Edgar Rice Burroughs 100 Year Art Chronology
(2018 - Chenault & Gray Publishing)

(all by Michael Tierney) To be clear, while this is currently sold as a box-set, it should be considered four artbooks grouped together, all connected by the inspiration of author Edgar Rice Burroughs writings, but each focusing on different genres of expression of it. It is certainly welcome to have this wealth of material split between four manageable volumes rather than some huge tome. Who knows how quickly the individual volumes will start appearing separately on the secondary markets? (I just saw evidence of that with Tierney's matching Robert E. Howard set.) Note that, the ranking of these four volumes by our convoluted presentation scoring, just happens to place them in the same order as their release - Vol.1 is the best, down thru Vol.4 which is the least so.

Vol.1: The Pulps Subtitled Dawn Of The Age Of Science Fiction, this volume comprehensively pulls together pulp magazine cover & illustration images, along with information on the major artists. Out of 208 pages you'll find 107 pages with featured images and another 74 collecting multiple ones. Most of the remaining text-dominant pages include a smaller image or two. The reproductions are sharp & clear with digital 'restoration' to remove blemishes eight or nine decades wrought. None of the exhibits are captioned per se, but all are seemingly mentioned in text that appears on that page (or the ones immediately before or after). The 'well-presented' exhibits display the following artists: Rudolph Belarski (4), George Brehm, Charles Livingston Bull, Samuel Cahan, Joseph Chenoweth (4), Ray Dean (6), W.C. Fairchild, Virgil Finlay, Laurence Herndon (14), Frank Hoban (17), Julian S. Krupa, Arthur Mitchell, P.J. Monahan (9), Frank R. Paul (2), Clinton Pettee (2), Hubert Rogers, Fred W. Small (5), Henry Soulen, J. Allen St.John (13)***, Paul Stahr (5), Modest Stein (5), Herbert Morton Stoops (2), Emmett Watson (3), C.D. Williams, N.C. Wyeth (2), and Ondrek Zaula.

*** - Note that in regards to the 'well-presented' pieces here by St. John, some, but not all, can additionally be found so in his own collections on The List.

Vol.2: The Books This volume was subtitled Literature With Sharp Cutting Edges and is filled with reproductions of covers of books (both hardcovers & paperbacks) and many associated illustrations. At 330-odd pages it's half-again as large as the last book (making it slightly 'too big') - 112 of those pages are each dominated by a featured exhibit and another 208 all have multiple images on display. Quality & captioning remain the same, with the 'well-presented' artists this time being: Robert Abbett, George Akimoto, R. Bartram, Mahlon Blaine (3), Jim Burns**, Roy Carnon, John Coleman Burroughs (9). Studley Burroughs (4), Reed Crandall, Gino D'Achille, Ned Dameron, Laurence East, Bob Eggleton , Frank Frazetta (16)***, Danny Frolich, Douglas Grant, J.H. Hartley (3), Jeffrey Catherine Jones (2)**, Gil Kane, Josh Kirby, Robert Kline, Roy Krenkel (8)**, J.E. McConnell (2), Don McLaughlin (2), G.P. Micklewright (2), P.J. Monahan, C.E. Monroe (6), Edward Mortelmans, Clinton Pettee, Frank Schoonover, A.W. Sperry, John Allen St. John (27)***, Paul Stahr, Modest Stein, Michael Whelan (2)*, Dean Williams, Frank Wright, N.C. Wyeth, and UNKNOWN ARTIST (4).

* - Note that the 'well-presented' pieces here by Whelan can additionally be found so in his own collections on The List.

** - Note that the 'well-presented' pieces here by Burns, Jones, and Krenkel, cannot additionally be found so in their own collections on The List.

*** - Note that in regards to the 'well-presented' pieces here by Frazetta, and St. John, some, but not all, can additionally be found so in their own collections on The List.

Vol.3: The Comics (part 1) Volume 3 is subtitled The Universal Language part 1 and indeed is the first of two parts looking at Burroughs's works appearing in comics. Because of the extensive amount of such adaptations & new material, this book needed to focus on *just* those involving Tarzan Of The Apes. 334 pages is again slightly 'too big', but you'll find 48 pages dominated by text & reportage (more than before) leaving 85 pages to exhibit a featured cover image and another 199 that each pulls several together. After comics intially developed by gathering & reprinting newspaper comic strips (Tarzan being more than a small part of that), It was Western Publishing that climbed up out of the pack through sheer volume alone, first with it's Dell imprint partnership and then on its own. At the end of a couple of decades, they lost the license to DC comics who allow Joe Kubert to shape this aspect of the legend before finally Marvel takes its own turn. The book then moves own to the more relatively modern supplicants to the jungle lord. The emerging age of additional variant covers begins to clutter up the presentation, but does bring a lot of art to the table. Those artists being 'well-presented' here are: Paul F. Berdanier (5), Simon Bisley, Bret Blevins, Rich Buckler, John Buscema (3), Hal Foster (2), Morris (Mo) Gollub (10), Mike Grell, Burne Hogarth (12), Igor Kordey (2), Roy G. Krenkel**, Joe Kubert (4), Russ Manning (2), Jesse Marsh (2), Bob McLeod, Pat Mosulli, Lucio Parrillo (8), Frank Reyes, Alex Ross (2)***, Arthur Suydam (3)***, John Totleben (4), Al Williamson, George Wilson (14), and Tom Yeates (3).

** - Note that the 'well-presented' piece here by Krenkel cannot additionally be found so in his own collections on The List.

*** - Note that in regards to the 'well-presented' pieces here by Ross, and Suydam, some, but not all, can additionally be found so in their own collections on The List.

Vol.4: The Comics (part 2) Volume 4 continues with the comics overview with one-third of it being even more Tarzan and the rest being what comic expressions have sprung from other works by Burroughs. The project must then become bogged down with Dynamite's Mars mythos and seemingly all the various versions of all the alternative comic covers produced thereof. So this book has to display so much more cover art than any of the three proceeding ones, which means they all have to be crowded together more than previously and leaving far less space for singularly spotlighting particular cover-art pieces. The numbers say it all - after the 28 pages of gathered photographic covers and 284 pages of two-or-more images of collected drawn/painted work (sometimes as much as 16 to a page), there are only left 27 pages to display large reproductions. Those few artists getting such treatment are: Arthur Adams, John Coleman Burroughs (4), J. Scott Campbell, Nick Cardy**, Dave Cockrum (2), Alan Davis, Moris "Mo" Gollub (2), Burne Hogarth, Joe Jusko (2), Michael Kaluta**, Gil Kane (2), Joe Kubert (2), Alan Lathwell, Russ Manning, Ted McKeever, Robinson (of Studio Seven) (2), Alex Ross (2)***, Totino Tedesco, and George Wilson.

** - Note that the 'well-presented' pieces here by Cardy, and Kaluta, cannot additionally be found so in their own collections on The List.

*** - Note that in regards to the 'well-presented' piece here by Ross, one, but not both, can additionally be found so in his own collections on The List.

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