Tarzan and the Leopard Men (#18) - Edgar Rice Burroughs

 

I finished this last Sunday morning, and I've been waiting to have time to write about it all week.  It was another great story, which had me cheering at the end.  Since ERB uses some generic names for some of the characters, we're going to have fun casting them below as a cool visual aid.

The three unnamed characters until the very end are Old Timer, The Kid, and Kali Bwana (means Woman White [I think]):

Old Timer isn't really that old, early thirties, but he does hate women after his last bad breakup.  He's also an ivory poacher, but not a very good one since he's nearly broke.  He's pretty disheveled with a stubbly beard.

The Kid (a little younger) has been his bosom buddy companion these past few years. 

 
Kali Bwana is a beautiful woman who is leading a safari all by herself, searching for someone.

I bet you thought I was going to post someone else.  Sorry, Kali is a platinum blonde - probably based on Jean Harlow (but much more unkempt).  Norma Jean is a good substitute!

Wasn't that fun?  I wish I had known what the characters should have looked like while I was reading it.

Surprisingly, Tarzan doesn't even use his name much during the story either.  You see, he gets a bonk on the head that gives him temporary amnesia.  A member of the Utengi tribe, named Orando, discovers Tarzan and helps him out, freeing him from a felled tree.  Orando believes Tarzan is his ancestor spirit demon, his Muzimo.  Through the power of suggestion (and because he literally doesn't know any better), Tarzan starts living the part.  Tarzan's sidekick monkey, N'kima, is believed to be the Spirit of Nyamwegi [no idea how that is pronounced].  Poor Nyamwegi gets murdered early in the novel by the mysterious Leopard Men.  The Leopard Men are a violent and evil secret society made up of disparate tribes.  Only fellow Leopard Men know each other; their involvement is unknown to members of their home tribes due to their hooded disguises -- basically an African version of the Klan.

Kali is in a bad way.  After she defends herself against being raped by the headman of her safari, injuring her attacker, they abandon her.  She knows she can't get out of the jungle by herself, so she does her best to survive right where she is.  Eventually (maybe a month later), Old Timer (without The Kid) stumbles across her, and the encounter isn't to either of their liking.  He's a jerk to her (since he's currently hating all women), and she just reminds him of his pain.  He plans to take her back to civilization, even though she still wants to find the guy she's looking for. She doesn't think much of this "scruffy looking nerf herder". 

While Old Timer is hunting meat for her, he's fixated on Kali's beautiful form and plans to take her for himself.  Only she's no longer at the camp when he returns.  She's been captured by the Leopard Men!  He vows to get her back, not only because he wants her so bad, but he feels he must in some sort of twisted chivalry.  (I think I'm a dyslexic speller - I get most of the letters right, but I mix them up and not only from mistyping. Also, I'm a terrible pronouncer - "hooked on phonics" wasn't for me - so I spell the way I speak, which is wrongly.)

Meanwhile, Orando and his Muzimo are planning a war against the Leopard Men. Only the Utengi tribe witchdoctor, Sobito, says it's not in the "bones" or something to that effect.  The real reason for his objection is that Sobito is secretly a priest in the Leopard Men temple.  Muzimo figures it out because of his uncanny beastlike (eat your heart out, Matt Murdock) senses. And guess who's being dragged through the jungle to become the new priestess of the Leopard god (an actual Leopard that Sobito "speaks" through like he was Danny O'Day).  That's right, Kali Bwana!

Another character is Bobolo, not to be confused with Bor Gullet, is a different tribesman and a frequent trader with Old Timer.  He's a "slimy, double-crossing, no-good, swindler" and one of the Leopard Men. So when Old Timer tries to enlist his aid, Bobolo is none too helpful.  Hmmm, I wonder what he looks like...?

Old Timer eventually helps rescue Kali from the Leopard god, but the two get separated, and Kali is kidnapped by Bobolo, who wants her as his white wife.  Fortunately (before he can harm her), his other wives don't want her around, so he has to hide her among a cannibalistic pygmy tribe, the Betetes.

Stuff happens.  Along the way, during one of his rescues, Old Timer, who is no longer out to rape Kali, but has actually fallen in love with her, passionately kisses her.  "Pow, right in the kisser".  But she's secretly coming around to him as well. Eventually, Tarzan gets his memory back, but he's still out to stop the Leopard Men with Orando's men.  And he secretly helps secure Old Timer's final rescue of Kali from the pygmies.

The Kid stumbles upon them, and Old Timer is heartbroken when he sees Kali embrace him.  See here for the reason.

I really enjoyed the humorous bits of Tarzan and N'kima being Orando's spirit helpers, and his perception of them.  And I thought the transition to real love by the Old Timer and Kali's reciprocation was believable.  And the ending, I just loved!!

Now for the comparison: I read my June 1988 10th printing, but I also have the original Neal Adams edition, November 1975 4th printing. (I didn't want to read the slightly musty one after what happened with #15.)

And let's take a look at another great Neal Adams image:

The 1975 version is superior where the composition shows up better and the whites aren't overly enhanced.  Great dynamic action and I love the painting of the tree bark.  The only distracting thing (for me) is Tarzan's white-ish eyes.

This wasn't my first encounter with the Leopard Men.  I saw them in an episode of Tarzan's Epic Adventures starring Joe Lara.  Joe makes an excellent Tarzan, and the production quality and costuming are top-notch, but the scripts are often muddy.  You can watch it now on Tubi - I'm only about halfway through its single season. 

Fear not, gentle reader, the Tarzan wave continues; I'm already on #10.