To me, the gorillas are far and away the most magnificent looking of all the great apes; much more so than the other african apes; and I regard the orangutan as markedly different in appearance and habit than african apes, being slow, though incredibly strong. To me, the strength of the orangutan lends credence to the existence of a large ape which could travel through the trees.

In any event, when I read these books I imagined the mangani as magnificent, savage creatures, and the only ape which to me meets this criteria is Bolgani. However, a mangani would have to be less massive to meet some reasonable expectation of a creature at home in the trees, so I imagine them this way. I regarded Bolgani as, one on one, more savage than a mangani, but not as swift or arboreal as the great apes.

The ACE Frazetta "Son of Tarzan" clearly pictures the mangani as akin to Bolgani, if not more so, and is, to me, the most impressive, if not perhaps accurate, interpretation of the mangani.

Did ERB have much knowledge of the various species when he wrote the books, and/or did he ever verbalize or otherwise compare the mangani with gorillas, chimpanzees, etc., in any specific manner? Did he ever alter his perceptions as knowledge of these species increased over the course of time?

I enjoy the drawings and sketches for the "original art" value; and for ERB's opinion of the artist, but they do not reflect my own, 1990's, view, nor my view in the early 1960's, when I first read these books. I would like to see a St. John painting of an ape at about the time he painted the frontispiece.

What happens to these paintings? I assume someone actually has the original paintings of all the Tarzan covers, whether hardcover jackets, ACE, etc. Who has them?

Were prints of them ever made? I certainly wouldn't mind having prints of several of the paperback covers, and would love to have this "Tarzan at the Earth's Core" in a print.

I haven't seen any of this Disney stuff. It seems to me that if ACE re-published the books with the old covers, and commissioned some artists of similar ability to create covers for books ACE never published, they could capture a new generation of readers who may discover the real Tarzan, as a result of and in spite of the movie.

Tarak