Recreation of RUSS MANNING'S - DPS from TARZAN AND THE POOL OF TIME
I’m not going to deny it – I’m a huge fan of the art of the legendary Russ Manning. He’s high on my list of top ten comic book artists. Manning proved his great skill in a stellar trio of works, namely Tarzan, Magnus, Robot Fighter, and Star Wars, and I’ve been lucky enough to acquire some excellent art from these projects.
Over the years, I’ve seen hundreds of Manning pieces, and I’ve come to the conclusion that his Magnum Opus is the phenomenal DPS from the 1974 graphic novel, Tarzan and the Pool of Time. Manning crammed the DPS with a wide-ranging set of Tarzan elements. Beautiful women, giant apes, armoured warriors, demons, harpies, a lion, treasure, along with a large Tarzan headshot and images of Tarzan in action. The only thing missing is dinosaurs.
Tarzan and the Pool of Time was one of four graphic novels produced by Manning for the European marketplace in the mid 1970s. Art from three of the graphic novels exists; however, I have never been able to locate a collector or vendor with a single interior page from the Pool of Time. I’ve never even been able to source a single image of original POT interior art on the internet or anywhere, for that matter. I have it on good authority that the art is lost or destroyed.
So, after years of unsuccessful searching for the POT double-page splash or any interior page, I decided to have a recreation done of the DPS. There are several great artists doing superb recreations these days, but I paused because this is a very detailed, complex, large piece of art. A recreation would be very expensive, and I would probably be on a waiting list for at least a year. Then my son Andrew suggested that he would take on the job.
My son has already produced some first-rate recreations for me, Neal Adams, Mike Zeck, Frank Frazetta, Dave Stevens and Jim Steranko. But I thought this Manning Tarzan DPS was far too detailed for him to tackle. Andrew accepted the assignment with a good deal of concern that it might be beyond his skill level. He certainly proved me wrong.
This recreation is completely hand-drawn and inked. Andrew didn’t use a lightbox or trace any element of the art. The text boxes were purposely left off, and Andrew interpreted what would have been under the boxes.
I’m incredibly happy with the result, and I owe my son a huge thank you for hitting this one out of the park.
