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| J. Allen St. John |
The land of Pal-ul-Don first appeared in Edgar Rice Burroughs' 1921 novel Tarzan the Terrible. Located in an almost inaccesible area of Africa, it ranks up there with ERB's best Lost Worlds--not just because it has dinosaurs in it, but also because of the sophisticated world-building Burroughs did in creating the world, which allowed him to craft one of his most engrossing and action-packed stories.
As I've mentioned before, the writers of the Dell and Gold Key comics featuring Tarzan and Korak took the Greystokes back to Pal-ul-don on a number of occasions. The commercial value of this is obvious--an excuse for including dinosaurs on a comic book cover and in the story itself always helps a book stand out on the spinner rack. But it was also a good idea in terms of storytelling. Pal-ul-don is a rich world in which a lot of adventures can take place.
Inevitably, other writers started adding to Pal-ul-don to open up yet more storytelling possibilities. The comic books added several purely human cultures to the mix. But I believe that it was Russ Manning's Sunday strip that added several very important additions and ideas to that world.
One of my favorite story arcs from the Sunday strip ran from February 1971 to April 1972. It is a breathlessly fast-moving adventure--especially when read as reprints without a chance to catch your breath between entries.
Manning adds several more items to the increasingly complex Pal-ul-don mix. In a story arc from the daily strips in 1969, he had introduced Wieroos--the brutal race of wingmen who normally lived in another of ERB's lost worlds--to Pal-ul-don.
Actually, I should add a caveat to that. As far as I know, the first appearance of Wieroos in Pal-ul-don is in those 1969 strips. There may have been an earlier comic book or comic strip appearance that I'm not aware of. I checked with Jess Terrell, one of my co-hosts for the ERB podcast, but he wasn't sure either.
Manning also introduces the idea that Pal-ul-don exists in a different time than the rest of the world--the paths that lead there literally take you back in time. For purely personal ideas, I don't care for this. As far as I'm concerned, Pal-ul-don, Caspak, Pellucidar, Skull Island, the Valley of Gwangi, Challenger's plateau, Dinosaur Island and the Savage Land all exist in the here-and-now and I'll be able to take a dinosaur-themed vacation one day. A world were this isn't true is simpy an intolerable idea. But we can look at the comic strips and comic books--excellent as they are--as an alternate continuity and, personal feelings aside, placing Pal-ul-don in a different space-time location is a perfectly viable idea.
Let's dive into the story arc we are concerned today, Tarzan is recovering from wounds at a remote oasis. Jane, back home at the Greystoke African estate, is asked by two women photographers--Samie and Carli--to be a guide and take them to Pal-ul-don. Jane agrees, but only if they stop at the outskirts, take a few pictures of some Eohippus, then go home. That way, the journey should be safe enough. Nothing should go wrong.
It is beyond me how anyone living in the Edgar Rice Burroughs universe would think this plan would work. Of course, things go wrong. Samie disappears and Carli thinks she sees Jane get scarfed down by a T-Rex before she flees back into the desert.
Tarzan, meanwhile, has healed up and gotten home. An Ant Man warrior named Joiper lets Tarzan know where Jane has gotten off to.
I have always enjoyed the way Manning weaves places and characters from various Tarzan novels into his stories. Joiper, who will accompany Tarzan to Pal-ul-don, is a great character. Though he has his own distinct personality, he reminds me quite a bit of Reepicheep from the Narnia novels--small but brave, noble and skilled with a sword. He's a tad more head-strong than Reep was, but there are a lot of parallels.
What follows is a wonderful, non-stop action set-piece that runs for several months, with Tarzan, Joiper and Carli dodging dinosaurs; Tarzan using his tracking skills to determine Jane is alive; Carli getting captured by Wieroo and discovering that Sammie is already a prisoner in their city; then Tarzan and Joiper pulling off a daring rescue. Manning's kinetic and breathtaking art highlights the fast-paced writing, making this one of the most purely entertaining Tarzan stories I've ever read.
To quote one member of the "For the Love of All Things Edgar Rice Burroughs" Facebook group:
When you consider Manning's beautiful art and his writing skills, he has probably done more than anyone else in portraying the real Burroughs feeling.
They get out of the Weiroo city and back to the surface of Pal-ul-don, with Tarzan determined to stick around until he finds Jane. The August 22, 1971 strip ends with them all encountering a group of natives shoving someone off a cliff into a pack of carnivores.
The story shifts gears somewhat at this point, with Tarzan getting involved in a civil war. So we'll pause here and finish up the story next week.
I admire the way Russ Manning could pull off a cliffhanger per week and keep a story going for months. This is by far one of the best of the best of Tarzan stories. One thing I also like is the way he occasionally brings Korak, Tarzan, and Jane all together for a family moment--and then maddeningly spins them off into new separate story arcs. Burroughs did the same thing, of course. But I have a real sense of family unity from Manning, maybe because their time spent together is so very fleeting, yet it's very savor-able when it occurs.
ReplyDeleteI always appreciated the fact that Manning, as well as many of the Dell and Gold Key comic book writers, made Korak such a vital part of the Tarzan mythos. As much as I love the original novels, I do wish Burroughs had used Korak a little more often.
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