I’ve posted on several Edgar Rice Burroughs characters and their comic book and comic strip versions. In recent years, ERB Inc. has been working with a small comic book company American Mythology to do new canon comics.
The most recent of these are under their new ERB Universe logo of official canon stories. But their most recent canon comics have been published by themselves using Kickstarter to launch them. Other titles have been done by Dynamite, like the John Carter related ones, but these are not considered canon.
The first are a pair starring Jane Porter, Tarzan‘s wife. These consist of a one-shot comic, Jane Porter: The Primordial Peril (2022), and the recently released trade paperback Jane Porter & the City of Fire, which is a direct sequel.
In Primordial Peril, we met Jane when she has arrived at a remote Alaskan island in 1952 where she is conducting an archaeological dig. Instead she finds a large and armed group, led by a Helvig, who seems to have a past rivalry with Jane. As I’m not up on the Tarzan stories, I don’t know if he’s original or not.
We learn that Jane has a doctorate in archaeology, as well as an advanced degree in zoology, and holds a director position with the Robeson Museum of Natural History in Baltimore. (Jane is originally from Baltimore.) Something that irks Helvig.
We learn that Helvig has discovered several prehistoric animals preserved in the ice and with other scientists has revived them: two saber-toothed tigers and a mammoth. And Helvig plans another revival. Jane, using her knowledge, is able to tame and control the prehistoric animals, to Helvig’s misfortune.
This directly leads into the next story, as Jane decides the best place for the revived animals is Pellucidar. For that, she calls upon others who have built a new airship that can take them to the inner earth.
If you didn’t pick up on who these people are, Bowen Tyler and his wife Lys are from the Caprona series. I guess they’ve expanded from just shipbuilding.
There are both new and classic characters here. At times I wish some had been noted for readers, as I didn’t immediately pick up on this, and wonder if it went over more casual fans.
We also learn that getting into Pellucidar isn’t quite through a polar hole. Instead of an easy trip to Pellucidar, the airship winds up traveling to another world. There they get pulled into a conflict between two rival alien factions before they are able to extract themselves and get back home and to Pellucidar.
I am not aware of further comic stories planned with Jane. The next comic they plan, again with a future Kickstarter campaign, is Victory Harben: Ghosts of Omos. Victory Harben is a new character in the ERB Universe, and this planned graphic novel is a sequel to her first novel. I’m not sure how it may tie into the comics featuring her that came from American Mythology, though they are all part of the ERB Universe.
If you want these comics you should be able to obtain them from the EBR Inc. website and maybe also Amazon. Keep an eye out for future comics as well. At some point I need to do reviews of these new comics from American Mythology.
