Tarzan in Color, 1937-1938

Tarzan in Color

by Burne Hogarth

Reprints of pages from the Sunday comic strip.

64 pages, Hardcover

First published May 1, 1994

About the author

Burne Hogarth started young. Born in 1911, he was enrolled in the Chicago Art Institute at the age of 12 and an assistant cartoonist at Associated Editors' Syndicate at 15. At the age of 26, he was chosen from a pool of a dozen applicants as Hal Foster's successor on the United Features Syndicate strip, "Tarzan". His first strip, very much in Foster's style, appeared May 9, 1937. It wasn't long before he abandoned the attempt to maintain the original look of the strip and brought his own dynamic style to the Sunday comics page.

In 1947, Hogarth co-founded (with Silas Rhodes) the School of Visual Arts which became his new direction in life. He was able to pass his unique methods on illustration to his students in the classroom and, in 1958, to the readers of his first book, Dynamic Anatomy.

Hogarth retired from the SVA in 1970 but continued to teach at The Parsons School of Design and, after a move to Los Angeles, The Otis School and Art Center College of Design in Pasadena. During his years teaching, Hogarth authored a number of anatomy and drawing books that have become standard references for artists of every sort, including computer animators. Dynamic Anatomy (1958) and Drawing the Human Head (1965) were followed by further investigations of the human form. Dynamic Figure Drawing (1970) and Drawing Dynamic Hands (1977) completed the figure cycle. Dynamic Light and Shade (1981) and Dynamic Wrinkles and Drapery (1995) explored other aspects relative to rendering the figure.

After more than 20 years away from strip work and being hailed in Europe as "the Michelangelo of the comic strip," Hogarth returned to sequential art in 1972 with his groundbreaking Tarzan of the Apes, a large format hardbound book published by Watson Guptill in 11 languages. It marks the beginning of the sober volume of integrated pictorial fiction, what is currently understood to be a graphic novel.

Burne Hogarth passed away in 1996 at the age of 84.

Reviews

[Michael P. · Rating 2 out of 5]

Hogarth still has some figure stiffness, but is growing into the dynamic artist he will become. The stories are the problem. One is completed, two are complete, and a fourth is begun. The characterizations are thin in all of them, and each has the same arc. Tarzan meets a group of strangers who need help. He quickly becomes their leader, helping them conquer their foes. Always someone is jealous of him and wants to see him fail. Usually a woman falls in love with him at first sight, and sometimes betrays him because he does not return her love. It is tedious. The stories are well paced, but the clichés overwhelm. Studying Hogarth’s art is the only reason to read this book.