Disney Reboot Urban Allies

The Urban Allies 

Expedition Members

Mercy Hudson - Margaret Durham’s moody and retired schoolteacher in her childhood.  

Marjorie Bishop - Marjorie is a firm but bossy fella working for Robin Doyle in her expedition. 

Penny Bishop - Penny is a fun loving lady, the young adult daughter of Marjorie.

Margaret’s friends 

Judith ‘Judy’ Helen Kelly - Judy is the American pen pal of Margaret Durham who happens to be one of the people stranded years before Tarzan met Linda. 

Meghan - Meghan is the tomboy friend. 

Eleanor Burns - Margaret Durham’s nosey neighbour and her sister’s firm but warm brown haired babysitter. 

Allied Guests

Polly Morrison - A vivid journalist who has studied anthropology for years. 

Kate McCormick - Kate McCormick is Polly’s friend who has gone missing for months before being found by Tarzan in a temple. 

Angela Thompson (minor, guest, tourist) - Angela Thompson from northern California (originally a midwesterner) is one of the few women on an Irish-led expedition gone horribly wrong a bit too early. She is nonetheless a proactively resilient woman who cares for her best friend and the other surviving women of the expedition.

Frances McFadden (minor, guest, tourist) - Frances is the short-medium size but rather overweight romance novel fanfic writer in an equivalent to the real life Frangela duo. She is a well meaning traveller, though she may sometimes see some rather hot guys like an abhorrent admirer of a class clown! 

Jane’s friends 

Hazel Strong - Jane Porter’s friend with black hair. 

Ape Man, Ape-Man or Apeman

The hyphenated Ape-Man seems more common for French translations than for any other Indo-European translation, but it doesn’t do as much justice as something which will come next. However, it’s still pretty decent since Tarzan behaves a lot like a wild man raised by apes. 

The spaced out Ape Man is generally a good reminder because Tarzan is indeed raised by apes, but still not an accurate one, since some of the apes who do raise him in various adaptations are chimps as in a single Lord of the Jungle comic miniseries by Dynamite and (relatively inaccurate, more often manly looking) gorillas as in the Disney instalments, or both animals as in (commonly abridged) foreign translations aimed at youths, the Canadian-French-Mexican show and increasingly the Weissmuller-early Scott era movies to a lesser extent. 

Here’s the unhyphenated winner, of all things! 

The winner turns out to be the unlikely Apeman, perhaps due to the barely known fact that Manganis are prehistoric hominins in all but somewhat uncanny valley looks, and also is increasingly known because the Tarzan brand canon lore, as defined currently by Winn Scott Eckert and others, is far too crazy for both more seasoned veterans and newbies alike. 

Tarzan of the apes before Moon Spirit

Disney’s Tarzan reboot series 

Origin

Arriving out of London: Being long outcasted by fellow members from their nobility, John Clayton Sr and his wife Alice (with their newborn baby John Clayton Jr) were going out of London via Dover for an investigation into class struggle in a fictional equivalent of Sierra Leone before going into the then-burgeoning Gabon-Congo Brazzaville black market (both Gabon and Congo-Brazzaville were both southern parts of the retired French Equatorial Africa initiative), because they’re just not going to what would become a fictional equivalent of Congo-Kinshasa for safety reasons. 

Freetown Holiday: As John and Alice Clayton took turns in carrying their baby, they finally came to the Sierra Leonean capital of Freetown, where a multicultural class protest was exploding in their own eyes. Tellingly, they sturdily left the would be country so that they’ll go to coastal Gabon instead and then the newly French occupied Congo-Brazzaville later. 

Mayombean Mutiny: After a gruesome 1 month journey from the other west central African nations into the border of both Gabon and Congo-Brazzaville, both John and Alice Clayton would take turns once more in carrying Tarzan shortly after arriving into the Mayombe coastal jungle. That’s because they were facing a lot of dangers from a load of murderous twits, who were destroying both their own lives and the dying ship, as well as having killed even a few of their friends along the way, so much so that even the mutineers themselves also feared being killed by fellow pirates and mercenaries.  

Building a Tree Shelter: John and Alice Clayton had to build a tree shelter (doubling also as a pup tent) from scratch following such a sad mutiny, protecting their baby, themselves and each other from hippos and apemen, except for curious critters like gorillas. Then they had to face off other kinds of menacing animals. 

Building a Mud Hut: Though the tree shelter is more likely for an afternoon rest, John and Alice Clayton would instead build a log garage on top of a Small Mud Hut for 8 months before Tarzan could turn a year old. Though not without threats and annoyances from many beasts alike, they still succeeded in completing that combined goal afterwards.

1 year old

Kala found herself Scared Shitless: Tarzan finally turned a year old, although rather sadly, a terrible situation would explode into something else entirely. Fatefully, Kerchak killed 48 scared shitless Manganis of various sizes and ages. Then he bit the sweet yet fiercely intelligent young Kala on both her arms and legs, sexually harassing her to smithereens, before going for just the juiciest body parts of Kala’s toddler son, the neck and belly, catching and then eating some remains of his body parts instead. 

Alice Barfs to Death: While the birth dad wrote his last weekly chronicles, both John Clayton Sr. and his son John Clayton Jr, soon to be called Tarzan, bawled aloud and shed tears so much for a couple of days. That’s because, along with her husband who’d die later, the overworked but brave and buff Alice Rutherford co-developed a lot of the things that Tarzan the survivor would still call home even a few decades later. 

Death by Kerchak: A few days after the overworked Alice Clayton barfed to death while in tropical disease infestation mode, Kerchak in turn would kill and then eat John Clayton Sr. in a bloody dick swinging contest, which also involved him showing off the dead guy’s otherwise awesome rifle. Packed with brutal fascination towards the rifle and treating it somewhat sympathetically as if it’s like a pet animal to him, Kerchak the handsome but domineeringly crazy guy would assassinate a few of his Mangani tribesmen afterwards.

Adoption by Kala: Tellingly, since Ogre Mangani society is ruled by and overrun with tyrannically domineering part-time drunkards and cannibals, the hungry and grieving Kala had to eat the rest of what remains of her toddler son’s body parts. As a result, she would indeed place her little Mangani son’s head safe and sound in the cabin’s cradle days later. All those sad events would result in Tarzan being adopted by a moodier but less scared shitless Kala. 

Nesting with Kala: Tarzan was given a part of Kala’s pup tent as a result of his adoption. He began to say his first words in a Mangani language of all things and was breastfed by Kala for a few months (until reaching 16 months old). 

Walking: Tarzan was already walking like a Mangani by the time he was sixteen months old, but only had spoken some words in a Mangani language. That being said, the Mangani tribes were indeed known for speaking their own, unexpectedly complicated languages that sound more like (ugwug) caveman talk than (hoo-hah) ape talk.

Befriending Keeka: Both Tarzan and Keeka were very young when they first met. As Tarzan was only 18 months old, he was toddling in both bipedal and quadrupedal forms, since adopted mum Kala had been bitten and maimed by fellow Manganis so much that she was largely reduced to knuckle walking, being partially paralysed on both legs, which meant that she would recover rather slowly. 

Speaking more Mangani: After befriending the Mangani Keeka, he would finally talk in at least 36 Mangani words by the time he was 20 months old. 

2 years old

Moving Out into the Deeper Rainforest: Tarzan and Kala started to enjoy their relationship together as mother and son a year earlier, but as the toddler would use two to three word sentences in a Mangani language for the first time, he still had to move out into the deeper and denser wilderness with his foster mum, once the messed up cannibals leading their tribe would rather be eating their gullible followers. 

Tarzan in the Dark Woods; Tarzan finally moved into the deeper jungle with his foster mother Kala, where chimpanzees roam through its mangrove border and gorillas in the quieter areas.

Childhood 

3 years old

Brachiating and Gardening: With the help of his adoptive mum Kala, Tarzan had to learn how to surf, climb and swing through the trees. Then he first met a few animal friends such as Durk and his cousin Terk near Kala’s garden, while Kala herself was gardening for her vegetables and fruit. 

4 years old

5 years old

Brawl: Tarzan was in a brawl with a bunch of Mangani men. Using his adoptive mother’s spear might mean that he’d be braving a series of horrible fights afterwards. 

6 years old

Tantor’s introduction: As he and his animal friends saw Kala clean herself with medicinal leaves after surviving a harassment attack, Tarzan played some awkward games with Durk and his friends, but when he almost drowned into quicksand mud, he finally met a new kid near Kala’s home, who turns out to be an awkward little beast! Such a new kid was named Tantor, a baby forest elephant who waded through the grass and helped his newfound human friend to get out of the quicksand rather quickly. 

7 years old

Climbing with Terkina: As Marla was busy with a flighty newcomer named Bonnie, Tarzan and Terkina would take turns in climbing a rather big tree as they would find the juiciest of its fruits later on.

Neighbourhood Ruckus: Although a roguish and pretty nasty guy himself, Gortak still has some sympathy for his son Flynt, which meant that he would leave from his own estranged gorilla community during his long term harassment by his wife Gerla. Ironically, their son Flynt has happily found a few chosen friends in Durk and his cousin Terk from then on. The goal succeeds when Gortak would sadly depart from his community of fellow gorillas, partly due to being harassed for so long by his horrible wife Gerla. 

8 years old

Spear Training: Tarzan found a good old secondhand spearhead rock (which doubled as both a hand axe and a dagger for training) abandoned by its own original owner deep in the stinking hot Savannah, where Sabor lived with her mate Numa. He had to merge it with an abandoned pole to make a spear before going back into Kala’s nest hours later. 

Dum Dum: Tarzan and Terk went to a salt lick dance party with Tantor the Forest elephant. When they arrived into the dance party, they stayed there as spectators for the dum dum of an old Mangani Queen’s passing. Then he swung with a bunch of monkeys back home. 

9 years old

Climbing Alone: Tarzan learnt how to climb, surf and swing through the trees alone on his own, just without his adoptive mother Kala, because the poor motherly Mangani hasn’t been moving much for a month or two.

Meeting new neighbours: Tarzan first met a lonely Zugor. That being said, Zugor was a balding gorilla who wanted to live his last few years in the coolest ways known to the boy at the time. Then he met other part time vagrants such as Marcia and her gang of vagrant gorillas, a bunch of rather nasty chimp bullies whom he tussled with a thin lasso rope, and finally a tired and ageing Borda the leopardess, who now was the mother of a teenage, brownish boy cub named Smak. 

Fruit Raid: A bunch of boorish Chimpanzees let their fellow rivals know that they’re here for a political spree-driven fruit raid. Frankly, it’s understandable that, though he has tried to kill the boy in a maddening rush, Klunk still has some sympathetic moments and so is not a complete monster, being stopped by a frightened but assertive Tarzan along the way. 

10 years old

Crocodile River Antics: Since Tarzan was self defence training for 5 years, he was now more prepared for new dangers ahead and would survive a gross encounter with hungry old crocodiles. Sadly, his late punk friend Neeta didn’t succeed at reaching that goal and was bludgeoned by such crocs in a medley of mangroves, though in fairness her remains were snacked by Sabor the (often stranded) lioness later. Such a harrowing experience might mean that the boy himself was showing a lot of grief for the first time in his life. 

Catapulting Taoug away: In order to finally catapult the boorish bully Taoug away into his home, Terk, Tarzan and Tantor would make a target net with their trunk, hands and feet in their own makeshift playground. 

Spearfishing Time: Tarzan finally made his second spear, recycled from an old pole and another short hand axe-spearhead, so he started to whack on fruit from the trees and spearfish on a flowing river stream whilst swimming with Tantor the forest elephant. 

11 years old

Tublat Got Roped: With the help of a thin lassoed grass rope they shared together, Tarzan and Terk finally rodeoed on Tublat for the first time! But Tublat would almost kill the two young friends and still disliked them despite their otherwise brave attempts to playfully stand up against him. 

Mud Hut Treasure Hunt: Meanwhile, upon finding the mud cabin that his birth parents built when he was a baby, Tarzan gained a hunting knife and learnt how to read some kids’ books in both French and English, but a few hours later, he had to punch a bunch of dangerous crocodiles afterwards, not only with his newfound hunting knife but also with his spear. 

Crocodile Attack: Zugor had to face a huge nasty crocodile and then got killed by the notorious crocodile, so that Tarzan would defend himself by fighting and then killing the same old croc who toppled the other crocs in turn. As suggested by a hollering and chest pounding Tarzan showing disgust towards such a croc, the growing boy was scarred on both arms at the same time. Understandably, the horrible experience might mean that Tarzan had to mourn Zugor afterwards and then recover somewhat slowly from the mild-moderate croc related injuries on some parts of his body. 

12 years old

Healing Time: Since he’d been hurt in an epic crocodile battle, Tarzan had to take care of himself for a month or two by massaging both his neck and arms with many things like leaves and mud, as well as cleaning a small thin part which sits upon the left side of his forehead, which would become a beautiful healed scar in the process. The neck and arms have also had scars, but they’re less commonly seen. Afterwards, he finally returned to swimming around with Tantor and fellow elephants. 

13 years old

Pencil Graffitiing: Tarzan finally learnt how to write some words in English with the help of his newfound pencils and so he would graffiti the mud hut a few more months later. Upon finishing the first part of cabin graffitiing, Tarzan had to splash into the lakeside, where Tantor and his herd enjoyed their surroundings. 

Tom Lawley and Samuel Davies’ Introduction: Meanwhile, months after Tarzan finished the first third of his cabin graffitiing (with the help of Kala, as it turns out that her tribe is so inbred that it doesn’t exist properly anymore), Tom Lawley and his friend Samuel Davies finally journeyed into the coastal jungle, just not to stay there for long. That being said, they did trade with moody and dissatisfied locals who otherwise didn’t like their foul behaviour and smell, and so they cautiously move out of their way. Making that a pretty sad memory for Tarzan, Tom and Samuel poached two elephants in turn (who turned out to be Tantor and Dania’s own estranged parents). 

14 years old

Pup Tent Making: Tarzan learnt how to do more martial arts in self defence, even as he gained more experience in finding out which trees may be suitable for pup tents and nests. His voice was rather hoarse, and his peeing private parts and the fouler farts coming from his butt have soiled his favourite old loincloth to the point of smithereens. As a result, he had to gain a few more new loincloths to keep himself safely clothed but scantily so.

Hunting: Although mainly a partial vegetarian who also ate fish, Tarzan would start to hunt some animals such as old pigs and antelopes, often to keep himself and his friends full in preparation to become worthy mud crawling warriors in the otherwise beautiful rainforest. 

15 years old

Shaving Armpits: Tarzan first started to regularly shave his own armpits, now full of short but rather soft obsidian black hair, so that he’ll just not smell as dirty until the shaven hairs usually grow back. Afterwards he and Tantor swam together in the river stream. 

16 years old 

The homecoming Dum Dum: Tarzan, Terk and Tantor attended the dum dum of a homecoming queen named Keeka.

17 years old  

A Wrestling Brawl: Tarzan and Gortak first met each other again in a wrestling, duelling brawl involving a bunch of hungry lions. As for Gortak, he is a roguish and sometimes nasty bandit who has stolen fruit from his estranged Mangani friends and then left them behind without any fruits until he would somewhat redeem himself years later. 

Disney Reboot Recurring Allies P2

Recurring Allies P2

Fellow Affiliates

Punya - 

Makwa - 

Mugambi - Muga is the giant chief of the Gomba tribe who finally befriends both Tarzan and the wise Akut, once the terrible epidemic of Mangani pirates becomes too obvious to contain and thus much of his tribe remains dead. 

The Waziri 

Kanzuma - Kanzuma was Muda’s son and Kadena’s father. 

Madari - Madari is Shongi’s younger daughter, who is cunning and ferocious. 

Mumoni - Mumoni is perhaps a shamanic friend to the late Kanzuma and his immediate family, and so he adopted Kanzuma’s daughter Kadena years before her birth dad died at the hands of Arab slavers. 

Kadena - Kadena is perhaps the first female Waziri that Tarzan would ever meet. She is quite firm even in the saddest moments but can be cheerful when she needs to be. She is most likely the long lost daughter of the late Kanzuma, adopted by Muviro’s mother as if she’s her own.

Busani - The brash yet engaging Busani is the first Waziri man that Tarzan would ever meet, apart from Kadena who is a woman. He is fairly optimistic but sometimes skeptical and was initially distrustful towards Tarzan until both found a common ground. 

Vayoshri ‘Vajri’ - Vajri is the currently anti-villainous but still vulnerable older daughter of Shongi, as both have a lot in common. She, her sister and their dad themselves have suffered years of harassment from their Indian immigrant wife and mum, now a logger joining in other loggers. 

Mutomi - Mutomi is the son of Basuli, an elder of the Waziris, who happens to be a potential leader but has abdicated instead during the horrific hill station village raid of both their young and middle aged women by sex slavers who also killed the unlucky beasts near such a village. 

Basuli - Basuli was the estranged former friend and advisor to Kanzuma, as well as being Mutomi’s dad. They both abdicated together in the near decimation and evacuation of the village by loggers. 

Muviro - A roguish witch doctor character, Muviro is also the adopted brother of Kadena due to the fact that both have a mother being wrongfully derided and erroneously known as somewhat of ‘an old maid’ by her tribe’s standards. 

Shongi - Shongi is a roguish bandit due to having faced physical and sexual harassment from his former wife, an Indian caravanserai scam artist turned sex slave trader living near his village. No wonder why he’s temporarily banished but would still meet his own 2 daughters again once they’re now getting older. 

Usula - Usula is a young but quite educated and fashionable man who otherwise still loves his friends and family deep down. He is also Tarzan’s pen pal in the East African plains. 

Risia - The half nude elder matron of the semi-rural Waziris, Risia is quite dry in her humour and yet often acts as a voice of reason when horrible events tend to happen. 

Buira - Wasim’s younger sister and Muviro’s birth daughter.

Wasim - Mutomi’s late friend, Muviro’s older birth son and Kadena’s nephew (at least by adoption, because Muviro himself is her adoptive older brother). He then died at the start of a horrible WW1 conflict. His surviving sister is Buira. 

*Otherwise he was named Wasimbu in the ERBU canon. 

The natives in the Central West African coast 

Nienzi - Being the second girl of six kids, Nienzi begins her appearances as being a rather moody teenage tomboy raised by a homeowner, who lost her husband to overexploitation in the mines. Still, she remains a rather loveable goofball whose name means ‘Joy’. She happens to have a little brother named Tibo and a mother named Elia, who looks after her. 

Georgette - 

Tibo - Nienzi’s somewhat younger brother, who sometimes competes with her in showing off which cool stuff they have. Tibo being Tarzan’s first and darkest skinned neighbour may not be so surprising, as he has an estranged yet sympathetic relationship with the Mayombe swamp locals. 

Ataïs - Ataïs is a younger friend of Tibo who happens to live next door. He is a young boy who lives with the witch doctor’s uncle and aunt, making him and Noemi likely maternal cousins. 

Snakehead - Noble demon Snakehead has had leprosy decaying his fingers and toes, so he was unfairly deported by his former friends afterwards. As a result, he became a snake oil salesman! 

Mouendou - 

Elia - A character who appears to be Nienzi and Tibo’s mother, being one of Tarzan’s few local friends. They are amongst the people who reluctantly protest against the pollution invading their land. 

Noemi - Noemi is a snarky witch doctor whom Tarzan befriended when he was trying to survive being in a mud crawling protest in the jungle. She is somewhat older than the hero but is half-nude by usually wearing only a modest loincloth. She also has long, thin black dreadlocks. 

Momaya - Momaya is a 

Demauzer - A young man who unwillingly killed Terkina’s mother Marcia and decided to retire from the black market, partly because of the hullabaloo and ruckus surrounding it. 

The Foreigners 

Sandra La Ronde - Sandra La Ronde is the friendly rival and worthy opponent to Tarzan in terms of treasure hunting. She is Reynard’s own sneaky and cunning wife. 

Reynard Dumont: Reynard Dumont has founded a trading post not too far from Pointe Noire. Being a frenemy, he can be such a jerk and yet he has a softer side underneath.

Former Raiders 

Jai - Jai is a brunette part-Arab youth working with his former pirate father, Najib. 

* It should be noted that he is named after Jai from the 1966 Tarzan series starring Ron Ely, but is based on both his original tv show counterpart and Sal Buscema’s well done and yet notoriously plane-flying, tech-loving take on Korak. 

Nuns 

Célienne - Célienne, another Haitian (albeit from the Marabou minority), is one of Mercilia’s friends. 

Mercilia - Mercilia is a plucky, smart young black Haitian woman studying folk religion in the land where some of her ancestors came from. She is a nun in training. 

The arts behind my favourite Tarzan scene

Ahh, Russ Manning and the Buscema Brothers’ Tarzan artworks have a large but indirect impact not just on the minds of fans, but also on the making of what’s perhaps the most famous scene in both the Disney’s Tarzan franchise and at the end of Disney’s generally wonderful Renaissance period. 

Argh! Here in the end of the first Disney’s Tarzan film, its hunky title hero announced himself as a newfound lord of the jungle on a dance off with his mate. While also taking a few visual cues from Tom Yeates and Joe Kubert, large portions of both his yelling and chest pounding are perhaps visually based on artworks made by Russ Manning and Joe Jusko.

Uughhaaaaaaaaaaarrrrghhhuughhaaaarrgghh!! 

Whoa! Without a doubt, it does need a heroic bloodshed soft remake-soft reboot expansion, which surely will become its own thing if it’s going to be made after all.. 

The Weapons of Tarzan and friends

Weaponry for others

Kadena’s Knife - Kadena’s hunting knife is a Manning style knife, which is used to hunt and skin animals in many creative ways. 

Busani’s Knife - Busani’s hunting knife is a Kubert style knife, which is larger than Kadena’s own knife. 

Linda’s Spearhead Dagger - A spearhead dagger originally made and used by Tarzan as a kid has now become Linda’s favourite weapon. She uses it to cut through vines and other pesky plants.

Vera’s Spearhead Dagger - Vera’s spearhead dagger is a dagger which was given to her by Tarzan himself, as the latter has noticed that it seems more popular with the ladies, and especially the adventure nut herself, due to its masculine look. 

Sling - Slings are pretty ubiquitously used by both adults and children in the jungle. They’re such an annoyance that Tarzan sometimes has to give away a couple of his old slings to Vera Parker and her adventure nut friends, which means that he could craft up a few new ones in his oldies’ place. 

Weaponry for Tarzan and his fam themselves

Tarzan’s Sharp Spearfishing Spear - Tarzan crafted his favourite spear years before his old one broke apart in a battle between himself and Tublat. Although both are Marsh+Kubert style spears, the newer one seems to be less brightly coloured. It also has a companion spear, which Tarzan saved from a dead pirate who notoriously wrecked a village. 

Tarzan’s House Guarding Spear - 

Tarzan’s Father’s Skinning Knife - Tarzan found his dad’s skinning knife when he was eleven. It is a Manning style skinning knife more often used as a part of Tarzan’s survival gear in the trees. It is a companion to another knife, a Yeates style fighting knife. 

Jane’s White Dagger - Tarzan gained a dagger for his wife. 

Tarzan’s Fighting Knife 

The Burroughsian Roast

Hello there, fellow sincere pulp fiction fans, let’s admit that there are no true adaptations of the Tarzan brand canon mythos, partly because the ERB Universe is in fact a South Asian Soap Opera style Multiverse way too crazy to be considered conventionally adaptable. Instead it inspires so many malleable variants that most people, even today, can’t help but only let academic peeps comprehend the true Evangelion like mind screw that is Edgar Rice Burroughs’ own Tarzan canon. 

Just look at the malleability of the non-canon Tarzan stuff for a very good reason; it’s that so many people around the world prefer more evenly balanced and realistically proportioned Tarzans over the gothic mind screwy nightmare fuel known as the Edgar Rice Burroughs Universe canon Tarzan. 

The king of the jungle swingers’ actual absurdity ain’t expected in the long run, but a lot of us public domain book geeks shall know that the Tarzan brand’s rights holder and owner has a pretty good reason to keep its in-canon Tarzan from the much more loved gentle compromises (mundanity and prettiness mixed together) of many other Tarzans. That’s because it now has the power to compete with both Neon Genesis Evangelion and many of the worst shows in modern South Asian history, on a regular basis this time around. 

Hemant Birje, Bo Derek, Frank Zane, Miles O’Keeffe and Kimi Katkar have all sneakily made the ERB Universe Canon designation possible. Then again, it’s pretty telling when even Jules Verne, Karl May and Emilio Salgari’s works make up with somewhat grounded characters adapted from and based rather loosely upon real life, but although they’re still pulpy fiction, they’re just not as much of a brain frying mind-screw as the ERB Universe canon. 

Well, the in-canon Tarzan books have gotten some surprising respect from a few Dragon Ball, Baki, Evangelion and One Piece fans of all things, since the tons of adventure and romance tropes in them still remain with us even today, and it’s also thanks to the mind frying fan service and flingers of both Jane Porter and La of Opar known to fanservice shills and sea-lioning beancounters worldwide. Anyways, those Tarzan books still have more in common with the tons of already 'gone horribly right' soap operas in South Asian tv stations, which is partly due to 9/11 and its global long term impact on the human psyche. That’s right, it’s got a lot in common with the corporate AF soapies which have scared off even this decade’s (otherwise regionally diverse) South Asian standards shitless. 

Not only is that still finally happening throughout this decade, many former readers have long exited and will still exit from reading the Tarzan part of what’s now called the ERB universe, due to how mind frying and mind screwy it will become in the long run. However, it’s just more likely that, as ERB himself was roasted and deprecated by countless readers on an international scale from the years before even WW2 had happened, the few consistently professional reviewers, which the brand does have, are still more affable to its dimension-building significance alone. No wonder why it’s so mind screwy it’s been boggling our minds since before ERB himself passed away.  

But on the other hand.. the ERBU canon’s still in a Gainaxing league of its own and will generally, but not always, stay away from what most people have long known about the many different Tarzans with the same names attached. And by making that not so fun factoid too clear, the in-canon Tarzan looks like an orc, which doesn’t amuse us as much at the least, but still sadly fits because in fairness, ERB was a masterful poop-addled flinger on merchandise overload mind screw mode. 

It’s a good reason why the canonical world of Tarzan is like that, because ERB wanted to but simply couldn’t move out of fantasy pulp fiction for the rest of his life. Still, it doesn’t help much that most generations of both young and old people do not know Edgar Rice Burroughs’ own mad marketing mastery at all. From the 1930s to the 60s, Tarzan of the Apes was shamelessly marketed in what’s now the style of Sanrio’s Hello Kitty, which in turn had its company’s marketing lessons taken from Tarzan himself via Snoopy from Peanuts. Albeit that caveat came with loads of more questionable merch, from spears and pith helmets to petrol and the more innocuous ice cream. 

Even after ERB passed away, the shilling trash heap of pre-mid 1960s Tarzan merch preceded the current, longer term invasion of Garfield, TMNT, My Melody and Prince of Tennis merch in the world’s urban stores. It’s one of the reasons why the studying of his works shall be known as Burroughsology, in a similar way to the studying of Jin Yong’s perennial wuxia works being known as Jinology to attract university goers.  

Since the whole Tarzan series debuted on what’s now called Argosy, it’s a rather more mind screwing spiritual prototype for Evangelion, albeit covered in tons of unassuming, sci-fi action and adventure fantasy paints. Keep in mind that Canuck Burroughs scholar (or should I say Burroughsologist) Den Valdron does note that it’s also filled with hellish mangani realms and creature breeding, tech driven dystopias.

The insanely messed up canonical life of ERBU Korak is practically why most (non-canonical) versions of him are preferred over the actual dude himself, as comic artists and writers would try their best not to traumatise a huge majority of current Korak fans as much as possible. Tellingly, this means that Meriem is actually somewhat luckier in comparison, because she has more resilience and the pluck to do something big and dirty, even in spite of also having a tortured life. 

Also, ERB Universe Tarzan is more of a proto Hulk deity character (a lordly adventurer and an apeman raised by apemen) than a hero who rescues both animals and humans, being such an unintentionally neglectful parent that neither Korak nor even Korak’s canonically short lived son Jackie will see him much for a long time. Just as neglectful of a parent as Tarzan, is his masculine looking wife Jane Porter as well. In fairness, it’s partly because many places in the canonical Tarzan books are so full of cartoonishly evil creeps worthy enough to compete with real life history’s own nuttiest villains, maybe that’s why they’re all separated frequently.

It’s probably for the best that the original ERB Universe is still so nuts it’s largely unadapted, indicating that most of its current writers turn out to be more thoughtfully consistent yet much more frank than creator ERB himself. Then again, since masterful poop-addled flinger ERB had to churn the brainrot out in droves, he viewed his works like brain-rotting crap, which remain a good indicator that he couldn’t reread the stories themselves. That being said, the partly deliberate enshittification of his otherwise entertaining works was likely a poignant lesson in how a new canon writer may as well be an improvement over the original author in so many ways. It’s also thanks to the internet’s explosive rise that it’s an unbuilt kind of madness best visualised by Roy Thomas’ in-canon webcomic Tarzan of the Apes (named for the first book but covering the whole life of Tarzan). 

Be careful of what you’ve wished for!

The world of ERB Universe Tarzan is not without apemen who frigging eat members of their own kind in chunks within hours, animals who are too shit for regular appearances and humans who are heinously, cartoonishly depraved to the core. In fairness, many variants are going to resemble the ERBU canon more, although they will still be their own things for legal reasons. 

It’s partly why both poor Tarzan and Korak have to face loads of incredibly egregious characters like these guys, with examples such as the king who dared to eat Korak, a dick-headed elephant who killed fellow critters and was killed in turn by Tarzan, and last but not least, Nikolai Rockoff who SA’D Tarzan’s cousin Cecil William Clayton and was too fucking heinous for even a humble old prison aimed at guilty civilians. 

Disney Reboot Korak and his Allies

Korak’s immediate family 

Korak - Tarzan had to find his future nephew, named Jack Light, soon to be nicknamed Korak, who was kidnapped by Rokoff but escaped with Esmeralda on the way back to the townhouse. Fortunately for him, Korak, even in spite of his own traumatic experiences, became a worthy opponent for Tarzan to compete with.**

*As his name means both ‘killer’ and (much more appropriately) ‘destroyer’, ERB universe canon Korak is better suited as a Bizarro-type, SORASed Quincy punk menace. Yup, that’s why most (non-canonical) versions of him are still somewhat less tortured than or just not as aggressive as him. 

*It shall be noted that Disney’s Korak is inspired more by Joe Kubert’s Korak paintings.  

Charlotte Clayton Light - Korak’s somewhat older sister Charlotte made her first major appearance as a baby, soon to become a tot that Jane will babysit when she was kidnapped by Volkoff and Pavlovic again. Years later, she was shown to have her own adventures with a bunch of fellow friends, but sadly didn’t live long, as she was bashed to death in WW2.

*However in the ERB Universe canon, her eponymous counterpart was actually the short lived daughter of both canon Tarzan and Jane Porter.

Korak’s friends 

The Jacomy-Deneuve family 

Jeanne ‘Meriem’ Jacomy - Aka Mercenary Meriem, Jeanne is the daughter of a wealthy military general (who also is a doctor by day) from more modest nobility than in the books. She is both Korak’s closest ally and later his wife. She looks a lot like her father, albeit being blue green eyed. She is also called Jeanette.

Korak’s offspring 

Suzanne Light - Suzanne is Korak and Meriem’s globetrotting daughter.

The Adventures of Tarzan episodes

The Adventures of Tarzan 

Tarzan’s Hidden Treehouse 

The Jungle Slumber 

Tarzan on the Trail of Ahkea 

Tarzan in the land of Kahr 

The Rise of Tarzan episodes

The rise of Tarzan: the Series

Raised in the Wild 

Out into the Sea  

Kerchak the Ballistic Bone Breaker 

Kala’s Rough Nesting 

Tarzan learns to Swing  

Frail Friendships and All  

Young Tarzan and Young Tantor - Since the local gorillas have some difficulty dealing with a crowd of rival newcomers, Tarzan meets another new kid on the block named Tantor, who’s a forest elephant living nearby.   

Gorilla Ruckus - Tarzan defends himself from a roguish, sometimes nasty gorilla named Gortak, who happens to be stealing fruit from his even more boorish neighbours.

Tarzan and the Spearhead - Since Kala has become semi-permanently disabled thanks to her history of fighting all kinds of Mangani wars, her foster son Tarzan will become somewhat independent by exploring into somewhat more distant lands as a result. 

The Fruit Raid - Tarzan meets a few new neighbours such as Marla’s father Zugor, a senile gorilla who lives in the mangroves, who dares to join him in political spree driven fruit raid, despite both being dragged and bashed upon by a crowd of snotty and boorish chimpanzees. 

Tarzan plays Tag with Tantor - 

The Jungle Camaraderie - 

The Crafty Young Tarzan - 

The Light of Western Knowledge  

Tarzan Grows Up 

The Treetop Hunter 

Tarzan’s Wrestling Duel 

Tarzan makes friends with Linda

Tarzan searches for a bunch of Drunkards

The Tropical Moon Spectacle 

Tarzan Revisits the Hut whom his Parents Built

A Pirate Delight 

Surviving All Odds! 

Looters Alive! 

The Bone Hunters 

Tarzan comes into the sea

Tarzan and the Trading Post 

The Battle of a Lifetime

Tarzan and the Outsiders 

The Coming of a Jungle Madness

Welcome to the local Chief’s Den! 

The Captain’s Jungle Ransom

Tarzan’s Jungle Rebellion 

Strange Jungle Tales

Tarzan has a Ravishing Nightmare

Tarzan Makes a Wish

A Rough Day At The Station

Tarzan kills a Mad Scientist

Tarzan battles a Chinkoko 

Tarzan’s Footprints 

Tarzan in the Valley of Death

Casting the Ordinary Antagonists

The Senior Lancers  

Nicole Barber Lane as Lisa Burke (dead, minor, guest) 

Alex Kingston as Lidia Braun (dead, minor, guest) 

Hugh Bonneville as Bertrand Lancer (dead, minor, guest) 

The Traffickers 

Lucas Neff as Jonathan Brown (dead, minor villain, guest) - Jonathan Brown was a master pervert, seeking not only the money of two former mooks but also groping them by the butt in the nick of a night. He wasn’t much empathetic towards fellow villains apart from loving alcohol to smithereens, as letting both Samuel and Tom kill two old gorillas (who turn out to be Bruce’s parents!) might also suggest that he had been poaching tons of bisons in his prime. 

Ryan Carnes as Horace Brown (dead, minor villain) - Another master pervert, groping the hell out of many soldiers turned crooks who used to work for both Jeff Brooks and Kevin Griffin. He was killed along with his younger brother Jonathan by Tarzan in a duel a la Full Nelson.

Neil McDonough as Dennis Spicer (dead, minor villain) - Dennis was both hopeless and jaded, despite being smart enough to escape the wraths of whatever guy he could, unless it’s Kevin Griffin, who dunked him in the privates and then killed him minutes after he revealed himself to be bisexual! In fairness, he indeed was bisexual, it’s just that his time wasn’t even that forgivable to him anyway.

Ben Pronsky as Godfrey Channing - Snotty but polite old Godfrey unfortunately had to die at the privates of Jeff Brooks in front of both David and Florentino, whom he had been friends with since childhood. 

Temporaries  

Kyle Hebert as Sylvester Cummings (minor villain, retired, guest) - Cajun blonde Sylvester is a man who actually was the most gullible and lonely of the bunch, knowing that he still wanted to make friends, just not the bad ones he’s temporarily with until he came back to Bronx, NY, America empty handed while gaining community service instead. 

Ian Hart as Dewey Reed (dead, minor, guest) - Dewey was an old geezer who once was pimped by Jonathan Brown before being SA’d to death by him. 

Bronx Rogues

Wayne Grayson as Florentino Baldocchi (minor villain, retired, guest) - Florentino is a man who was the lone surviving crook who has succeeded in his goal by looting much of a coastal village on his own. Still, he does show remorse for what he’s done against a potential tourist spot when he’s on the ship with his fellow (rather less heinous, let’s admit) criminal friends, meaning that he has left the jungle itself to serve a prison sentence without death penalty in Bronx, NY. 

Josh Keaton as David Fiebelkorn (recurring anti-villain) - David is a worthy opponent of Tarzan and a member of the Bronx Rogues who still struggles with his poor mental health, but smartly never resolves to murder anyone and not even his worst enemies. Still, he can be rather rude towards his only two dysfunctional current friends, Joe Peter and Larry Giles.

Robbie Daymond as Joe Peter Moran (recurring villain) - A cunning magnificent bastard who initially tried to kill both Tarzan and his friend Professor Parker, but then was dumped along with Larry, David and the dying Dennis into a mud filled tourist prison by Kevin Griffin. However, in a humanising moment, he regretted poaching too many animals for his liking. Tellingly, just months after he arrived into the jungle, a pink skinned policeman lynched his dark skinned wife in America and he will never see her again because of that. 

Justin Cook as Larry Giles Hauser (recurring anti-villain) - Larry, despite being a rowdy and rascally butt monkey amongst the retired Bronx Rogues, still has a pretty good reason for escaping the mud prison aimed at tourists before anyone else, and, being an estranged friend of Joe Peter, he sometimes spites him for stealing his favourite snacks. 

Tom’s Gang 

Jason Durr as Tom Lawley (dead villain, recurring) - The unlucky villain whom Jeff Brooks SA’D to death. But before that, he was just a shoddy and arrogant trader who poached both Tantor’s dysfunctional mother and Bruce’s father, as well as looting for local crafts. He even was dunked to death because of how dumb he was. 

Matthew Baynton as Parry ‘Snitch’ Reed (minor villain, retired) - As an estranged uncle of Linda Reed who finds himself in a horrible situation, Parry the Snitch seems to be the sanest yet least helpful guy amongst a gang of (mostly) male crooks which included Tom Lawley, and it helped that he’s a former pickpocket who didn’t even care about rising into the top ranking spot, since he’s tired of all the bad shit that his other friends did. 

Joe Alwyn as Drew Hamilton (minor villain, retired) - Drew is a guy who was the youngest and least nasty but foulest smelling member of the gang. Tellingly, he clearly couldn’t find any good shaving equipment available for his own hairy armpits, thus he stunk like a rat when he would regret not becoming a civilian again for a few years, so shortly after facing such a horrifying adventure on his own, he’s now serving a British prison sentence without a death penalty. 

Steve Coogan as Samuel Davies (recurring villain, dead) - Samuel was Tom Lawley’s somewhat dimwitted though equally messed up boyfriend, as both were bisexual-coded characters by being partly closeted bisexuals themselves. 

Craig Charles as Darryl Jones (recurring anti-villain) - Darryl is a somewhat livid, rascally and snooty ex-critter trafficker who has resorted to looting local crafts before seeing Samuel, Tom and Max being dunked in the privates by Jeff Brooks to Death in a regretful face of terror. Afterwards, he has slowly understood that while chimps remain more dangerous and violent (but do love company sometimes), gorillas are more neutral and have stronger family bonds but prefer to be out of the spotlight. Still, even he thinks a few of his former friends have done much worse. 

Lucy Briers as Ermentrude Jones - Ermentrude is both the only female member of Tom’s Gang and one of only a few who have survived a horrid journey into the jungle, as she is Darryl’s similarly obnoxious if more well meaning wife. 

The Marooners  

Zach Gilford as Kristopher ‘Kris’ Tarrant - Kristopher Tarrant was another one of the Mutineers. 

David Henrie as Austin King - Batshit Austin seems to be one of the guys who marooned Jane into the jungle, until he was cannibalised by Snipes.

Kyle Allen as Don Karl Snipes - Snipes was the snoot behind the mutineering of Jane Porter and her father. Then he murdered and ate both King and Tarrant so that Jane and her dad would escape. 

The Lancers 

Matt Berry as Richard Lancer - Russi Lancer’s equally dead husband, who was an amoral trader murdered along with Russi by Lisa Burke. 

Kaitlyn Robrock as Russi Lancer - Richard’s late wife and muse. 

Katie Crown as Gwen Lancer - Gwen was the wealthy Canadian wife of Morton Lancer, who became a spy in a mercenary controlled area. She then died when Tarzan was about 17 years old.

Dominic Cooper as Morton Lancer - Morton was mutinied to death days before his wife also died. 

The Walthams and Eskers 

Matt Barber as Taurus Lancer - 

Dylan Moran as Max Esker - A less petty but equally overconfident friend of Tom Lawley, who still regrettably saw his friend getting dunked first in the privates by Jeff Brooks. Then Jeff himself dunked Max in the privates by chopping his head and mauling him to death with glee earlier on. 

Claire Goose as Lynn Esker - Lynn was a complete unfeeling villain living alone, after Max escaped her long term wrath. 

Carla Crome as Connie Wood Lancer - Cornelius’ rough mannered daughter who keeps her private records to herself.  

Chris Wylde as Herbert Waltham - Herbert was a somewhat amoral magnate whose role is minor but very significant in the Tarzan tv series. 

Georgina Cates as Lana Lancer Waltham - Though Arrogant and overconfident, Lana does show some sympathy towards the demise of her husband and his well meant complicity in the excessive excavation of a village. She also hates her brothers for a very good reason; they’re such shits. 

Alan Davies as Cornelius Wood - A well meaning support spy who worked for Tom Lawley’s wife before the latter betrayed him, Cornelius otherwise was the best mook in Tom’s Gang alongside his unlikely fellow friends Max Esker and Drew Hamilton. 

The Looters and Mercenaries 

Chris Cason as -

Niamh McCormack as Flora Hawkes - 

John Wesley Go as Chang - A 

Anthony Bowling as -

Eric Vale as Jeff Brooks (deceased, main villain) - Jeff Brooks was a power-hungry villain who dumped his own mooks and worked against the well-intentioned wishes of Hieronymus Holt and his wife Sarah Lyle. 

Fred Tatasciore as -

Ben Pronsky as - 

Casting the Oparian Empire and Other Empires

The vestigial Oparian Empire 

Katelyn MacMullen as Queen La of Opar - La of Opar is the fearsome anti-villainous goddess-ruler of Opar, who loves to party hard and sacrifices unsuspecting travellers to Opar’s own other gods.

Jonah Scott as Kaj - Kaj was the high priest of Opar after Tal and before Dooth.

Xander Mobius as Tal Tha - Messed up high priest of Opar before Kaj and Dooth.

Brayden Cross as Ulp - 

Chad Duell as Blk -

Matt Cornett as Gulm - 

Jeremy Levy as Blag - 

Cherami Leigh as Oah - La’s treacherous maid. 

SungWon Cho as Dooth - Dooth survives Oah’s death and becomes the next high priest of Opar.

Isobelle Molloy as 

Kayden Brice as 

Kahrans 

Cristina Vee as Naranee - Brown Haired Naranee is one of the Greek chorus maidens owned by Sahkea. 

Casting the Mangani, ApeMen and ApeWomen

The Apemen 

The Mangani Civilians

Derek Mio as Akut (recurring) - Molak’s surviving jester friend and advisor. 

Buddy Lewis as Molak (minor, guest, dead) - Molak was the forgetful and senile chief of his makeshift tribe. 

Nicole Sullivan as Gaftra (minor, guest) - Molak’s seldom seen mate, who also dies during the horrific battle that led to Gulchak and Tarzan becoming fire forged friends.

The Sea Mangani 

Kevin Michael Richardson as Gulchak (minor, dead) - Gulchak was an old Sea Mangani pirate who regretted seeing some of his friends becoming such horrible people that even he thought Tarzan had to kill them. 

The Ogre Mangani 

Michael T. Weiss as Taglat (minor, dead, villain) - Taglat was an infamous Mangani pirate sailing a lot of Central African river streams. 

Frankie Rodriguez as Chulk (recurring, minor) - Chulk seems to be a young Mangani pirate from what a few people remember about him. 

Brenna D’Amico as Keeka (recurring, minor) - Keeka is an estranged friend of Tarzan who instead prefers Taoug over him, so that they’d rather birth a boy named Gazan. Thankfully, she also conceived and birthed another child after Gazan was eaten by the goons. 

Milo Mannheim as Taoug (recurring, minor) - Taoug could be immature at times, but he still loved Keeka and both have had a son named Gazan. 

Alex Borstein as Mamka (minor, dead) - Mamka was a Mangani ApeWoman. 

Eric Vale as Kerchak (main, dead) - Kerchak’s past was nothing special, but he gained so much power that he went on a long term rampage, eating Kala’s young son and having sex with Tublat all along.

Tony Goldwyn as Tublat (main, dead) - Tublat was quite notorious even amongst fellow Mangani, and yet his family history was very troubling as he lived a dysfunctionally daunting life in a place full of depraved goons and despicable twits. As a result, he sometimes couldn’t do much against Kerchak’s domineering affections for him, not to mention the fact that his wife’s friend is a terrifying queen, which sadly implied that he had to let his foster kid Kala move out altogether in order to keep her safe! 

Alese Watson Johnson as Kerchak’s wife (main, dead) - Kerchak’s wife was the most heinous Queen to ever grace the Mangani lands, ensuring that Kerchak would remain an axe crazy lunatic for the rest of his life and her own kids into rogues. 

Jane Musky as Tublat’s wife (main, dead) - Tublat’s wife was a domineering queen who simply wanted to have a boy. As a result, she got her wish, turning her own son into a notorious part time cannibal. 

Cherami Leigh as Kala - Kala had to throw away her toddler son into Kerchak’s mouth. 

David Henrie as Karnath (minor, dead) - Karnath was still a less downright terrible guy than all his three predecessors. 

Max Mittelman as Torkoz (recurring, dead) - Torkoz was the most terrifying of Mangani villains whom Tarzan had ever seen, due to his reputation as a cannibalistic character.