The Greatest Adventure

by Bill Willingham, Cezar Razek (Artist), Joseph Rybandt (Editor)

In ancient days, Jason gathered the greatest heroes of his age and set out on the ultimate sea voyage. Now, in Tarzan's era, Jason Gridley does the same. The greatest heroes of the Edgar Rice Burroughs universe come together as the crew of the good ship Venture, with none other than Tarzan as their captain. It's a race this time, against a battleship of dark hearted villains, and the fate of many worlds hangs in the balance.

Genres: Comics, Fantasy, Science Fiction, Adventure, Graphic Novels, Fiction, Graphic Novels Comics

240 pages, Hardcover

First published June 13, 2018

About the author

In the late 1970s to early 1980s he drew fantasy ink pictures for the Dungeons & Dragons Basic and Expert game rulebooks. He first gained attention for his 1980s comic book series Elementals published by Comico, which he both wrote and drew. However, for reasons unknown, the series had trouble maintaining an original schedule, and Willingham's position in the industry remained spotty for many years. He contributed stories to Green Lantern and started his own independent, black-and-white comics series Coventry which lasted only 3 issues. He also produced the pornographic series Ironwood for Eros Comix.

In the late 1990s Willingham reestablished himself as a prolific writer. He produced the 13-issue Pantheon for Lone Star Press and wrote a pair of short novels about the modern adventures of the hero Beowulf, published by the writer's collective, Clockwork Storybook, of which Willingham was a founding member. In the early 2000s he began writing extensively for DC Comics, including the limited series Proposition Player, a pair of limited series about the Greek witch Thessaly from The Sandman, and most notably the popular series Fables

Reviews

[Little Timmy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am a HUGE fan of the Pulp Era characters and I am very critical when they are translated into a comic medium. So many time the "feel" is just not there in the comics that these characters had in the old Pulp stories. Well this time I was not disappointed at all and I am sure it is because Bill Willingham wrote this mini series. Willingham has been one of my favorite comic writers since I discovered him on his superb Elementals run and he continues to impress. Fantastic telling of so many of the Edgar Rice Burroughs characters. Very nice art also. Very recommended to comic and Pulp fans. Highly recommended

[Chad · Rating 3 out of 5]

I gotta say that this was a bit of a disappointment, but that's what happens when you expect another masterpiece from the author of Fables. Willingham had a very difficult job here, to combine all the works of Edgar Rice Burroughs. He does a decent job of it, most of it though I didn't really care. I was only familiar with John Carter and Tarzan so I didn't care a bit for the other 20 members of Tarzan's crew. Nor could I keep who was who straight (most of which never really mattered anyway). My real problem is there wasn't much adventure here, it was just a checklist to visit all of the kingdoms from ERB's books. I actually think this would have been a better book had it just been a Tarzan / John Carter crossover. The art and coloring were both top notch. However, a lot of the character designs were very similar and hard to keep straight with this sprawling cast of characters.

[Quentin Wallace · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reader's opinions are all over the place on this one, but overall I thought this was a solid adventure with good art. We had the big names from Burroughs such as Tarzan, Jane, Korak, John Carter, Dejah Thoris, Carson of Venus and a few others, and we also had several more obscure characters. Some of the characters I'd heard of, others I had no clue about. The villains I did seem to remember from some of the Tarzan novels which I am currently working my way through.

The heroes all join together and travel to Mars, Venus, Pellucidar and other places to thwart the plans of a madman with psychic powers. While some of the story seemed a little forced, overall it fit with the pulp theme and I enjoyed it. A polarizing graphic novel, but one I personally liked.

[Steven McDonald · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’ve been a fan of Bill Willingham since I read the first issue of Fables, so was delighted to have received an electronic ARC from Netgalley. The greatest adventure see Mr Willingham turn his attention to the creations of Edgar Rice Burrows and this 1st issue introduces us to Tarzan and Jane who lead an expedition to the lost world of Caspak, where are heroes are forced to do battle with dinosaurs and meet John Carter. This is an interesting premise for a graphic novels as all words collide and intermingle with each other. Highly recommended.

[Alan · Rating 3 out of 5]

My ex-wife and I had multiple conversations about fan fiction, and I still admit that she won in the end. Work for hire=fan fiction to a large degree. The characters were created by someone else, and in a lot of cases that leads to writing that well isn't very good.

With that said there are many work for hire properties that I enjoy (American comics, television, and some movie franchises). Plus, I understand writers and the rest of the creative team to work to pay bills.

While I have extolled Willingham's work on Fables and Panetheon, this bit doesn't fare quite as well for me. Perhaps, it has to do with page count, or it might be that I am not a huge ERBphile. In all I've read only his Barsoom books, and one Tarzan tale. So the more obscure ERB references flew right by me, or I was on Wikipedia/net trying to figure out who was who (I do this with LEOG too I admit).

I will give WIllingham credit for giving readers a take on Caspak that I don't think anyone else has tried before. In addition, I think Willingham delivers good interpretations of Tarzan and his son, while updating both of their spouses for 2018 reader sensibilities.

While the threat is big enough to warrant gathering so many of ERB's characters in one place, the villain fell flat for me. The menace felt no bigger than in Jumanji: Welcome tot he Jungle (watched the movie yesterday and was underwhelmed).

For ERB devotees, pulp fans, and fans of old fashioned mashups.

[Steven · Rating 3 out of 5]

Want a tale with nearly every titular hero created by Edgar Rice Burroughs in one book? This is it.

Honestly a bit crowded so only Tarzan and a few others truly get to shine but definitely a fun read if you're a fan of the pulps & early genre

[Daniel · Rating 1 out of 5]

I sort of can't believe the same author who could write Fables would write this collection.

Perhaps if you were an expert on Edgar Rice Burroughs novels you'd find joy in this series, but as someone who only has a passing knowledge of the more famous ones (like Tarzan) it was just a mess. There are a couple dozen characters, almost none of which get any introduction (nor even that much time on the pages).

The story itself is pure pulp; perhaps that's an ode to Burroughs, but I expected more of a Willingham story.

[Brent · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was delighted when I heard that Bill Willingham, one of my favorite writers, was working on a story involving the characters of Edgar Rice Burroughs who, since childhood, has taken me on the most wonderful and exciting adventures and remains firmly ensconsed in my personal legendarium.
This was a little dissapointing though.
There was some good stuff in here however, and I will read it again when I have more time to enjoy it.
It was probably just me ;)

[Amanda · Rating 2 out of 5]

There seems to be no point to this graphic novel except to be an excuse to name drop a bunch of Edgar Rice Burroughs characters.

[John Yelverton · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really wanted to absolutely love this graphic novel, but despite its proclamation of having all of Edgar Rice Burroughs' famous characters in one novel, John Carter and Dejah Thoris don't show up until the book is half-way through, and Carson Napier doesn't show up until the very end. The book is also guilty of several comic book tropes, and the ending is far less than satisfying. The best thing that this book has going for it, is that the artwork is absolutely fantastic.

[Daniel · Rating 3 out of 5]

This review originally published in Looking For a Good Book. Rated 2.5 of 5

I recognized Bill Willingham's name from the hit graphic novel series Fables and combining him with the heroes and heroines of the Edgar Rice Burroughs books, I was sure this was going to be a real blast.

I was wrong.

There are a LOT of Burroughs' characters here. Well...I assume they're in the Burroughs cannon - I didn't recognize many of them. Like many, I am most familiar with Tarzan, John Carter, and Carson of Venus.

Picking up the theme of Jason and Argonauts, where a group of heroes band together on a quest (a hero version of a musical super-group), Jason (!) Gridley gets Tarzan, Jane and soon a large number of like heroes to join him on his Martian skyship, Venture, (where Tarzan is the captain) and they head off to save the world from nasty villainy.

Yes... just as described above, this is pretty much just a Burroughs-era pulp adventure story, only everything is thrown in. And therein lies the problem. There are too many people trying to vie for attention in this story and since I didn't know many of them, I tended to get lost.

The art doesn't help anything here.

In general, the art is pretty decent - except the long-haired heroes all look exactly the same! When Tarzan and John Carter are in the same panel (which is often) you really have to study the panel to make sure you know who is who (if you care to know).

I really wanted and expected to like this book, but instead it just really 'blah' - not horrible, but not the exciting book it should have been, given the talent behind the story and the characters lifted to tell the story.

Looking for a good book? The Greatest Adventure is a graphic novel written by an experienced, talented hand (Bill Willingham) using classic heroes from the pulp era, but the book doesn't soar the way that it should.

I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher, through Edelweiss, in exchange for an honest review.

[Joel Jenkins · Rating 5 out of 5]

This gathers all of Edgar Rice Burroughs' greatest heroes (and some of his less than greatest--Shannon Burke of Girl From Hollywood, anyone?) into a worlds-spanning adventure and is great fun. My only complaint that is so many of the characters don't get the attention they deserve and the readers don't get the background information about their characters.

A lot of this is space constraints and perhaps this concept was envisioned as an ongoing series that would gradually reveal the backgrounds of the various characters and give them all a moment to shine. As someone who has read all of Edgar Rice Burroughs' published work (and I don't say that facetiously), even I couldn't recall the history of all the characters presented. Granted, it has been decades since I read some of those adventures so perhaps I can be forgiven if my memory of them is fading.

Still, it may not be necessary for an initiate to the worlds of Edgar Rice Burroughs to know all the characters in order to enjoy the story. The only thing that might seem like a cheat is a plot device in which Carson Napier of Venus, who is introduced late in the book, uses his psychic powers. This isn't a cheat if you are familiar with the character but may seem unfair if you don't know anything about Carson Napier.

I also want to comment on the fantastic hardbound presentation and marking ribbon, which adds a lot to the reading experience. And, surprisingly, even the Girl From Hollywood comes off well in this adventure.

[Scott · Rating 2 out of 5]

All of the greatest characters of Edgar Rice Burroughs team up for a 9 issue series where they need to gain a powerful gemstone called the Eye of Judgement. They are in a race to get the gemstone with an alien battleship called The Resolve.

We've got Tarzan, Jane, John Carter, Korak the Killer, Jason Gridley, Billy Byrne, Bridge, The Oskaloosa Kid and about ten more that I don't feel like typing.

My expectations were sky high going into this as I fashion myself a little bit of a Fables junkie so I was really looking forward to what Willingham could cook up.

I was so very disappointed. The characters of course are great as was the art but everything else was a complete train wreck. There were so many main characters that I couldn't keep them straight and it also didn't allow any time for any individual characters to stand out, shine or grow. Plot was confusing, the pace was all off. Worst was that I kept looking at the page count to find out how many pages were left so I could be done.

I think if I had a better knowledge/background/history on the Burroughs characters (I was only familiar with Tarzan and John Carter coming in) it would have helped. This might be a good read for someone but it wasn't for me.

[Nafis Fuad · Rating 4 out of 5]

When I was a kid, I read a few of Edgar Rice Burroughs' work, mostly some Tarzan and Barsoom novels. When I discovered this book, I was mostly drawn by the fact that it was akin to an Avengers film for Edgar Rice Burroughs characters. Tarzan as an pop-cultural icon needs no introduction. But most of the characters, except a few like (i.e. Jane Porter, John Carter, Dejah Thoris etc.) were unknown to me. So I had to research about a few of them on the internet. That itself was a fun experience.

It was my first time reading something authored by Mr. Willingham. (Fables is still on my rader. Hope I'll get around to reading it.)
The idea that he has implemented in this project is truly remarkable. But in my opinion, that's also one of it's shortcomings. There are simply too many characters to keep track of. And the story was rushed a little bit too. But as a whole it was a fun experience and took me back to my childhood.

Cezar Razek's artwork in absolutely beautiful. More comics need to get back to this type of artwork. My only issue with the artwork is that a few characters looked almost exactly the same (i.e. Meriem and La, Tarzan and Korak and a few others) but maybe that's just me being a snob.

Overall, an entertaining read to pass a leisurely evening.

[Theediscerning · Rating 1 out of 5]

It should be sacrilege for me to not finish a Bill Willingham comic, but I clicked to request this knowing nothing about it. The fact it's a hodgepodge of twenty Edgar Rice Burroughs characters, only three or four of which I've ever heard of (and one of them was still just called "Boy" the last I met him), and not a jot of effort has been spent on bringing this above the derivative, historical hokum of the originals apart from a cameo from Davros, means I'm just not interested. It'll be fine for some, but it does nothing for me.

[Ron · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jason Gridley escapes from a extra large spaceship named Resolve and crashes in front of Tarzan. Together they gather a crew of adventurers to fend off Rokoff and his Master and set off in a Martian skyship Venture. Plenty of adventure in the ERB worlds of Barsoom, Venus, Pellucidar, and the Lost World of Caspak with a nicely plotted ending leaving open the possibility of further adventures.

[Paul W. · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's a bit overstuffed with characters, many of whom I had to look up but wow, what a fun book! Every Burroughs character, even one that was an ingenue in Hollywood. The story was pretty good, I wish the villain had been fleshed out a bit more, but it was enjoyable. It was obvious the writer loved Tarzan.

[Ron · Rating 3 out of 5]

Loved FABLES but this was a bit overwhelming. I've read and reread the entire ERB canon over the years but had a hard time recalling some of these characters, and the way some were rendered, it was difficult telling some apart. I think this might have been better as a series of smaller stories, featuring 4-6 of ERB's characters each rather than one honking big cast of thousands.

[Charlos · Rating 1 out of 5]

A slog of a read, predictable in an unfulfilling way, with many interchangeable characters drawn quite similarly. The gang was all here, but it wasn't a good thing. I feel like this could have been done in one issue. On the other side of things, love the quality of production of the book itself.

[Shannon Appelcline]

DNF.

I hoped for Fables with Burroughs heroes, but Willingham just unleashes a huge mishmash of boring people, most of whom never get any attention, and sends them to Burroughs settings to check off all the boxes. Bleh.

[Ralph Carlson · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fun read. A graphic novel that includes many of Edgar Rice Burroughs characters.

[Reg Aubry · Rating 4 out of 5]

All of E.R. Burroughs' characters in one big rollicking adventure. Good fun.

[Amie Ward · Rating 3 out of 5]

Solid artwork. Just didn't fall in love with tbe characters. Maybe if I'd come in with more understanding of the individual stories I'd appreciate it more.

[Cody Missbach]

Fun pulpy goodness with a crew

Combines all the fun of pulp with the team dynamics and charm of an oceans eleven heist. A fun blast with great art and twists

[J.D. DeHart · Rating 5 out of 5]

This mash-up of classic characters carries all the charm of a vintage comic book. Reading it took me back to collecting paperback issues in bins around my childhood home. It's a trip to nostalgia and a book that works well on its own two feet.

[Scott Knight · Rating 3 out of 5]

From the publisher: In ancient days, Jason gathered the greatest heroes of his age and set out on the ultimate sea voyage. Now, in Tarzan's era, Jason Gridley does the same. The greatest heroes of the Edgar Rice Burroughs universe come together as the crew of the good ship Venture, with none other than Tarzan as their captain. It's a race this time, against a battleship of dark hearted villains, and the fate of many worlds hangs in the balance.

I'm a fan of Bill Willingham's work on Fables, so I jumped at the chance to read The Greatest Adventure. The plot summary sounded interesting, sort of a League of Extraordinary Gentlemen but with Edgar Rice Burroughs's characters, of which there are a lot more than I was familiar with. However, I found The Greatest Adventure just okay.

First of all, there were a ton of characters. In addition to Tarzan, Jane, and John Carter, there were about 20 other characters, none of which I was really familiar. There may have been some nods and winks from Willingham to his readers that I didn't pick up on, but this lack of familiarity prevented me from getting very engaged with the story. And honestly, it seemed like Willingham didn't really know what to do with all of the characters either, as several encountered challenges along the way that left them by the wayside with not much said about them the rest of the story. At no point was I overly concerned about any of the characters.

Second, the plot was kind of basic: Bad guy works with aliens to create a weapon to conquer people/planets/etc. The villains weren't very well rounded, more stock characters. The group of heroes encountered many challenges to their mission, including a journey to the center of the earth, a land that time forgot, and a visit to Mars. As far as I'm concerned, the action on Mars was the best part of the story, but that might just be because I'm more familiar with the John Carter stories. Speaking of being familiar, there was very little jungle adventure, which seems strange when Tarzan is a main character. I didn't find myself engaging with much of the plot, and had to push myself through a large chunk of the story.

I really appreciate how Willingham told a deep and far-reaching story with a boatload of familiar characters in his Fables series. Unfortunately, The Greatest Adventure just didn't work for me. I'm going to chalk it up to not really knowing many of the characters. It's possible that Willingham was trying to write in the style of the early 20th century pulp writers as well, and if that's the case, I get it, I just didn't care for it.

If Willingham tries something in this vein again, I'd certainly give it a shot. However, I can't really give a high recommendation for The Greatest Adventure. If you're a Burroughs fan, you should give this a shot. Willingham fans might want to check it out as well, but it wasn't really my favorite.

I received a preview copy of this book from Dynamite Entertainment in exchange for an honest review.

[Mimi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Oh, this made me realise I need to brush up on my Edgar Rice Burroughs, lol. That being said, this was pretty awesome. The artwork was great, and the story captivating. A few too many characters on the crew to keep everything straight for me, but on the other hand, they all deserved to be there. I also loved that the kept the raw characters of Burroughs, and didn't try to pretty them up, or make them conform to modern standards.