French Tarzan clones! Part 3

In Belgium, Chott who, later, will create the famous Fantax, book in 1947 for the weekly "Wrill", MOWG "Fils de la Brousse". This story of a teenager taken in by the great apes and whose companion is an elephant, will be taken up as an album by Gordinne. This same editor publishes, in 1948, in his other weekly "Sabord", a curious character TALMOUF, realized in a semi-realistic style by Al Peclers. It is "the true story of an ape man and the victorious struggles of this king of the jungle against wild animals, cannibalistic tribes and the dangers of the virgin forest". His accomplices in adventures are Filoseille the monkey and Valentin a young elephant. The hero, dressed in a loincloth, is very realistic, while the animals and natives are caricatured.

Still in Belgium, François Craenhals, well known today for "Pom et Teddy" and “Chevalier Ardent”, creates the character of KARAN, a sort of Mowgli with endearing adventures. He will sign eight episodes, which will be published in the Heroic collection. Albums in 1950-51. The action takes place in Brazil, where his parents were massacred by looters. Karan takes refuge in the forest. He is adopted by a jaguar and learns to know the animals. After avenging his parents and worked in a circus, we find him in the Moluccas Islands where he meets a young girl, Aléa. This will be the end of his adventures.

For his part, Marijac will adapt an English series "The Wild Boy", by Bill Lacey in "Pierrot" in 1953-55, under the title L'ENFANT DE LA BROUSSE. Another young boy who lives by animals. We will find him later in "Nano and Nanette", always with adventures close to nature and animals.

The return of Tarzan to La Sagedition in 1968 put a brake on new creations, difficult to match the model. However, Raymond Maric (screenplay) and Pierre Frisano (drawings), relaunched the genre in 1974, with GORAK, which was published in full stories first in "Le Journal de Bibi Fricotin", then in "Trio" (1976) and "Pieds Nickelés" (1978). Two flexible albums were published in 1979, with the same publisher, the SPE, covering the same episodes of "L'Homme au Guepard". Screenplay and drawings are of high quality and this series had a modest success. Gorak is a former trainer who finds himself unemployed in Brazil. With Diane the trapeze artist and Gip his cheetah, he leaves civilisation to go deep into the Amazon jungle where he will experience often dangerous adventures. Unlike his colleagues, Gorak does not wear a loincloth, he is shirtless. On the other hand, his partner shows off her generous shapes in a two-piece.

We should also talk about the girls of the jungle, who, following TARZELLA, appeared in the adventures of Tarzan, in an episode drawn by Rex Maxon, were also very numerous: Sheena, Durga Rani, Panthère Blonde, and many others, without forgetting the very erotic Jungla, by Stélio Fenzo and also published by Aredit, in complementary strips in small formats, Rima fille de la jungle by Kubert.