Korak, Son of Tarzan In The Comics

For just a brief background on the character of Korak, Jack Clayton's first appeared as an infant in the non-Tarzan novel The Eternal Lover (later retitled The Eternal Savage), in which the Ape Man and his family played supporling roles. Baby Jack next shows up in the third Tarzan novel, The Beasts of Tarzan, in which he was kidnapped and taken to Africa. The story of his youth and growth to manhood was told in the fourth book of the series, The Son of Tarzan, in which he returned to Africa and lived in the jungle, taking for the first time the name Korak ("Killer" in the language of the Great Apes). Meriem, the Arab girl Korak rescues from a beating turns out to be a love story in his first true adventure that carried over to the DC comic series for many of the early issues. The two youths run wild in the forest for years before being separated. After many adventures they are re-united and eventually marry. Burroughs later used Korak as a supporting character in the eighth through the tenth entries in the series, Tarzan the Terrible, Tarzan and the Golden Lion, and Tarzan and the Ant Men. The last of those three also briefly mentions Korak and Meriem's young son 'Jackie'. Just as a side note, The Bunduki series by J.T. Edson, was initially authorized by the Edgar Rice Burroughs estate to include Korak and Meriem's granddaughter Dawn as one of two main characters. But after three volumes in 1976, ERB Inc. withdrew Edson's permission to use the Tarzan name in future books and as a result the fourth novel and the short stories do not mention Tarzan or Jane by name. 

Gold Key Comics first published Korak, Son of Tarzan in issues #1-45 from January of 1964 to January of 1972. The early books featured some stellar work by a favorite artist of Edgar Rice Burroughs fans, Russ Manning, often thought to be one of the best ever to represent ERB's characters. Newspaper strip artist Warren Tufts did a few fill in issues in his classic style, before Dan Spiegle took over the artistic chores to finish out most of the series. When National Comics acquired the rights to the Korak series in 1972, they continued the numbering from Gold Key with issue #46-59 (June 1972 to September-October 1975), until it was later renamed The Tarzan Family. The retitled series ran an additional seven issues #60-66 (November-December 1975 - November-December 1976). Both series also included other various Burroughs' characters usually as back up features and reprints from the Gold Key issues. Initially, the DC Korak, Son of Tarzan series featured work from writers Len Wein and Roberl Kanigher and artists Frank Thorne, Murphy Anderson, and Rudy Florese. A fantastic adaptation of "Carson of Venus" written by Len Wein and illustrated by Michael Kaluta was also a short-lived backup featured in issues #46-56. Graced with fantastic covers that only Joe Kubert could produce in all its savage beauty, Korak started out with interior art by one of my favorite DC's artists, Frank Thorne.  

As the whole DC series only lasted twenty issues including the renamed Tarzan Family in that larger anthology format, I now discovered earlier Tarzan reprints from the likes of Russ Manning, and Hal Foster, not to mention new stories and art for Carson of Venus, John Carter of Mars and other delights. They were illustrated by DC's talented stable of artists including Noly Zamora, Gerry Talaoc, Gray Morrow, Jack Sparling, James Sherman, Neal McDonald, and Ernie Chan. Whether learning to speak the ape language in "Tarzan's Jungle Album" or reading the letters and comments The Ape Vine, Korak, Son of Tarzan with the other two Burroughs' DC titles (Tarzan of the Apes and Weird Worlds) were always a favorite of mine, before I discovered the back issue market and the earlier Western/Gold Key issues. Murphy Anderson who worked on Mystery in Space, Hawkman, Superman and other DC titles took over after Thorne's quick departure for five issues, but his sleek streamline style never seemed to fit the character in my opinion after the rough heavy style of Kubert and his protege, Frank Thorne. But when Filipino great, Rudy Florese was chosen to finish out the title, we had another solid illustrator with a beautiful graceful line that also could portrsy a savage undetone I felt missing in Anderson's work, as shown in another wonderful double page splash from Korak' Florese drew many Edgar Rice Burroughs features for DC, mainly over Joe Kubert layouts (providing the savage undertones I like), and also did a handful of chilling horror stories.