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  1. #1
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    Default Is Tarzan part of the DCU?

    I've been buying old comics and came across a run of DC Tarzan but noticed that the number continues from Dell and Gold Key. Do these comics take place in any of the DCU's earths?

  2. #2
    Extraordinary Member Restingvoice's Avatar
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    Nah. Ownership by the Burroughs Estate licensed to whoever. Last I saw its Dynamite.

  3. #3
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    Quote Originally Posted by Restingvoice View Post
    Nah. Ownership by the Burroughs Estate licensed to whoever. Last I saw its Dynamite.
    Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc. currently owns the trademark on the name "Tarzan".

    Tarzan is mostly in the public domain now.

  4. #4
    Uncanny Member MajorHoy's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by scary harpy View Post
    Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc. currently owns the trademark on the name "Tarzan".

    Tarzan is mostly in the public domain now.
    Is the character itself in the public domain, or just the ability to reprint the older stories?

    There is a big distinction, like "Can anybody who wants to just publish new Tarzan comic book stories?"

  5. #5
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    Quote Originally Posted by MajorHoy View Post
    Is the character itself in the public domain, or just the ability to reprint the older stories?

    There is a big distinction, like "Can anybody who wants to just publish new Tarzan comic book stories?"
    Good question.

    https://pdsh.fandom.com/wiki/Public_Domain_Super_Heroes

    I think the best possible answer might be found here.

  6. #6
    Astonishing Member WallyWestFlash's Avatar
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    I loved those Joe Kubert comics. Were a lot of fun. They also did Korak comics and Tarzan family 100 page giants i believe.

    The Marvel Tarzan comics were decent as well.
    My name is Wally West. I"m the fastest man alive. I"m the Flash.

    Favorite Heroes - 1-Flash/Wally West, 2-Superman, 3-Green Lantern/Hal Jordan, 4-Nightwing, 5-Hawkman, 6-Firestorm, 7-Supergirl/Linda Danvers, 8-Zatanna, 9-Robin/Tim Drake

  7. #7
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    The first novel of Tarzan is in the public domain, but that wouldn't apply to adaptations of the novel. The copyright for those would be when they were first published/released. So something done in the 1970s would be copyrighted then. On top of that is the trademark issue.

    Just in terms of copyright, Dracula and Sherlock Holmes are similar cases--where every iteration of the character is copyrighted for when it was produced. The trademark on the original works might have lapsed--but then each iteration is its own trademark. The Benedict Cumberbatch Sherlock is its own thing--because his distinct likeness and elements of the story are peculiar to that version. Marvel's Dracula by Marv Wolfman, Gene Colan and Tom Palmer is distinct from Universal's Dracula.

    And while TARZAN OF THE APES might be in the public domain because it was first published in 1912, other ERB stories of Tarzan wouldn't be because they were published later. For instance, TARZAN AND THE FORBIDDEN CITY came out in 1938, the same year that Superman was first published.

    I'd like to think that Tarzan is a part of the DC greater reality. I was reading those comics in the early 1970s--and to me that was as much part of the DC experience as any of the other titles. I wonder if some writer or artist somewhere managed to squeeze Tarzan into a panel in another comic. Dave Cockrum had Tars Tarkas appear at the wedding of Bouncing Boy and Duo Damsel (in SUPERBOY 200). I wouldn't put it past Joe Kubert or Neal Adams to have done something like that in one of the many DC stories they drew.

    Tarzan did make an appearance in a feature for SUPERMAN 272 (February 1974):


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