The Return of Tarzan Artists Edition Review

The Return of Tarzan Artists Edition, Joe Kubert, IDW Publishing

IDW have created thanks to editor Scott Dunbier an increasingly impressive line of lavish hardcovers celebrating the finest comic creators in the industry. To add to Tor, Enemy Ace and Tarzan from Joe Kubert, we now have The Return of Tarzan, which reprints Tarzan of the Apes #214, 217-223, originally published by DC in the early seventies. Kubert was a rare figure in comics: he was a writer, an artist, an editor and later on in his life, he chose to put something back into the industry that had given him so much by founding the Kubert School.

By this point in his career, Kubert was into his fourth decade as a professional comics artist and amazingly his ardour or talent had not diminished. Kubert was an artist who was able to channel the best of the EC artists like Al Williamson and Frank Frazetta and the cream of the newspaper artists like Alex Raymond, Hal Foster and Milt Caniff while still able to bring something new to the mix, transcending his influences.

There is a beauty and an elegance to Kubert’s work here as there was with much of his work and it is wonderful to read it in this larger format. There was also a raw power and a dynamism to his drawing that few other artists have ever matched. He was the perfect translator of Edgar Rice Burroughs’ iconic creation to the comics page and it is testament to the versatility of him that over forty years later, his run on Tarzan is still an entertaining and diverting read. He was able to bring the world that Tarzan inhabits to life with skill and pizazz and it is easier to admire his linework at the larger format.

At the back, there are a series of images from many of modern comics’ most renowned artists, paying tribute to Joe Kubert. The likes of Jim Lee, Dave Gibbons, Walter Simonson and Alex Ross all contributed a piece of art, which just shows what a huge shadow Joe Kubert continues to cast over the comics industry. The Return of Tarzan is a beautiful celebration of one of comics greatest creators.

JOEL MEADOWS

Edgar Rice Burroughs’ Tarzan: The Complete Joe Kubert Years Omnibus

IDW Publishing