More Tarzan Oddballs

The odd radionovela

The Adventures of Tarzan is an Argentinian radionovela that was a cash in combination of both the Dell Comics stories and the Lex Barker movies. It aired from 1950 up until 1954 and starred Cesar Llanos as a Tarzan in name only, Mabel Landó as Juana the Jane Parker expy, and the would be infamously active Peronist Oscar Rovito as Tarzanito, Tarzan’s adopted son who is clearly one of Jai’s two semi-official prototypes. 

The Tarzan mangas and manga illustrations of the Cold War 

1949: Illustrator Yoshizo Wada made a rather unofficial manga centring around the youth of Johnny Weissmuller’s Tarzan portrayal, which clearly suggests that such a portrayal was itself raised by Chimps and Gorillas amongst various animals, instead of just by Manganis like in the canonical ERB books. A succeeding story named the Jungle Club, which is likely set after Tarzan and the Huntress but before Tarzan and the Mermaids, has him ride a giant eagle friend of his, who’s likely inspired by Argus from the ERB books. 

1954: The famed illustrator Macoto Takahashi’s first ever manga was a really hard to find unofficial oddball for a good reason. It revolved around a shaggy long haired Tarzan in name only and his girlfriend, a High Priestess La+Jane Porter cross named Princess Jane. It was likely manufactured when he was starting his career while turning twenty. 

Tarzan, Jai and Cheeta’s foray into semi-official manga: Takeshi Furushiro, better known as a lamented manga adapter of historical events, made a semi-offical Tarzan manga centring around Ron Ely’s well done Tarzan portrayal, his ward Jai (sometimes called Boy due to his young age) and their furry friend Cheeta (who’s likely a young tomboy). 

By the time that many Tarzan films and a then new tv show would become a regular tv staple in many countries, Noboru Kawasaki made the goofy looking, Johnny Weissmuller Period inspired illustrations of a poppy vinyl single, which contained the two main songs from a currently long gone Japanese dub broadcasted by Tv NET, now known as Tv Asahi. 

The standout is that the Japanised versions of Ron Ely’s Tarzan and Manuel Padilla’s Jai (as with the Takeshi Furushiro manga, he’s sometimes called Boy) still wore the hip and brief loincloths that the 1960s show is still infamous for to this day, even though their hairstyles looked a bit too much like those of the two Johnnies, Weissmuller and Sheffield.

So bad it’s scrapped

According to the rather alright Tarzan Wiki, Tarzan and Jane: Best Friends in the Jungle did have a summary which would’ve been decent, but then again, was rightfully cancelled due to both having the worst looking posters possible and unintentionally plagiarising too many popular kids shows without consent from fellow rights holders! Which is why It’s fair to say that its own spiritual successor Tarzanimals is thankfully made to focus on a chestnut haired Tarzan and a blonde Jane instead.