Tarzan Weekly

As requested, here's the whole of the 1st issue of Tarzan Weekly, a comic I mentioned a while back.
It was a UK reprint that came without much fanfare in 1977, briefly turned into a monthly, and then vanished again soon after.
Well, I say it's a reprint. I'm not sure how much of this has been seen in America: The Russ Manning strips I'm guessing are Gold Key reproductions, but I seem to remember that Mark Evanier & Dan Spiegle did Korak just for overseas territories. And Akut King Of The Apes is, I reckon, by the same guy who did Hook Jaw, so god knows where that originated.
Regardless, it's all great stuff. Remember when british comics only had one colour to play with? And yes, I did manage to stay alive in the jungle with the aid of my super survival kit bag, thanks for asking.

Tarzan Weekly

Thanks are due once again to Brill Bronze Age Buddy Graham for forwarding me these scans of the UK weekly Tarzan comic I couldn't remember the title of. ( Tarzan Weekly, doofus! And hey, let's bring back 'Brill' as a slangword )
I absolutely had that first issue there with it's classically british cover ie. shove everything in there, including the fact there's a FREE GIFT INSIDE. You always got slightly lame free gifts in first issue's in the UK ( 2000AD gave away a mini frisbee with their premiere appearance ) and lemme tell ya, that jungle survival kit sure came in handy in the wilds of the Clements housing estate.
I also remember it was printed on really flimsy paper. Remember the paper that Captain Britain was printed on? It was cheaper than that, so I doubt many copies survived in good condition.
Here's the back page of that first issue, courtesy of Russ Manning. Like I said before, has Tarzan ever looked righter?


Graham reckons it lasted about 20 issues before going monthly, and then rapidly disappearing, but as he says, british comics generally didn't continue numbering after the first couple of releases, so who knows? While I try'n find out, here's another great, great cover by Russ.


While here's Dan Spiegle on Korak. Even though it's obviously Dan, it could actually pass for a great british strip of the time, like Adam Eterno or The Leopard From Lime St. tho' obviously the grid design is american and therefore more interesting than our slightly staid formula of that period.
Incidentally, the Deathless Dialogue award goes to that copper: " Only Lord Pelham I know of would be the one from Pelham Manor " Man, Columbo's got nothing to worry about with you around, pal, has he?


According to David & Graham Tarzan Weekly, as well as Spiegle & Manning, boasted in it's pages the likes of: Dave Stevens, Mike Ploog, Alex Nino & Pat Boyette. Plus Korak was written by Mark Evanier, all of which means I'm gonna be scouring ebay for some of this stuff immediately. This looks like treasure trove / must get of the week to me.