ERBmania! - Korak In Pal-ul-don

KORAK, SON OF TARZAN
Issue #30, August 1969

by David Adams

Cover: George Wilson

Story: Valley of the Bat-People
Position: 1
Writer: Gaylord Dubois
Artist: Dan Spiegle
Inker: Dan Spiegle
Pages: 14
Characters: Balza, Korak, Indon, Sky Chief

Synopsis: Visiting Jakon, head man of the hill people of Pal-ul-don, Korak saves a young man, Indon, from choking on a bone. Indon’s sister, Balza, thinks she has poisoned him with a mushroom stew and has ridden off on a racing Dyal (a large, prehistoric bird). Korak follow on another Dyal and kills a Jato (tiger) with a spear. The next morning Sky Chief (a giant eagle raised by Korak) arrives, and together they fly over black mountain where he finds Balza’s Dyal dead and bled white. Korak finds Balza, but she is snatched away by a man wearing bat wings. Korak spears several of the attendant giant vampire bats and has to stand them off all night from a crevice in the cliff wall. Korak finds the den of the bat-people in a cave and rescues Balza, but they are followed. Sky Chief arrives in the nick of time to scatter the enemy and together they fly home.

Remarks: Voices -- The animal sounds employed in this story are very imaginative and play a large part in the effectiveness of the story.

Dyal - AWRRK?
Jato - OUMM! OUMM! RROUM! AUGH!
Jato attacking - GARROGH!
Jato being stabbed - SCRROWW!
Jato dying - KARURH! SCRROW-AWK!
Sky Chief - YELP! KRRR-KKKK! YOWP! KEREEEE! YOWP!
Vampire Bats - KRE-EEEK!
Bat-Men - UH-EEYOW! KAREEK! URK! AY-A-KAK!
Korak calling Sky Chief - KEREEE KREEE!

The giant eagle is related thematically at least to Argus, the giant golden eagle raised by Tarzan in the Dell comic series.

2. Mabu, Jungle Boy: The New Chief. 4 pages. Writer: Gaylord Dubois, Artist: Dan Spiegle

3. Text page: Colorful Baboons

Story: Intembu The Terrible
Position: 4
Writer: Gaylord Dubois
Artist: Dan Spiegle
Inker: Dan Spiegle
Pages: 7
Characters: Chief Nala, Korak, Intembu

Synopsis: Reaching the village of his friend, Chief Mala, at sundown, Korak finds they are being terrorized nightly by a huge, rogue, bull elephant -- Intembu! Korak has the natives make him a gigantic spear. The next night when the elephant comes to finish off the corn crop, Korak shoots an arrow into its sensitive trunk and is chased into a tree. Korak leads the rogue into a cleft in a cliff where he shoots the giant spear using a clever, suspended device released by a rope. Korak is being pulled by the elephant’s trunk back through the crack just as the spear does its intended job. He returns to the village carrying a huge ivory tusk, which the natives can use to pay for their ruined village. Korak is declared a great friend.

Remarks: Korak constructs another of his clever mechanical devices which he often uses in this comic series. He seems to have a more scientific bent of mind than Tarzan, perhaps due to his English school education.

Additional Remarks by Steve Allsup: This was my first Korak comic book, back in May of 1969. The cover dates on comic books are often three months ahead. I first read Tarzan of the Apes in April, and then became a confirmed ERB fanatic from them on. It occurred to me that there might also be a Tarzan comic book I could collect, so I went to the drug store and found not only a Tarzan comic but this companion magazine about Korak. I collected every subsequent issue.