In the Shadow of the Atomic Age 6 6

[creaturefan95]

[Scrooge]

Tarzan # 14 - Front & Back Cover and assorted panels. One of many lost civilization stories / issues.

Yup, that's a complete Roman city in the jungle -

One dramatic night sky view preceding the action - I can feel the kind of night it is!

I love those panels in which you know the --script / writer didn't describe the background so you know the artist just added the flourishes for fun, as per this fresco behind Flavia. Marsh rarely uses cluttering background, esp. when multiple figures are in one panel talking (which is most all panels) so it was a kick to see him stretch in this one panel - FWIW, that style shirt is very much in fashion this season.

 

Edited June 5, 2018 by Scrooge

[adamstrange]

54 minutes ago, Scrooge said:

One of many lost civilization stories / issues.

I've always enjoyed that sort of tale.  That's what motivated me to start reading Burrough's original stories.

[Sqeggs]

I like the Ghost Breaker issues at the end of the Star Spangled run.  Bought these three issues raw from a dealer who is usually an accurate grader, but got some disappointing grade and pq results. 

[Scrooge]

18 minutes ago, Sqeggs said:

Sorry they disappointed but tough books. I've never seen this one at a show for example. Congrats.

[Sqeggs]

1 minute ago, Scrooge said:

Sorry they disappointed but tough books. I've never seen this one at a show for example. Congrats.

Yeah, they seem to be very scarce, which probably reflects poor sales and explains why DC gave up on several of their mystery/suspense books from this period:  SSC with Ghost Breaker, Sensation Mystery with Johnny Peril, and Phantom Stranger.  Could maybe also include Danger Trail.  I would guess that all these books suffered from poor circulation. (Diet and exercise might have helped them! ) 

[adamstrange]

There are some lovely covers in the series.  My favorite:

[Sqeggs]

4 minutes ago, adamstrange said:

There are some lovely covers in the series.  My favorite:

Beautiful copy!  Is it a ped?

[adamstrange]

13 minutes ago, Sqeggs said:

Beautiful copy!  Is it a ped?

Church.  Lost a killer Mys In Space in trade for it.

[Sqeggs]

Just now, adamstrange said:

Church.  Lost a killer Mys In Space in trade for it.

Sounds like a good trade to me!

Are there any interior marks that would indicated that it's a Church copy or would the grader's go by chain of ownership?  I have a couple of Church (I think!) 1950s DC romance books.  One I submitted and the graders wouldn't accept the Church attribution.  I haven't yet submitted the other one.

[adamstrange]

That book has no marks but is instantly recognizable as a special copy with Church aroma.  Sometimes I have b&w photocopies but  I also know the chain of ownership involving people who are well known to key people at each grading company.

[creaturefan95]

[creaturefan95]

[Scrooge]

Tarzan 15 - Front & Back cover and additional scans -

Front cover includes scenes from the previous issues. For example, notice the Marsh dum-dum scene I scanned a few pages back. The bottom-most one is from the story with the medieval knights where Tarzan and Hal Hogarth escape Opar.

Speaking of Opar, one neat aspect of these Tarzans is the light touch of continuity through the issues. Here Tarzan recalls his recent adventure in Opar with Queen La and Sir Hal Hogarth (yes, that's an inside joke). Queen La is then the center of the rest of the story whereby Tarzan installs her in Pal-ul-don.

One beef I have with the series is that the lettering of P and D and frustratingly similar with a very short stem to the P that makes them hard to distinguish. Check out the word: HELPED in the second panel or ESCAPE right underneath. *end of old man rant*

In the next (unrelated) story, there is this nice sequence whereby this character is re-enacting for the village the events from the preceding several pages. We see her acting out key moments from earlier in the same story. A really well-done sequence by Marsh.

[Scrooge]

Tarzan 16 - Front and Back covers plus a few panels.

I'll say this without irony but they can't all be winners. This issue is lackluster. The main feature is centered on dinosaurs and I don't feel like Marsh ever accomplished much on those stories. They typically fall fairly flat unlike when other wildlife is needed for the story.

The covers will continue to feature Lex Barker for a while, a hint at the Tarzan in other media at the times, though the comics version is in no way related to that other incarnation. Unlike the previous cover, the drawings in the background here aren't lifted from previous issues and look more "primitive" in their depiction.

Here's a long shot with the sun setting on the mountains. This is a go-to shot for Marsh who used it routinely in his Western work: Autry or Johnny Mac Brown

For an instant in this story Tarzan loses the upper-hand.

Edited June 12, 2018 by Scrooge

[adamstrange]

1 hour ago, Scrooge said:

Tarzan 16 - Front and Back covers plus a few panels.

I'll say this without irony but they can't all be winners. This issue is lackluster. The main feature is centered on dinosaurs and I don't feel like Marsh ever accomplished much on those stories. They typically fall fairly flat unlike when other wildlife is needed for the story.

The covers will continue to feature Lex Barker for a while, a hint at the Tarzan in other media at the times, though the comics version is in no way related to that other incarnation. Unlike the previous cover, the drawings in the background here aren't lifted from previous issues and look more "primitive" in their depiction.

 

 

Here's a long shot with the sun setting on the mountains. This is a go-to shot for Marsh who used it routinely in his Western work: Autry or Johnny Mac Brown

For an instant in this story Tarzan loses the upper-hand.

 

That's really nice art by Marsh!

[Sqeggs]

On 6/11/2018 at 5:20 PM, Scrooge said:

Tarzan 15 - Front & Back cover and additional scans -

Front cover includes scenes from the previous issues. For example, notice the Marsh dum-dum scene I scanned a few pages back. The bottom-most one is from the story with the medieval knights where Tarzan and Hal Hogarth escape Opar.

 

Having the additional art on the cover is cool and more interesting than a generic jungle photo background.  A quick look at GCD makes it appear that they started this approach with issue 13 and ended it with issue 16. 

[Sqeggs]

3 hours ago, adamstrange said:

 

That's really nice art by Marsh!

The dinosaur sunset scene is nice, but the lack of background detail in the fight scene seems like cutting corners.

[Scrooge]

1 minute ago, Sqeggs said:

The dinosaur sunset scene is nice, but the lack of background detail in the fight scene seems like cutting corners.

It's an example of the rule: multiple figures in a panel gets no background. One assumes charitably it's for readability. Add to that the scene takes place in a guardroom in a "primitive" land (even by jungle standards, as per the story), you could almost argue that the walls are simply bare … but cutting corners might be it. After all, at the time, Marsh is producing volume. Not only is he producing a 52 page Tarzan book every other month, but he also works on Johnny Mac Brown, that's another 40+ page so over a two-month period, that's 90+ pages or 1½ pages per day without any days off. He might also have been working on Gene Autry still … but I thought he had stopped working on that earlier than this time period but, now, I see on the GCD that the Autry artwork is still credited to Marsh. I don't recall that. So, in doubt, I am not imputing more pages for Autry. So, conservatively, he is busy!

[Sqeggs]

4 minutes ago, Scrooge said:

It's an example of the rule: multiple figures in a panel gets no background. One assumes charitably it's for readability. Add to that the scene takes place in a guardroom in a "primitive" land (even by jungle standards, as per the story), you could almost argue that the walls are simply bare … but cutting corners might be it. After all, at the time, Marsh is producing volume. Not only is he producing a 52 page Tarzan book every other month, but he also works on Johnny Mac Brown, that's another 40+ page so over a two-month period, that's 90+ pages or 1½ pages per day without any days off. He might also have been working on Gene Autry still … but I thought he had stopped working on that earlier than this time period but, now, I see on the GCD that the Autry artwork is still credited to Marsh. I don't recall that. So, in doubt, I am not imputing more pages for Autry. So, conservatively, he is busy!

Interesting.  After all these years of reading comics, I wasn't aware of that rule.  Certainly makes sense, though.