Tarzanesque (in French: Tarzanide) is a term created by Frenchman Francis Lacassin used to describe characters in comic books inspired by Tarzan. A tarzanesque character resembles Tarzan in his physical resourcefulness, within a line of action that includes an adventurous life in the jungle, the gift of understanding and being understood by animals, contact with lost civilizations and courage combined with the ability to deal with nature. The creation of such characters may have been propitiated by the success that Tarzan had achieved since his appearance in literature in 1912, culminating with the release of daily comic strips in 1929, which paved the way for a genre that combined the allure of the unknown environment, the need for the archetypal characteristics of the hero and the popularity of access.

The Tarzanesque follows the same line of action as Tarzan, but including diversified heroes, female or male, adapted to adventures set in a set of elements that make up the jungle stereotype in the popular imagination, which includes, besides the African jungles, the Amazon jungle and even strange jungles in polar regions.Pedro Cleto (February 10, 2010). Jornal de Notícias.

Etymology and characteristics The term "Tarzanide" was created by French literary critic Francis Lacassin, author of three books on the Man-Ape: "Tarzan: mythe triomphant, mythe humilié" (1963), "Tarzan" ou "le Chevalier crispé" (1971) and "La Legendé de Tarzan" (2000). Like Tarzan, a Tarzanide is generally considered "the king of the forest" or "the king of the jungle." He can talk to animals and even lead them and is respected by most of the neighboring tribes and often finds lost civilizations. The spelling "Tarzanidi" is also applicable, as is the Portuguese variant "Tarzânico".GOIDA, p. 24

While the terms "Tarzanide" and "Tarzanidi" are adopted for characters originating in Franco-Belgian and Italian comic book publications, for North American publications the term Tarzanesque is widely used. According to Wiktionary, the word Tarzanesque suggests a savage jungle life.

History

First manifestations

The success of the Tarzan comic strips that appeared in 1928 boosted the creation of multiple "kings" and "jungle girls" (also called "jungle women"). Some of these manifestations were independent - in 1931, writer Jerry Siegel, who would eventually become one of the creators of Superman but at the time was still in high school, created a Tarzan parody for Glenville High School's student newspaper The Torch - while others were crafted for professional purposes. In 1933, Filipinos Francisco Reyes (cartoonist) and Pedrito Reyes (comic book writer), created one of the first Tarzan copies, Kulafu.Patajo-Legasto (2008) Philippine Studies: Have We Gone Beyond St. Louis? UP Press In 1934, Alex Raymond created the comic strips Flash Gordon and Jungle Jim to compete, respectively, with Buck Rogers and Tarzan. Jim, however, was not a "King of the Jungle", but a hunter who had adventures in Asian jungles. At the beginning of the series, there was the character Zobi, the jungle boy.

In 1936, Timely Comics (now Marvel Comics) published the first issue of the pulp magazine "Ka-Zar", starring the title character, a young man named David Rand who had been raised in the Belgian Congo alongside the lion Zar. In addition, William L. Chester released the character Kioga from the book series, who lives his adventures in the Bering Strait, and in 1938, Kioga was given the series Hawk of the Wilderness, played by Herman Brix,Mattos, A. C. Gomes de. A Outra Face de Hollywood: Filme B. [S.l.]: Rio de Janeiro: Rocco. ISBN 85-325-1496-0 who had also played Tarzan in the film serial The New Adventures of Tarzan released in 1935. In the fifth issue of New Comics (June 1936), Homer Fleming's character Sandor was introduced, who had adventures in Northeast India.

In 1937, Will Eisner and Jerry Iger created Sheena, Queen of the Jungle, one of the best known "jungle girls". Although well known, the character was not the first to fit this archetype: in 1904 "Rima the Jungle Girl" had appeared as a character from the book Green Mansions: A Romance of the Tropical Forest, written by W. H. Hudson - eight years before Tarzan.

Sheena was the first "jungle girl" to wear a leopard-skin bikini, which would soon become a cliché, and was also the first heroine to get her own comic book, published by Fiction House between 1942 and 1953. Rima would only have her first comic book version in 1952, in issue #90 of Classics Illustrated, drawn by Alex Blum, and a regular series in 1974, by DC Comics, and even appeared in three episodes of the cartoon Super Friends.

In 1939, Ka-Zar makes his comic book debut in Marvel Comics #1, the publisher's first publication of its kind and the first written by Ben Thompson. It was adapted from Bob Byrd's short story "King of Fang and Claw", initially published in the hero's pulp magazine. Besides the Belgian Congo, Ka-Zar would live adventures in Somaliland (a region of Somalia), Ethiopia, Kenya, England and the United States and face the most varied villains: hunters, smugglers, fascists, Nazis, among others. In 1941, the hero participated in a story by the android Human Torch. Ka-Zar was published by the company until 1942.

In 1940, Fiction House started publishing the stories of "Kaanga, Jungle King" and Sheena, Queen of the Jungle Besides Kaanga and Sheena, Fiction House had already published, in the pulp magazine Jungle Stories, the character "Ki-Gor". Also published by Fiction House were "Camilla, Queen of the Lost Empire", created by C. A. Winter and "Tabu, the Jungle Wizard", created by Fletcher Hanks.

In 1941, Republic Pictures released the film serial Jungle Girl, about young Nyoka Meredith (Frances Gifford), raised in Africa by her father. The studio used a title from a novel by Edgar Rice Burroughs, however, the story and character were created by the studio. The following year it released a new sitcom, Perils of Nyoka, this time, Nyoka had her last name changed to Gordon and was played Kay Aldridge. In the same year, she got comic books published by Fawcett ComicsDenis Gifford. The international book of comics. [S.l.]: Crescent Books, 1984. 102 p. 9780517439272 and in 1944, Linda Stirling stars in another studio serial, The Tiger Woman, this time set in South America.

The Haitian Andre LeBlanc creates the Brazilian jungle girl Morena Flor, published in daily comic strips and in the comic book of Capitão Atlas, a kind of Brazilian hunter similar to Jungle Jim created for a radio show. LeBlanc was Sy Barry's assistant on another jungle hero: The Phantom, created by Lee Falk.

In 1949, actor Steve Reeves starred in the pilot episode of the TV series Kimbar of the Jungle, however, the project was not approved.

In the 1950s, two artists who drew Tarzanesque heroes from Fiction House would work on Tarzan comic strips: John Celardo (who illustrated stories starring Kaanga) and Bob Lubbers (who illustrated stories featuring Camilla).

Black Tarzanesques

In 1947, disturbed by the way black people were portrayed in comic books (especially in hero stories set in Africa), the African-American journalist Orrin C. Evans created the comic book All-Negro Comics, produced and directed to the black audience (something like the so-called race filmsThe word race was used in a pejorative sense; in the 1950s, the terms race music and race records were replaced by rhythm and blues or R&B. in Black Pau: A soul music no Brasil nos anos 1970 between the 1910s and 1950s and the Blaxploitation movies in the 1970s). In this comic book Orrin's brother, George J. Evans Jr., created the hero Lion Man, an African-American scientist in the service of the UN, which when sent to the Gold Coast in Africa, comes across a uranium mine and, fearing that the mine fell into the wrong hands, he decides to protect it and becomes a kind of black Tarzanesque. Despite the efforts, the comic book lasted only one issue. This was not the first attempt at a black Tarzanesque; the also African-American Matt Baker created Voodah in 1945, for the third issue of Golfing/McCombs Publisher's Crown Comics. On the cover of the fifth issue, Voodah appears as a Caucasian (although he was still black on the inside pages), and in the next issue, Voodah became white on the inside pages as well.

Indian Tarzanesques

Fiction House released a few characters of Indian origin like Wambi the Jungle Boy, released in Jungle Comics #1 in January 1940). Co-created by Henry Kiefer, Wambi lived in a jungle that mixed elements of African and Indian jungles, and in addition to Jungle Comics, Wambi was published in his own comic book . As female examples, there is Taj of the Elephants, an anonymously created character released in Jungle Comics #57 (1944) and Jan of the Jungle, co-created by Enrico Bagnoli and released in Rangers Comics #42 (August 1948). In Buster Brown Comics #11 (1948), the character Ghanga was released, later spelled Gunga. In addition, the Indian-American actor Sabu Dastagir played two characters created by Rudyard Kipling: Toomai in Elephant Boy (1937) and Mowgli in Jungle Book (1942), as well as becoming a comic book character inspired by these roles: Sabu, Elephant Boy, published in Red Circle Comics #4 (April 1945) and a two-issue comic book of his own with stories illustrated by Wally Wood and published by Fox Feature Syndicate. In 1946, in the pages of the French comic book Fillette, the heroine Durga Râni appeared, written by René Thévenin and illustrated by René Pellos.

In the 1950s

In 1950, Akim appeared in the Italian wallet-sized format comic book Albo Gioello created by the comic book writer Roberto Renzi and the cartoonist Augusto Pedrazza. The character, who was published until 1991, didn't live adventures only in the jungles, but also fought common criminals in the so-called "civilized world", and for this he even wore common clothes used in big metropolises.

In 1952, Frank Frazetta created Thun'da, King of Congo for Magazine Enterprises, which even had a series in the same year called King of the Congo starring Buster Crabbe (actor who had already played Tarzan in the 1933 series Tarzan the Fearless). Thun'da (whose real name is Robert Drum) is an American Air Force aviator who gets lost in the Congo and who, in the comics, faced dinosaurs and prehistoric beings,Elements that also existed in Tarzan stories, specifically in the lost world of Pal-ul-don and in Pellucidar, another book series created by Edgar Rice Burroughs, creator of Tarzan in Allen A. Debus (2009). Prehistoric monsters: the real and imagined creatures of the past that we love to fear McFarland [S.l.] p. 275. but due to budget cuts, these elements were not present in the series. In the 1960s, Frazetta illustrated covers of paperback versions of Tarzan's stories published by Ace Books.