om-at to his arms as they flee. They climb another kopje and hurl rocks down on the witch people. Tarzan catches the scent of elephants in the area and calls them for help. The elephants rout the Bongus. Tantor carries them back to Tarzan’s home. After recovering, Om-at invites Tarzan to Pal-ul-don. Tarzan says if he does come his need would be great. The next day Tarzan, mounted on Tantor, carries Om-at and Pan-at-lee to the edge of Pal-ul-don. end

The title, Tarzan and The Lone Hunter, comes almost as an after thought. The phrase ‘lone hunter’ is not used until the end of the story. Almost as if Du Bois got to the last sentence and realized he needed a title for this work so threw in the phrase. The story, although it has a sprinkling of Jane and Boy at the beginning and the end, is more like Dell #1 in that it relies heavily on a novel. This time the novel is Tarzan the Terrible. The story revolves around Om-at who Tarzan befriended in Tarzan the Terrible. Om-at, which means ‘long tail,’ has neither his prehensile tail nor his opposable big toes. Instead, he has cat-like ears (a la Mr. Spock nearly twenty years later in the Star Trek series) to denote him as a foreign creature. His clothing is almost a simple Roman type tunic. Om-at says he was chasing Ho-don robbers. The Ho-dons are depicted exactly as the Waz-dons, black with cat-like ears not as white men with prehensile tails.

In Tarzan the Terrible Es-sat, the chief of the Waz-don, drives Om-at away and makes advances towards Pan-at-lee. She escapes to the Kor-ul-gryf to be rescued by Tarzan. Later she is captured by the Ho-dons. Om-at returns to his home, kills Es-sat, becomes chief, and leaves Ab-on in charge. He goes in search for Pan-at-lee, his sweetheart, with Tarzan, O-dan, and Ta-den.

The Dell story has some remarkable similarities. Es-at’s (slight spelling change) son, Tor-lot usurps Om-at’s power. He makes an advance on Pan-at-lee, who escapes to the Kor-ul-gryff (notice an extra ‘f’ is added to gryf). She is captured by the Bongus, a tribe of witch people. Om-at leaves O-dan as temporary gund, chief, while he searches for his wife, Pan-at-lee. On the trail Om-at either kills or scares off Es-at, he is not sure which.

While it is admirable that Du Bois down plays the Jane/Boy aspects of the story to recapture some essence of Burroughs novels, he does use a number of questionable changes and additions to the people of Pal-ul-don. When Om-at meets Boy he uses a mixtures of ape and Pal-ul-don languages. Did Tarzan teach Om-at the ape language? The physical changes are drastic. Was this to make it more conventional for readers? Marsh has already proven that he draws animals quite well so the decision couldn’t be based his artistic skills. Why not show the Waz-dons with a tail, especially in the case of Om-at whose name means long tail? Why depict the Ho-dons as black? Why add an extra ‘f’ to gryf? Du Bois must have been  knowledgeable of the Pal-ul-don language to some extent. But then why add a new geographical area and call it the Ro-don Plains, which translated means ‘flower man plains?’ Doesn’t sound very Burroughsian. And finally when Tarzan talks with the baboons he uses the Pal-ul-don word ‘o-dan’ in front of the mangani, which translates as ‘like rock apes,’ (Tarzan used the term ‘people of the rocks’ in Dell #3 to describe the baboons.) Do the baboons understand the language of Pal-ul-don?

The new twist in the story, the inclusion of the Bongus witch people, is very nicely handled. Bookrai, the chief witch doctor, with his so-called ‘smoke of truth’ is a wonderful touch as Tarzan and Om-at expose his scam on the people. The Bongus are easily outwitted by the pair and make their escape. The use of the word ‘kopje’ is a questionable matter. The first use of the word and pictures leaves the impression that a kopje is a rock. The second use of the word comes closer to what the word means, a small hill. The story seems to have finished before the required thirty-two pages because the last two full pages are clearly filler items.

Marsh’s drawings continue to use less and less of the shadow and silhouette type of illustrations. There are no costume changes for Jane in this issue. Her hair is no longer in a quaffed ponytail but is now tied with a ribbon and allowed to fall down onto her shoulders more naturally. Is Marsh responsible for the blandness of the Waz-don characters or are the editors? Marsh stays with the six panels per page with slight variations until about two-thirds the way through the story, then suddenly he uses a panel that takes up two thirds of the page. It is quite dramatic and unexpected. A little later during the battle scene with the Bongus he uses a four-paneled page equally effectively. Both are visually exciting and heighten the effect of the Bongus part of the story. 

Even with the flaws, the story is an interesting one and nice to see that the writer has not given up on the novels as a source of inspiration.

Inside Back Cover: Ink drawings entitled “Tarzan’s Ape- English Dictionary (continued).” There are six "L" words listed: Litu (sharp); Lob (kick); Lu (fierce); Lul (water); Lul-kor (swim); and Lus (tongue). The inside back cover presents six of the possible twelve ‘L’ words. 

Back Cover: Full figure of Tarzan that extends from the top of the page to the bottom. He smiles broadly as he carries a spear in his right hand and has a dead horta over his left shoulder. This relates to one of the last scenes in the comic when Tarzan and Boy return from the hunt only this time the spear and boar are reversed in Tarzan’s arms. The vegetation is luscious in the background. Jesse Marsh’s name appears near in the left bottom corner.

There are neither advertisements nor extra non-Tarzan stories in this issue.

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DELL #5 SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 1948 ~ 36pp. 10 cents

Front and Back Covers and Interior Art: Jesse Marsh
Writer: Gaylord Du Bois

Cover: Both front and back covers are very domestic scenes. They have very little to do with the story contained between them, unless you read the story as Tarzan protecting his family. Gone is Tarzan’s broad grim from Dell # 4, and it is replaced his a more refined smile.
Inside Front Cover: Ink drawing with red tints entitled “Tarzan’s Ape-English Dictionary.” There are three "M" words and three "N" words illustrated here. Mangani (great apes); Meeta (rain); Mo (short); Nala (up); Neeta (bird); and Nene (beetle).

The inside front cover lists three out of the possible eight ‘M’ words of the Ape-English Dictionary. The choices are fine, but one does wonder about the exclusion of Manu (monkey). It was used once already in Dell #2. It also lists three of the possible seven ‘N’ words. The ‘N’ words are continued on the inside back cover. 

“Tarzan and the Men of Greed” - 32pp.
Type  -- Opar - Gangsters - Arabs - Jane and Boy Rescue

ERBzine 2405: Dell No. 5

Tarzan, Jane and Boy are building a pool complete with fish. Tarzan senses that someone is watching them. He drops on the man unexpectedly and demands to know who sent him to spy. Muga, M’bopo spearman, insists that it was innocent voyeurism in that he was just trying to see the great Lord of the Jungle. Tarzan sends him away with warning not to be sneaking around his house. Tarzan mimics the sounds of leopards and elephants chasing the spearman down the road. Muga reports to a disbelieving Hassan, an Arab. Partnered with the Arab are Goss and Norgel, two gangsters, who are looking for the treasure of lost Atlantis. They don’t believe the story either. They plan to use a tommy gun to get Tarzan to lead them to the treasure. That night they approach Tarzan’s home. Tarzan senses their coming and goes to find out what is going on. He surprise attacks the M’bopo from the trees. Goss shoots the machine gun into the air and threats to aim at the tree house. Tarzan gives up.

The greedy men have learned about Opar from a dying Werper. They demand that Tarzan bring them to Opar. He agrees to guide them, if they promise not to hurt his family. On the way to Opar, Boy sniffles that he is angry that anyone could do that to them. It is a week’s march across the veldt, mountains, and rivers. Tarzan saves two porters from drowning in floodwaters and another from being killed by a falling rock. After seven days they arrive at the foot of the “huge, flat-topped kopje” with Opar on its summit. Tarzan explains that he will climb the cliff and lower ropes to the party below. A view of the ruins of Opar is shown. That night, Tarzan begins to climb the five hundred foot cliff. The perils of the climb are depicted. He reaches the top and lowers the five hundred foot rope to the bottom. A stronger rope is raised, and Tarzan pulls Malembo, an M’bopo, to the top. Boy is the last one to the top of the mountain. Tarzan leads them to the entrance of the caves. They traverse the cave until reaching a place where the path is blocked by rocks, which fell during an earthquake. Goss thinks it is a trick, but Hassan calms that fear by reminding him of the threat to Jane and Boy. Tarzan and the porters clear the path. On the way to the gold Tarzan falls into a pit. They estimate the pit to be fifty feet in depth ending in a pool of water. The men of greed build a bridge with spears tied together to traverse the gap in the floor. They come to a fork of three tunnels. A coin flip is the deciding factor to follow the middle passageway, which they discover also, has many branches to it.

Meanwhile, Tarzan follows a stairway up to the Court of Sacrifices. In the earthquake devastated city, Tarzan reminisces about Opar being founded by Atlantians, about the gray apes who live with the Oparians, and about La, the Queen of Opar. He decides to look for the apes of Opar. He searches the Palace of La. Outside, he discovers a footprint of an ape and follows the trail. His arrival is greeted with hostility by the apes. A fight with Gulchak, the bone crusher, in which Tarzan knocks out the gray ape, brings the apes of Opar under Tarzan’s will. The apes tell him that all the Oparians including La went to the Cavern of No Return. With an impassioned speech Tarzan enlists their aid to stop the men of greed. The plan is to lead the enemies to the Cave-of-Heavy-Yellow-Stone. There the apes will attack.

In the garden of the Palace of La, Tarzan opens the entrance to the tunnel maze. (The covering weighs five hundred pounds.) The bottom of the cover has a map of the tunnels. Meanwhile, the greedy men have come to a dead end in a second tunnel. They appear to be lost. Tarzan senses where they are and meets up with them. He leads them to the treasure room, which is blocked by bars made of solid gold. Tarzan bends the bars so they can enter. Hassan orders the M’bopo to carry the gold. Baku, the head M’bopo, has a feeling they are being watched. As Hassan demands that Tarzan help, the ape-man jumps Hassan and yells Kree-gah, which is the signal for the apes of Opar to join in the attack. The apes rip Hassan, the gangsters, and their men to shreds as Tarzan leads Jane and Boy to safety. Some of the M’bopo escape to the edge of the cliff with the apes close behind. The porters carrying the gold descend the rope first. Baku and Mongo are the last two M’bopo to go over the edge. The apes untie the rope and the two spearmen fall to their death.

Tarzan breaks the chains binding his wife and son. He gives them a tour of the ruins of Opar. They find the apes still at the cliff’s edge where Tarzan admonishes them about untying the rope, which was needed for them to leave Opar. The surviving M’bopo leave confident that no one from Opar can follow them. Tarzan and his family make a new rope out of vines. The M’bopos spy them coming and prepare an ambush. As they are about to attack Tarzan and his family, a herd of water buffalo catches the scent of the M’bopos. Tarzan, Jane and Boy climb a tree to avoid the charging water buffaloes. The M’bopos are not so lucky, thus is the end of the men of greed. end

This new story has a sprinkling of Opar, but it is more of a movie script than Burroughs. It starts out well enough with Tarzan thwarting a spy for the men of greed. When they return, Tarzan’s attack is cut short by a machine gun blast. He quickly agrees to their demands to lead them to Opar so his family will not be harmed. Jane admonishes Boy about sniffling that he is angry that anybody could do this injustice to them. She should not have stopped him because Tarzan’s easy acquiescence is indeed something to sniffle about. Evidently Werper told the men of greed about the gold of Opar before the carnivore in Jungle Tales of Tarzan ate him. The journey to far off Opar would allow Hollywood to have great shots of the various African landscapes. Opar is described as being on top of a huge, flat-topped kopje. The same oxymoron was used in Dell #4. Tarzan climbing the sheer face of he cliff is Burroughsian as well as good theater. Pulling his enemies to the top of the mountain one at a time certainly would have provided a great opportunity for him to overpower them individually as they reached the top. The caves under Opar are Burroughsian in their complexity. With the apes of Opar on his side Tarzan is now ready to risk the lives of his mate and son. The heavy cover to the tunnels with a map that has ‘X’ marking the entrance is more Hollywood than Burroughs. So is the bending of the gold bars blocking the opening to the treasure room. In the battle scene the apes are allowed to do the slaughtering thus leaving Tarzan’s hands unbloodied. This is the first Dell comic where Tarzan does not kill anything. Also, there are more movie scenes in the breaking of chains and the humor connected with Tarzan making the apes realize that they threw away their only means to get off the mountain. The last piece of Hollywood is when the men of greed get their come-up-ance not by Tarzan’s hands, but by a herd of wild buffaloes.

Marsh gave Tarzan a more grim countenance throughout this issue than he has ever done before. On the first page he has a panel in which the viewer’s perspective is from inside the pool of fish looking up at Tarzan and Boy. This certainly is a stretch from his usual head, half body, and distance shots. Another interesting panel focuses on just Tarzan’s hands as he clings to the side of the mountain. These are most welcome panels. The depiction of the ruins of Opar looks very much like the ruins found on the Acropolis in Athens. The mountain climbing scenes are visually exciting as they are drawn almost in a movie storyboard type of presentation. The apes of Opar are less gorilla-like than Tarzan’s own tribe of apes in previous issues. Marsh confines his use of silhouettes mainly to the caves of Opar. Jane’s hair ribbon has been changed to a bow.

The pure Hollywood story will upset many purest. However, there is enough of a smattering of Burroughs to keep it interesting. But what is truly interesting to see is Jesse Marsh experimenting more in his drawings.

Inside Back Cover: Ink drawings with red tints entitled, “Tarzan’s Ape-English Dictionary (continued).” Two more "N" words are listed and illustrated as well as three "O" words and one "P" word. Numa (lion); Nur (lie/untruth); Olo (wrestle); Om (long); Omtag (giraffe); and Pacco (zebra).
The inside back cover continues the ‘N’ words with the inclusion of two additional words so that the total number of ‘N’ words is five of the possible seven. All three ‘O’ words are presented. One of the possible fifteen ‘P’ words is also present. /

Back Cover: A full color family scene is presented here. Tarzan sits on the ground to the left of the page with his left leg tucked underneath the right. His left arm is on the ground as he holds Boy’s right hand with his right hand. Boy stands in the middle of the picture leaning up against a tree stump and holding a red fruit. Jane sits on the tree stump with her back three quarters to the viewer with her right hand on Boy’s head. There is a forest scene in the background and a large dark, unexplained shadow at the bottom of the page. The composition has a diagonal feel to it, which runs from Tarzan’s left arm in the lower left, through the clasp hands, through Boy’s head to Jane’s head in the upper right. 

There are still neither advertisements nor extra non-Tarzan stories.

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DELL #6 November/December 1948 ~ 36pp. - 10cents

Front cover, back cover and interior art: Jesse Marsh
Writer: Gaylord Du Bois

Cover: Marsh painting. The scene has nothing to do with the story contain within.
Inside Front Cover:  Ink drawings entitled: “Tarzan’s Ape-English  Dictionary.” There are six *P* words listed and illustrated: Pamba  (rat); Panda (noise); Pand-balu-den (rifle); Pisa (fish); Popo (eat);  and Por-atan (husband).

The inside front cover continues the ‘P’ words started in the last issue. With these six words plus the one from the previous issue, seven of the possible fourteen words are illustrated. Two items of interest are: (1) pand-balu-den, which literally means ‘noise stick,’ is spelled with a double L in The Official Guide to the Tarzan Clans of America dictionary, and (2) por-atan is illustrated as a hen-pecked man.

“Tarzan and The Outlaws of Pal-ul-don” - 32pp.
Type - Pal-ul-don - Jane Rescue - Tarzan and Boy Bonding

ERBzine 2406: Dell No. 6

Tarzan and Boy return to the tree house to discover Jane missing. Tarzan scents Ho-dons and believes them to be outlaws. With Boy on his back they take to the trees and find the outlaws’ camp by evening. Believing that twenty to two is poor odds, they leave to find aid. They come across a group of apes dancing a Dum-Dum. They wait until the ritual is over. Tarzan enlists the help of the Apes of Kerchak when they discover that strangers are close to the scared Dum-Dum ground.

Tarzan slips into the Ho-don camp and starts to carry Jane to safety. A snapping twig awakens the outlaws who fell Tarzan with a thrown club. The apes fly into action, killing many, but not before the Ho-dons carry Jane off through the trees. Boy awakens Tarzan. The apes return without Jane and leave to sleep. Before following the trail, Tarzan takes a swim to clear his head. They ride Tantor across the Great Thorn Desert, using cacti to refresh themselves and the elephant. At the swamp they make a raft of reeds to skim on top of the water. Boy kills two crocodiles with his bow. Suddenly, a python snatches Boy off the raft. Tarzan kills it with his knife. On the other side of the swamp they come upon numa and its kill. The lion attacks. Tarzan kills it with his bare hands.

They must cross the mountains to reach Pal-ul-don and Dan-lur, the city of rock, which is home of the outlaw Ho-dons. A saber-toothed tiger attacks them in the mountains. Tarzan kills it with his knife. He gives the victory cry of the bull ape. They skin the animal for coats and boots to transverse the snow-capped peaks. Boy kills a snow leopard with his bow. A blizzard approaches. They make a shelter in a snowdrift. Using his bowstring to spin a stick, Tarzan builds a fire and cooks the leopard meat. After two days the storm subsides. They make snowshoes to travel through the heavy snow. They discard their fur coverings as they come down out of the mountain to Pal-ul-don.

At last in lush Pal-ul-don, Tarzan washes by a pool. He is attacked by a Tor-o-don. They pull each other under the water where Tarzan drowns him. Suddenly a huge gryf charges them. Tarzan whacks it on the nose and climbs up on its back. He tells Boy to join him because it is a trained one. They ride off towards Dan-o-lur. They come across Om-at and some of his Waz-don warriors. Tarzan lets Boy guide the gryf as they all ride it to the edge of the outlaw city. Tarzan sends the gryf away.

Tarzan enters the city and finds the white domed buildings sealed. Seeking a different entrance he climbs a black ventilator. He catches Jane’s scent and bends the bars at the top of the ventilator to gain ingress. He lowers himself by rope to an opening where he can see the bacchanal below. Ko-don, the outlaw king, is on a throne with Jane in ball and chains at his feet. Ko-don makes an advance towards Jane. Tarzan burst through the opening, rushes to Jane, and breaks the chain around her foot. He wields the ball and chain as a weapon sending the Ho-dons scattering. Ko-don pulls a spear. Before he can release it, Tarzan lofts the ball as a hammer thrower in the Olympics, killing the outlaw king. Tarzan and Jane escape through the opening above. The Ho-dons pour out of the tower to be met by Waz-don warriors, who quickly drive them back into their towers. Om-at says his debt to Tarzan has been repaid.

They go to look for Boy. He is missing. Tarzan smells a Tor-o-don and trails it. When he catches up to them, he punches the beast man in the jaw. A stone club comes out of nowhere striking the Tor-o-don in the skull. It is Ta-den, Prince of A-lur. Tarzan introduces everyone, and they set off for A-lur for a visit. End

The new story is a good blend of the Burroughs Tarzan and the movie Tarzan. After issue #5 where he kills nothing, Tarzan kills three creatures and two people and wreaks havoc with the Ho-dons with total abandon. He displays uncanny knowledge of animals and survival skills. But there is a lot of Hollywood here as well. The story is almost more of a bonding story of Tarzan and Boy than a rescue mission of Jane: Tarzan teaching Boy; hunting with Boy; saving Boy from the snake; and allowing him to control the gryf. Tarzan catches a swim before following Jane’s captors and fighting the Tor-o-don under water. Obviously these are Johnny Weissmuller moments. A few elements that might distract the purists are the Apes of Kerchak. If they are indeed Kerchak’s apes, then is not Tarzan their leader? When Tarzan talks with Tantor he uses a mixture of ape and Pal-ul-don language. Do elephants understand Pal-ul-don? And there is the unnecessary distraction of saying the gryf is one of the ‘trained ones.’

After a few issue absences Jesse Marsh once again has his name on the first page, panel six. Once more he rare deviates from the six-panel per page look until the first view of Pal-ul-don. This produces the most dramatic effect of a visual clap of thunder. He uses it two more times: when Tarzan spies the bacchanal scene and in the killing of Ko-don. His panel of Tarzan shaking the water off of him like a dog after killing the Tor-o-don is terrific. The gryf in this issue is gigantic as compared to the one in issue #4. The major change is in the appearance of the Waz-dons and the Ho-dons. Their toga-like clothing from #4 is gone. They are replaced with loincloths and skullcaps. The pointed ears do not seem to be a big concern and cannot be seen on the Ho-dons. Prince Ta-den has his skullcap decorated with fur or feathers.

Although the placement of Pal-ul-don seems to have changed from issue #4 where Tarzan and Tantor carried Om-at and Pan-at-lee right to the edge of the land without having to cross any mountains, it is a very satisfying story with some terrific scenes. The tie-in with Dell #4 is for the knowledgeable reader as now it is Om-at’s turn to help rescue Tarzan’s mate. Turn about is fair play.

Inside Back Cover: Ink drawings entitled “Tarzan’s Ape-English Dictionary (continued).” There are six "R" words listed and illustrated: Rala (snare); Ramba (lie down); Rem (catch); Ro (flower); Rota (laugh); and Ry (crooked).

The inside back cover illustrates six of the possible eleven “R” words. Rala (snare) is curiously depicted as a spider’s web, and rem (catch) is humorously presented as the native misses the thrown fruit and catches
it with his face.

Back Cover: Tarzan from the knees up stands in the middle of the picture with right arm raised over his head holding a heavy boulder. His left arm is in the shadow of the ape behind him who looks up incredulously at the rock. An ape crouched to his right has an arm slightly raised and looks apprehensively as if he fears the rock will fall. Huge boulders are in the background with some plant life behind them.

The back cover has nothing to do with this issue’s story. 

There are no advertisements and no other stories.

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DELL #7 January/February 1949 ~ 36pp. - 10cents

Front, Back Cover and Interior Art: Jesse Marsh
Writer -- Gaylord Du Bois

Cover: Marsh painting. The front cover relates to the story contained within. This is something that has not been done since issue #3.

Inside Front Cover: Ink drawing entitled, “Tarzan’s Ape-English Dictionary.” There are six "S" words illustrated. Sabor (lioness); Sheeta (leopard or panther); Ska (vulture); Skee (wildcat); Sopu (fruit); and Sord (bad). The inside front cover illustrates six out the possible seven ‘S’ words in the Ape-English Dictionary. Five of them are animals. This is where Marsh is at his best.

“Tarzan in The Valley of The Monsters”- 32pp.
Type -- Lost World - Boy and Dombie are rescued

ERBzine 2407: Dell No. 7

Tarzan brings beads to Dombie, Muviro’s grandson, and a flashlight that needs no batteries to Boy. They are items from a wrecked trading boat, but there are also parachutes. Tarzan plans to make a hot air balloon from them while Jane is away at Freetown. They cut the parachutes and sew them together. Tarzan sends the two boys out to collect rubber-tree sap. Dombie teaches Boy how to collect the sap. As they are coating the seams of the balloon, Muviro arrives to tell Tarzan about the gray apes stealing food from of the Waziri’s gardens. Tarzan leaves with him to tell the apes to go somewhere else. Meanwhile the boys fill the balloon with volcanic gas through a bamboo tube. The balloon rises and Boy climbs into the basket so Dombie can hand him rocks to ballast it down. A baboon unties the rope. Dombie grabs it as the balloon floats skyward. Dombie climbs into the basket.

Tarzan and Muviro spy the errant balloon. They try to follow, but Tarzan decides they need an airplane. The boys float over mountains. A tyrannosaurus grabs the rope. It breaks off in his sharp teeth. At an airport a man named Hodges arranges for an army reconnaissance plane and clothing for Tarzan and Muviro. After a long search they spot the downed balloon. Tarzan nearly misses a mountain but not a tree as they crash into a deep lake. Tarzan saves Muviro from the sinking plane. As they swim to shore a giant otter attacks them. Tarzan kills it with his knife. Once on shore they see a dinosaur. It is a plant eater. Its mighty tail knocks Muviro head over heels and dislocates his shoulder. Tarzan sets it and makes a sling from tree bark. They are discovered by a tyrannosaurs and run for their lives. Muviro is exhausted. Tarzan carries him into a cave. With a smoking branch Tarzan drives off the T-Rex. They head into a forested area. Tarzan kills a wild pig for food with his knife. He carries Muviro high up into a tree for the night.

In the morning, they travel across a canyon filled with volcanoes. A tyrannosaurs chases them. They jump from a mountain ledge to another ledge. Tarzan turns and throws a stone hitting the beast on the snout causing him to lose its balance and tumble off the cliff. They find the balloon. Tarzan leaves Muviro as he goes to investigate. He descends into the canyon and follows the spoor to a lake with a village on stilts in the center. Tarzan swims to the village. Boy and Dombie see him a dive in and swim out to meet him. Luk-wok, chief of the Lake People, invites Tarzan in for food. Afterwards, they go fishing with tridents. Suddenly a pterodactyl swoops down on them. Tarzan kills it with a trident. An earthquake causes a tidal wave that ruins the Lake People’s village. There are more earthquakes as they leave the canyon with Dombie on Tarzan’s back. When they reach Muviro another quake causes a dinosaur stampede. The fissures in the earth swallow some of them. The air is filled with poisonous gases. They make it out of the Valley of Monsters. As they rest, Tarzan goes back to take another look at the valley. He brings back a deer that died from the poisonous gases for their supper. While the others sleep that night Tarzan makes spears, bows, and arrows for their journey home. End

New story, which seems to be less movie oriented, although Tarzan being concerned about Jane’s reaction to the making of the hot air balloon is a bit out of character for him. Tarzan’s resourcefulness is well demonstrated throughout as well as ability to track and kill when necessary. One does blanch at Tarzan taking the poisoned Bara back for supper. But Tarzan probably knew that it was safe to eat its meat. This is the first issue without a battle scene with large groups of people. By having Tarzan go back to look at the valley and remember fondly the Lake People sets up a return to this area in future issues.

Jesse Marsh has his name on the first page in panel four. He rarely deviates from the six panels per page. There are a few five panel pages, but absent is the three or four panel look he used so effectively in issue #6. Muviro is drawn without his necklace that helped define his look in issue #2. All in all, this is pretty standard fare for Marsh.

It is an interesting story, which is paced very nicely and presents seemingly logical events. One does wish that Marsh would have continued with his more dramatic panels, but it is a consistent work.

Inside Back Cover: Ink drawing entitled, “Tarzan’s Ape-English Dictionary (continued).” There are six "T" words illustrated: Ta (tall); Tan (warrior); Tand-litu (dull, blunt); Tand-nala (down); Tand-panda (silent, silence); and Tand-utor (brave).

The inside back cover illustrates six of the possible thirty-two ‘T’ words. (The ‘T’ words will continue in the next issue.) Three of the ‘T’ words are illustrated with humor, something Marsh started in the last issue. Tand-litu, dull/blunt, is depicted as an arrow bouncing off a rhino; Tand-nala, down, is shown as a child falling out of a tree on his bottom; and Tand-panda, silent/silence, is drawn as a man receiving a good tongue lashing from his mate.

Back Cover: Full figure of Tarzan on the left having a tug-of-war with an ape on the right over some bananas or plantains. In the background to the left is a smiling ape and a smiling Boy with arms raised cheering the contest. There is vegetation in the background as well. Large tree leaves cover the top third of the page. The back cover, Tarzan’s tug-of-war with an ape, has no relationship to the story. Everyone is smiling a bit too much.

There are no advertisements and no other stories in this issue.

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DELL #8 MAY/JUNE 1951 ~ 36pp. 10cents

Front Cover Art -- Moe Gollub
Back Cover Art -- unknown possibly Moe Gollub
Art interior -- Jesse Marsh
Writer -- Gaylord Du Bois

Cover: 1st Moe Gollub cover. The scene depicted has nothing to do with the story contained within.

Inside Front Cover:  Pen and ink drawing entitled, Tarzan’s Ape-English Dictionary. There are six "T" words presented; Tan-klu (rooster); Tantor (elephant); Ta-pal (hill); Tar (white); Tarmangani (white men); and Tho (mouth).  The tarmangani are presented as two white hunter gangster types: one a bit dim looking and the other has rather mean/evil look.

“Tarzan and The White Pygmies” - 32pp.
Type -- Lost World - Lost Race

ERBzine 2408: Dell No. 8

Tarzan, Muviro, Boy, and Dombie are returning from the Valley of Monsters. They stalk wild goats for food. A leopard jumps at the goats and Muviro throws his spear, missing the carnivore. Tarzan downs two goats as Boy wounds sheeta. Tarzan uses as an arrow on the attacking leopard and finishes it off with his knife. Tarzan is scratched. They dry the meat and use the hides for clothing to cross the mountain peaks. After the snow-covered mountains they cross the Barrier Mountains. All along the trail Ska watches them. Into the great desert Muviro finds an ancient Roman helmet. They discover water and fill their goatskin bags. Ska is watching. Dombie’s water bag is torn open by a thorn. Three days later they are out of water. Ska is watching. Tarzan is almost delirious when they spy White Pygmies on gazelles.

The pygmies approach. They are friendly. Tarzan does not understand their language. The leader of the band of pygmies is Malik. They feed the weary travelers and take them to their home in a valley called Lipona. Ska is watching. The pygmies are enraged by the closeness of the vultures. There are a lot of them, and they are unafraid. Three of them attack a pygmy. Tarzan quickly kills all three with arrows. The pygmies have never seen a bow. Tarzan demonstrates by downing another vulture. Boy shows Malik how to use the bow. Malik plunks one of his men in the helmet with a blunt arrow. As they enter the apartment city To-mu, a prince, greets them. They are too large for the pygmy apartments so they sleep in a sheep shed. Tarzan awakens to a “cry of pain and alarm.” He finds vultures attacking the shepherds and carrying off a sheep. He kills the vultures with his bow. The next day a teacher, Ko-pen, arrives and teaches Tarzan, Boy and Dombie the language of the pygmies.

Two weeks later, Tarzan is summoned to the king. He asks Tarzan to teach his people how to use bow and arrows so they can make war on the clan of vultures. He does. The pygmies demonstrate their new skill to the king. The next morning they head out to battle the vultures. Tarzan out climbs them to reach the nesting area in the crags above Lipona. The vultures come. Tarzan starts firing arrows. Hundreds of vultures bring on the attack. When Tarzan runs out of arrows he uses the bow and his knife to fight on. The pygmies led by To-mu ride to help Tarzan. They leap their gazelles over a gorge to reach Tarzan. Some fall into the gorge. Tarzan has fallen as the pygmies drive off the vultures. The prince says they will make a garden out of the vulture rookery and place a statue of Tarzan in it. Tarzan says it must contain a monument to those who died in the battle. The king greets their return and bestows Tarzan with the title ‘Prince of Lipona.’ A great celebration follows. As they prepare to leave, the king presents them all with arrowheads of pure gold as a memento. Accompanied by pygmy warrior, they head into the great desert. Two days later a plane lands. The pilot was hired by Lady Greystoke to search for them. They board the plane and head for home. End

This issue takes up where #7 left off with Tarzan and company returning from the Valley of the Monsters. This is the first continuation story. Each is complete unto itself and are combined as one story in the Better Little Book, Tarzan and The Journey of Terror. This is a new story but contains a number of references to Tarzan the Untamed.

The discovery of the ancient Roman equipment, the great desert where Tarzan almost lost his life, and the attack of Ska. The teaching of the pygmy language to Tarzan et al is typical of Burroughs having his characters learn a foreign tongue very quickly. A first for this series is Tarzan actually being scratched in his battle with sheeta. Up until now he has gone unscathed.   The foolishness of Boy taking a shot at the leopard is bit difficult to take. The humor of Malik bouncing an arrow off the helmet of another pygmy is probably to show the easy-going nature of the pygmies.

Jesse Marsh stays with the five or six panel per page but does deviate once with a nice three-panel page of the village of the pygmies. He is starting to use more expressions on the faces of the characters. A couple of noticeable panels that are unusual for Marsh are from the point of view of Ska. One in particular is the head of Ska with tiny figures below walking in the desert. Also the shadow of Ska on the ground and bodies of the figures is a nice touch, which keeps the specter of vulture ever present. The battle scenes with the vulture clan are nicely handled, reproducing what the chaos of the battle must be like. One minor quibble is the Roman helmet looks more like a Spanish conquistador’s helmet than ancient Roman’s.

After the initial reading, this story seemed quite average. After writing an analysis of the work, it raised this writer’s opinion. It is really quite well done as far as it goes. Marsh’s artwork did take some chances that are new for him. The best part of this issue is that it has the most impressive front and back covers to date. There are no advertisements and no additional stories.

Inside Back Cover: Pen and ink illustrations entitled. Tarzan’s Ape-English Dictionary (continued). There are six "T" words listed: Thub (heart); Tongani (baboon); Tor (beast); Tor (straight); Tu (bright); and Tub (broken).  The inside back cover contains six more ‘T’ words bringing the total (including the six from the last issue) to eighteen out of the possible thirty-two.

Back Cover: 1st of the African warrior back covers. “A Kitumbene (Masai) warrior in dress attire.”

The scene depicted has nothing to do with the story contained within.

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DELL #9 MAY/JUNE 1949 ~ 36pp. 10cents

Front Cover Art: Moe Gollub
Back Cover Art: Unknown possibly Moe Gollub
Art interior: Jesse Marsh
Writer: Gaylord Du Bois

Cover: 2nd Moe Gollub cover. The scene has nothing to do with the story contained within.

Inside Front Cover: Pen and ink illustrations entitled Tarzan’s Ape-English Dictionary. There are six "U" words listed: Ubor (thirsty); Ugla (hate); Unga (jackal); Unk (go); Unk-nala (climb); and Usha (wind). The inside front cover lists six of the possible nine ‘U’ words from the Ape-English Dictionary. They are nicely done, and once again the artist has elected to illustrate one of the words (unk/go) with a woman rebuking a man. [It does make one wonder at the psychological make up of the artist or his home life.

“Tarzan and The Men of A-lur” - 32pp.
Type -- Pal-ul-don - Empire Restored - Jane Rescued

ERBzine 2409: Dell No. 9

In A-lur Boy has just beaten Bu-lot in a swimming race. Bu-lot insults Boy. Boy attempts to shake hands and become friends. Bu-lot bites his hand. Boy slugs him in the face. Dak-lot, the bully’s father and king of To-lur, grabs Boy’s hair. Tarzan grabs Dak-lot’s hand. Ja-don, king of A-lur, enters and says it was Bu-lot’s fault. The insulted Dak-lot leaves with a threat.

Tarzan shows Ja-don his arrows that will pierce armor. Ta-den, Ja-don’s son, says the hunting party is ready. Meanwhile Tantor, in an insane fury, has crossed to Pal-ul-don, kills two jatos, and sends everything and anyone scurrying for cover. The hunting party tracks the two killer cave-bears to their den. After many efforts to draw out the bears, Tarzan goes deep into the cave and lures them into chasing him out into the open. Ta-den manages to kill one of the beasts. As the other attacks Ta-den, Tarzan kills it with a well-placed arrow. Suddenly, a gryf approaches, and everyone takes to the trees. Tantor comes on the scene, and the crazed elephant kills the gryf. Tarzan calms Tantor down.

Om-bat, a messenger, runs up and tells them that Dak-lot has taken A-lur and is killing everyone loyal to Ja-don. Jane was safe when he left. Tarzan sends Ta-den and Boy to Kor-ul-ja to get help from Om-at and the Waz-dons. In the meantime they will travel by Tantor to Ja-lur to rally the Ho-dons to help retake A-lur. Ja-don’s speech ignites the people. Ta-den and Boy arrive in Kor-ul-ja. Om-at and his people pledge their support to Ja-don. Tarzan has a steel howdah built to protect the king on Tantor’s back. On the march to A-lur they join forces with the Waz-dons. Boy rides in the howdah. Ta-den and Om-at’s men will enter the palace by a secret entrance as Ja-don’s forces attack the main gate.

Tantor crashes through the main gate. The fighting is fierce. Ta-den enters the palace and confronts Dak-lot. As the battle goes poorly for him, Dak-lot takes Jane to the parapet. Jane takes the usurper’s knife and frees herself. She tries to warn Tarzan. Dak-lot throws Jane off the parapet only to be caught by Tantor. Boy shoots Dak-lot in the hand before he can throw a knife at them. The men of To-lur use crowbars to loosen the parapet wall and send it crashing down onto Tarzan and Tantor. But Tantor has already smashed into the palace. The fighters from To-lur surrender. With Tarzan and Jane flanking King Ja-don, he asks Dak-lot if he wishes to speak. Dak-lot cries out, “*Death to Tarzan!”* as he throws a knife. The knife strikes Tantor in its trunk; Tarzan frees the knife. Tantor throws Dak-lot out the window. At a royal feast Ja-don proclaims Tarzan, “Prince of Pal-ul-don.” Tarzan, Jane and Boy ride Tantor home. End

This is a new story, which borrows heavily from Tarzan the Terrible. Many of these characters are reprised from earlier comics. A few new ones have names taken from TTe but are totally different characters. The question becomes, ‘why weren’t new names created if they were not going to use the personality from the novel?’ There is a litany of reasons to rate this comic as average: (1) Dak-lot calls Tarzan a hairless ape yet he is just as hairless. If the Ho-dons were the hairy creatures of the novel, this insult might have had some power; (2) Tantor crosses to Pal-ul-don, something he was incapable of doing in Dell #4 and #6. It must have been the insane fury Tantor was in; (3) Ja-don, King of A-lur, King of the Ho-dons, can’t come up with a plan after learning A-lur has been overthrown. It must have been the shock that made him so indecisive; (4) Boy’s two incredible arrow shots through the hands of enemies. Must be Dell’s self-imposed censorship that would not allow a child to kill a human being; (5) Prince of A-lur calls Dak-lot “Fat Face.” This comes off as childish dialog because the Pal-ul-don translation of Dak-lot is ‘fat face’; (6) Dak-lot takes an arrow through his hand, yet he has enough strength in that hand to throw another knife, this time at Tarzan; and finally, (7) Tantor’s lightning lunge to take the knife in the trunk that was intended for Tarzan.

Jesse Marsh is not exempted from inconsistencies. The Ho-dons are now white with pointed ears. There were depicted as black in previous titles. Om-at’s skullcap is gone from #6, and his toga like clothes are back from #4. The look of Ta-den has gone from a black African looking warrior in #6 to a white Roman soldier look. In fact, all of the warriors from A-lur and Ja-lur have a Roman soldier’s appearance. The city of A-lur’s architecture, from afar, looks Greek with post and lintel structures. There is a Roman arch bridge that leads out to a tower in the lake. At the end of the story with close-ups of the buildings, they appear to be more like stack and piling type architecture. The jato or striped-lion of Pal-ul-don is drawn as a normal sabor-toothed cat. Two panels later he draws the striped-cat looking very much like a tiger. When Dak-lot’s helmet is missing its plume in the panel in which Boy puts an arrow through his hand, one wonders if this is Dak-lot or some other warrior. The first four-panel page with Tantor fighting the jatos is quite nice. The second four-panel page is average in appearance. Marsh allows Jane’s dress to slip over her shoulder as she cuts her bonds is the sexiest panel to date. But the coup d tat is the feast scene at the end of the comic. This has the look of a Veronese painting.

Inside Back Cover: Pen and ink drawings entitled: Tarzan’s Ape-English Dictionary (continued). All six "V" words are listed: Van (well); Vando (good); Vo (muscle); Voo-dum (dance); Voo-voo (sing); and Vulp (full). The inside back cover lists all six of the possible ‘V’ words. The illustrations are nicely done, but one has a questionable vignette that probably would not be acceptable in the ‘politically correct’ world of the twenty-first century. Vando, good, is drawn as a native child about to take a bite out of a watermelon. He has a big grin on his face. [There is nothing inherently wrong with a child happily eating a melon. But some may take offense and read an underlying racist intent.

Back Cover: The second in the series of African warriors. In the upper right there is a typed legend which reads: “A Hadendoa (West Africa), better know as “Fuzzy-Wuzzy,” one of the most ferocious fighting men in
all Africa.” The back cover also has nothing to do with the story in the comic.

A fan of the Tarzan novels may find the story and panels to be average. As a comic it would rate high because of another excellent pair of covers and some nice action panels by Marsh. There are neither advertisements nor any additional stories in this issue.

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DELL #10 July/August 1949 ~ 36pp. 10cents

Front Cover Art: Moe Gollub
Back Cover Art: Unknown possibly Moe Gollub
Art interior: Jesse Marsh
Writer: Gaylord Du Bois

Cover: 3rd Moe Gollub cover. The front cover is the third and the weakest of Gollub’s work. Boy and the parrots are not in the first story. However Boy is featured in the second story.

Inside Front Cover: Advertisement for a subscription to the Tarzan Dell Comic featuring a back and white of Gollub’s cover for issue #8. This is the first advertisement in the Tarzan comics. It features one of its best covers, #8. Rates for one year were 60 cents and one dollar for two years.

1st story - “Tarzan and The Treasure of the Bolgani” - 24pp. 
Type -- World Race - Lost Race

ERBzine 2410: Dell No. 10

Tarzan finds signs of fifty bolgani walking on their hind feet. Muviro and some Waziri come to ask Tarzan for help in searching for six warriors who were captured by gorillas. They follow the trail to unfamiliar country where they are surrounded by gorillas. At first Tarzan holds them off, but shortly they are all beaten unconscious with clubs. They are tied up and marched off to Ara-thol, lightning city, home of the Ko-bolganis. Tarzan surmises that they have human-like brains. 

As they enter the city they see many slaves from different tribes who are in miniature. A guard tells them that they too will be little - big enough to work - too small to escape. Tarzan and Muviro are placed in a cage with amber bars. The Ko-gorillas roll in huge Leyden jars and hook them to the cage. The chief bolgani throws a  switch, and electricity is sent into the cage. Tarzan and Muviro’s hair stands on end. Tarzan breaks the bars just before he is overcome by the charge. They have been shrunk and are lead off to work in the mines. Muviro notices that Tarzan’s weight does not appear to be altered. A falling rock reveals that Tarzan’s strength is the same as before. Because he was touching the bars as the electrical charge was delivered, Tarzan’s flesh has the hardness of metal.

In the diamond mine, a guard hits Tarzan for not working. He breaks his hand in doing so. Tarzan makes his escape. An eagle attacks and cannot pierce Tarzan’s flesh. Tarzan sneaks into the city that night and overpowers a guard. He puts the gorilla into the shrinking cage. He asks if the process can be reversed. The gorilla refuses to answer so Tarzan shrinks him. More gorillas enter the room. Tarzan escapes. He sleeps in a tree near the town-square that night. In the morning the Ko-bolgani take their shrunken comrade to the public square and place him in a pool, which has a lightning rod in it. Lightning strikes the rod and the shrunken Gurak is restored. Tarzan jumps from the tree and runs. Spears and clubs bounce off his body. He jumps off the wall and returns to the mines. He instructs Muviro and the others to follow his lead as they attack their captors. The Ko-bolgani think that they all have Tarzan’s strength and run back to the city.

As they approach Ara-thol, an army of Ko-bolgani confronts them. Tarzan leads the way as spears bounce off him. He is surrounded by gorillas but manages to club down a large group of them. The gorillas flee to the city. Tarzan brings the ex-slaves to the public pool, and they wait for a lightning strike. The lightning restores them to their former size. Two Ko-bolgani approach with presents of gold and jewels and ask them to leave Ara-thol. Tarzan says they will go if the gorillas restore all the slaves and promise not to make slaves of men again. If they do take slaves again, Tarzan will return. End

The feature story is a new story, which is pretty farfetched. It probably has some relationship to the bolgani mines in Tarzan and the Golden Lion. In the novel the gorillas are a mixture of gorilla, great ape, and human. But these Ko-bolgani, after building a city, a machine that can shrink people, and a mine, are not very bright nor do they have the ferocity of the gorilla of GL. They are cardboard cutouts with no real attempt to build or establish any character depth in their personalities. They are inconsistent with no apparent leadership. Scientific principle aside, Tarzan has been transformed into a man of steel with spears and clubs bouncing off his flesh. One has to wonder if the comic competition with Superman was the main aim of this story.

A few notable panels are when the electricity is fed into the amber cage and Tarzan and Muviro’s hair stands on end. In one of those panels Tarzan breaks the bars, but it looks as if they were cut. He does use a couple silhouette panels quite effectively. Plus, the two battle scenes with the Ko-bolganis are nicely done. The architecture for Ara-thol, the home city of the Ko-bolgani, uses a combination of the horseshoe arch and the ogival arch found in Islamic buildings. Better facial expressions and more interesting panel compositions can be found in the secondary story “The Baboons’ King.”

It may have been easier to accept the unscientific transformation in 1949 than in our current century. The antagonists are weak characters; therefore, the story is weak. Marsh’s drawings are fairly standard with not many risk-taking features. There is a set up for a possible sequel.

2nd story - The Baboon’s King -- 6 pp.
Type - Boy and Muviro – Baboons – Morality Story
Gaylord Du Bois - writer

Muviro pulls Boy from a tree and tells him not to play with the baboons because they are treacherous. Boy defends the baboons. Muviro tells him that Tarzan put him in charge while he is away. A baboon throws a banana in Muviro’s face. Muviro throws a stick at the baboons. He spanks Boy for laughing at him. Boy runs away to be with the baboons. They make him king. They decide to be like the Gomangani and start to build a house. The baboons bring Boy sticks for the house and leave to find clothes. 

Native women wash clothes by a river. The baboons steal the clothes. They try to get into the shelter Boy built. Hornets attack them. The baboons destroy the hut as they try to get away from the hornets. They believe that the clothes attracted the hornets. Muviro and the Waziri come in search for the clothes and Boy. They find Boy hiding in the river. Boy says that he will not run away again. Muviro says that the hornet attack was punishment enough. End.

This is the first second story. Gaylord Du Bois wrote it. It features Boy, baboons, and Muviro in a short morality story.

True Tales of Darkest Africa - 1st text story with two small illustrations by Marsh -- 2 pp.

Inside Back Cover: Ink drawings entitled: “Tarzan’s Ape-English Dictionary. There are six "W" words illustrated. Wa (green); Wala (nest, hut, home, house); Wappi (antelope); Wang (arm); Wa-usha (leaf); and Whuff (smoke). The inside back cover continues the Ape-English Dictionary. There are six of the eight possible ‘W’ words illustrated.

Back Cover: The back cover is the third in the terrific series of African warriors. The typed legend reads: “A Mangbattu Warrior in ceremonial headdress.”

The African warrior on the back cover has nothing to do with the stories in this comic.

This is the first issue of the Dell Tarzan series to include an advertisement and additional stories.