Tuesday, September 10, 2013

Groove's Faves: "The Treasure Vaults of Opar!" by Wein and Thorne

Greetings, Groove-ophiles! Ya know what an Edgar Rice Burroughs fan Ol' Groove is, so it's about time we visited DC's Korak, Son of Tarzan, innit? Korak ran for 14 "DC Issues" (March 1972-July 1975) before converting to the extra-sized Tarzan Family (which featured a mix of new material and reprints), but, just to confuse things, DC didn't "reboot" the title (previously published by Gold Key/Western for 45 issues) with a first issue, but continued the Gold Key numbering. Thus, the "First DC Issue" of Korak, Son of Tarzan was ish #46. And what an ish it was! Editor Joe Orlando kicked things off right by handing the reins of Korak's lead feature to writer Len Wein and Artist Frank Thorne. The backups, Carson of Venus and Pellucidar were handled by Wein and artists Mike Kaluta and Alan Weiss (which you can read here and here). Orlando would soon be replaced by cover artist Joe Kubert as editor, Wein's words would give way to those of Robert Kanigher and Kubert, and artists Murphy Anderson and Rudy Florese would eventually handle the illustrating chores, but Korak was continually in great creative hands for its short life. But for today, let's focus on Wein and Thorne's debut Korak tale, "The Treasure Vaults of Opar!" 18 pages (plus Kubert's awesome cover) of pure jungle action! (Hey, wouldn't that make a neat title...?)

















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4 comments:

  1. GrahamSeptember 10, 2013 at 12:10 AM

    I really enjoyed DC's turn with the ERB characters, but Korak was probably my favorite. It was always lots of fun to read.

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  2. Mike MikulovskySeptember 10, 2013 at 10:42 AM

    Loved Kubert's War, Tarzan, everything he drew! Was so gritty & realistic! Like Tony Dezuniga as well. I'm with Graham, DC & Marvel both did some beautiful titles. Using ERB's characters & stories! The 70's were a awesome time to be a comic fan & a kid/teenager!

    ReplyDelete
  3. AnonymousSeptember 10, 2013 at 11:31 AM

    Thank you,Mr Groove,for sharing!
    I'm eight again.
    Cheers!
    /Mr Anonymous

    ReplyDelete
  4. TonySeptember 11, 2013 at 10:05 AM

    I've been intrigued by these comics for a while now, but I'm still trying to finish off my DC Tarzan run. I still need about 15 issues, so I'm hesitant to start collecting another Tarzan-related book. I'll just have to read them here, I guess!! Good stuff.

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Special thanks to Mike's Amazing World of Comics and Grand Comics Database for being such fantastic resources for covers, dates, creator info, etc. Thou art treasures true!


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