- Brothers of the Spear
Brothers of the Spear was a long-running backup feature in the "
Tarzan "comic book series created byWestern Publishing and published first throughDell Comics and then throughGold Key Comics . Though published as part of a licensedEdgar Rice Burroughs franchise, this original series was owned by Western.The Brothers of the Spear were Dan-El and Natongo, unrelated kings by right in their neighboring countries, whose thrones had been usurped. They swore brotherhood and had adventures together. What was notable was that Dan-El was white, and whose kingdom was that of a lost white tribe in Africa (Aba-Zulu), while Natongo was black (from Tungelu). The first two years of the series dealt with them winning back their thrones. By that time, they had individually gotten married. But even being kings and husbands, they continued to have adventures together, many times with their wives.
The series was created by
writer Gaylord Du Bois andartist Jesse Marsh in "Tarzan" #25 (1951 ), and ran continuously through #156 (1966 ). Acclaimed artistRuss Manning did some of his earliest comics work on this series, beginning in "Tarzan" #39 (Dec.1952 ). The ending of the series was due in part to Russ Manning moving to take over Tarzan from Marsh in #154. New stories would appear in #160, 161 (by Manning), and later in #202 and #203 (by Mike Royer).While
DC Comics licensed the rights to Tarzan in 1972, the Brothers of the Spear remained with Gold Key Comics which published their own 17-issue "Brothers of the Spear" title (June1972 - Feb.1976 ). Whitman Comics published an issue #18 in May1982 , with reprinted material only. Du Bois wrote the series beginning with issue #2. Jesse Santos did the artwork for the first twelve issues, followed byDan Spiegle .External links
* [http://www.toonopedia.com/brospear.htm Toonopedia entry on Brothers of the Spear]
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