Tarzan has a long history in comics. He appeared in newspaper comic strips beginning in the late 1920s and in comic books since the late 1940s. Above is a hardcover graphic novel version of Tarzan of the Apes illustrated by Burne Hogarth. It was published by Watson-Guptill Publications in 1972. Hogarth is one of the original artists who did the Tarzan newspaper comic strip.
In keeping with the original Tarzan of the Apes novel, Tarzan is naked throughout most of this book. (Yay!) As this is a graphic novel it was geared toward older readers (teens and up) rather than kids, though maintains a PG-13 level by finding creative ways to hide his "boys". We do however get to see Tarzan's bare bum, so there's that. (Yay again!) Here are a few examples of how Tarzan was depicted.... no loincloth required!
As Tarzan's weekly newspaper comic strips were so successful, he soon made the jump to comic books to be featured in his own series. Dell Publishing began the main Tarzan comic book series publishing 131 issues. Gold Key/Western Publishing took over the series at issue No. 132, continuing the same numbering count of the issues rather than resetting back to number 1. Shown above, at left, is the (slightly torn) cover of Tarzan of the Apes by Gold Key, No. 191, April 1970. In the early 1970's DC Comics/National Periodical Publications continued the series with No. 207, and again continued the same numbering. Shown above at right is the DC Comics issue No. 212, Sept. 1972, with cover art by Joe Kubert.
DC Comics also published Korak, Son of Tarzan which later became Tarzan Family. Shown above is my favourite Tarzan comic cover, DC Comics Tarzan Family issue No. 66, Dec 1976. In the early 1970s DC Comics also published Weird Worlds which featured additional characters of Edgar Rice Burroughs such as John Carter.
In 1977 Marvel Comics took over the Tarzan series, though they discontinued the numbering that had been used through the Dell, Gold Key and DC Comics series, and started again with issue 1. Shown above is Tarzan Lord of the Jungle, issue No. 2, 1977, by Marvel Comics.
This is a two issue comic book series published in July and August 1984 by Marvel.
In 1984 the Burroughs estate, which licenses Tarzan, produced several logo style images of Tarzan that were used on several products including the Marvel comic covers. I've also seen the logos used for action figure packaging, a Milton Bradley board game, a Coleco video game, Ballantine Tarzan novels, a large wall poster, and four children's "book and record" sets by Kid Stuff that used similar art.
I love the artwork for Tarzan in this image so I had to include a nice close up!
This is a very sexy Tarzan!
This is how Tarzan was depicted in the comic, from issue 2. Very cool artwork!
As previously mentioned, in the original 1912 novel Tarzan is actually naked throughout most of the story. He doesn't wear a loincloth until toward the end of the book when he first sees another human being in a nearby tribe, who he ends up killing and stealing the loincloth from. Although this was a kids comic book Marvel Comics went ahead and showed Tarzan completely buck naked (shown above and below from issue 2). Of course they obscured his boy parts but had no problem showing his bare behind. Times have certainly changed! Imagine a comic book company making a kids comic book like this nowadays! People have become so politically correct that Marvel would have been torn asunder, not unlike being attacked by Sabor or an angry Kerchak! LOL :) I think it's pretty cool that Marvel went this route and presented the story to kids the way the original novel was written. It's unfortunate that we live in such a prudish world!
Hey look! Tarzan has a bubble bum! :) Below is the full page.
