A nice coffee table book that came out from Titan Books in 2012 is Tarzan: The Centennial Celebration. It’s subtitled “The Stories, The Movies, The Art.” Written by Scott Tracy Griffin, it has an intro by the late Ron Ely.
At over 300 pages, it’s a pretty comprehensive work, with lots of art, both color and black and white, taken from a number of sources: movies, TV, books, comicbooks and strips, and other pieces. And it covers the gamut of Tarzan, from books to comics, movies, TV, and more.
So we start off with Tarzan in the pulps, and then we move into separate chapters for each of the Tarzan novels. Along with those chapters are little sidebar articles on various related topics. These can include Korak, Jane, the Mangani, and various characters and aspects of Tarzan and his stories.
After the novels, we get the children’s novels. This then moves into Tarzan in other media, including comic strips, comicbooks, and radio. We get pretty good coverage of the movies, with chapters focused on different eras of the movies. There is a look at Tarzan on TV and stage.
Then we get into more esoteric areas. This includes Tarzana, Edgar Rice Burroughs‘ personal life, fanzines and conventions, collectibles, and more. We do get a chapter covering Burroughs’ other fantastical works. And there is a basic bibliography of his work. And, finally, there is a nice chapter on further reading.
In going over this work, I really couldn’t see much I could criticize. I think the only thing I would have liked to have seen is in the section on fanzines. We never get to see pictures of any of these publications. I thought that was an oversight.
If you are more than a passing fan of Tarzan, I would recommend getting this book. It’s still readily available. I actually picked up a used copy for a reasonable amount and am glad I did.
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