Hal Foster on his work on Tarzan
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SABA: Did you write the stories for Tarzan?

FOSTER: Let's say edited it. The first book was, of course, all
Burroughs. And the story was so far from natural that I despised it.

SABA: Really?
FOSTER: Yes, even though it was highly praised.

SABA: A best seller.

FOSTER: It was highly praised because it was the first of story
illustration. And it was from a writer that was well-known, Burroughs,
and of course, that helped it. But, later when I'd finished that one
book, Tarzan of the Apes, there was no more Burroughs writing in
Tarzan at all after that. They sold the idea to the syndicate, to
United Syndicate, and they had a staff writer write the story, and,
oh, it was so ridiculous. A lion and an elephant in the same jungle,
tigers swimming across the river-of course, things like that are
possible, but, it was like, oh, somebody who could build apartment
buildings trying to build palace. There's no reality to it.

SABA: I understand exactly what you mean. Very slapdash kind of work,
I guess.

FOSTER: So when I handled it, I tried to make the jungle a jungle,
and the animals realistic, though I still had to make every monkey a
gorilla, because the stories said they were "The Great Apes."

SABA: So after a while you got sick of that sort of thing, I guess,
didn't you?

FOSTER: It was tiresome, yes, but that inspired me, because I kept
criticizing the writer and the descriptions of the scenes and things,
and began to say, "Well, I could do better than that. Why didn't he
use those phrases? Why did he try to make it like wording in a
dictionary? Why didn't he put more spirit in it?" So, I got sick of
it, and in my spare time, I started to dream up a story. By that time
Hearst had seen my work on Tarzan, and he said "Get Foster."

...

SABA: Where were you at first, that was Chicago?

FOSTER: Chicago, yes. And there I had plenty of time to do Tarzan,
did the daily strip, and I did the Sunday page, and that got me into
the cartoon business. And all this time, I was thinking, "I could do
it better than that. I could do better." And to prove it wasn't
conceit, to prove I was really confident, I started the Prince Valiant
story.