TARZAN, the surviving just-born infant son of shipwrecked and deceased British Lord and Lady Greystock, was adopted, nursed and raised by a large female Ape to replace the infant son she had just lost.  TARZAN, growing up in a tribe of Great Apes, became “King of the Apes” and “Lord of the Jungle”.

TARZAN was created by the American Novelist / Writer Edgar Rice Burroughs and first appeared in Burroughs’ 1912 novel “Tarzan of the Apes”, over 100 years ago.  The Book was an instantaneous success, establishing TARZAN as the World’s most popular hero, from his creation in 1912 to this present day, dominating 23 sequential TARZAN novels, over 60 silent and sound films, Animation, Animé, Stage, Radio, Television and Video Games.  TARZAN LIVES!  

EDGAR RICE BURROUGHS’ 24 TARZAN NOVELS

Edgar Rice Burroughs wrote 23 sequel TARZAN novels from 1912 through 1949.  His books have been even more popular with adults and children than any other novelist, including J. K. Rowling’s Harry Potter Series.

TARZAN MOVIES (1918 – 2014)

Following the 1912 publication of “Tarzan of the Apes”, the first TARZAN Movie by that name was launched in Silent Film in 1918.  Eight TARZAN silent film feature movies followed from 1918 to 1928.  Thereafter, over 48 TARZAN full feature sound movies were produced and viewed by packed Cinemas.  Many Actors have played TARZAN (Elmo Lincoln, Lex Barker, Buster Crabbe, Gordon Scott, Jock Mahoney, Mike Henry and Ron Ely, to name a few).  But the Olympic 5-time-Gold-Medalist Swimmer JOHNNY WEISSMÜLLER made TARZAN his trademark, starting with “Tarzan the Ape Man” (1932) co-starring Maureen O’Sullivan as “Jane”.  Weismüller starred as the “Ape Man” in a total of TWELVE TARZAN films from 1932 through 1948, making him the most famous and longest-lasting screen TARZAN.  Weismüller’s yodel-like “Tarzan Yell” (the Victory Cry of the Bull Ape) became so associated with the character that it was dubbed into later films featuring different actors in order to make them “believable”.  Warner Brothers and producer Jerry Weintraub have had a new Tarzan live-action film in development since 2003 and it is expected to be produced in 2014.  TARZAN LIVES!

A number of derivative Full Feature Foreign Language TARZAN productions are currently rolling out from Spain, China, Turkey, India and the Philippines.  TARZAN LIVES!

RADIO AND TELEVISION

TARZAN has been and remains the hero of many popular RADIO programs (now over 1,000 radio programs) and has been a primary TELEVISION force for the past 100 years.  TARZAN LIVES!

TARZAN ANIMATION AND ANIMÉ

Disney’s animated TARZAN (1999) marked a new beginning for the Ape Man followed by the Japanese Animé “Jungle, no Quja Ta-chan” (King of the Jungle Ta-chan) series.  TARZAN LIVES!

TARZAN COMICS

TARZAN has also dominated the Comics for almost 100 years.  TARZAN became the immediate hero of United Feature Color Sunday Comics decades before other comic Heroes (Superman, Batman, Spiderman, etc.) were conceived and before DC and Marvel Comics (Iron Man, Hulk, Thor, etc.) was even born.  Hal Foster, the famous Canadian Illustrator who changed the face of comics with his PRINCE VALIANT series, was selected by Burroughs to depict his Tarzan.  Foster put his mark on TARZAN from 1929 to 1936.

Then, in 1936, the great unsurpassed illustrator and master anatomist Burne Hogarth undertook to draw TARZAN.  At this time, TARZAN, the “Lord of the Jungle”, had already been in existence for 22 years in the novels of Edgar Rice Burroughs; he had been a character in the movies for 20 years; he had been a comic strip hero for 18 years.  A student of Michelangelo and the great Baroque artists, Hogarth brought his illustrator’s skills and anatomical mastery to establish a new lasting image of TARZAN for United Features and the World, raising the level of Comics to an Art Form.  TARZAN LIVES!