Brothers of the Spear was a long-running comic book series created by Western Publishing, and published first for Dell Comics and then later for Gold Key Comics. The series was done originally as a backup series in the long-running Tarzan comic that Western published, but was owned by Western, not Burroughs. A comic book is a magazine or book containing the art form of comics. ... This is a page about the company Western Publishing. ... Dell Comics was the comic book publishing arm of Dell Publications, which got its start in pulp magazines. ... Gold Key Comics was an imprint of Western Publishing. ... Tarzan, a character created by Edgar Rice Burroughs, first appeared in the 1914 novel Tarzan of the Apes, and then in twenty-three sequels. ...

The Brothers of the Spear were Dan-El and Natongo, kings by right in their own 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 a lost white kingdom in Africa, while Natongo was black. The first two years of the series dealt with them winning back their thrones. By that time, they had 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 DuBois and artist Jesse Marsh. Later on, artist Russ Manning handles the series. Other artists would later follow. The series started in Tarzan #25, published in 1951t ran continiously until #156 in 1966. New stories would appear in #160, 161, and later in #202 and #203. The rights to Tarzan soon went to DC Comics, after which the Brothers of the Spear would get their own title in June of 1972, that lasted seventeen issues until February of 1976. Later on, Whitman comics would published #18, in May of 1982, but this was a reprint issue. Russ Manning or Russell Manning (1929-1981) was a comics illustrator and designer who created the Magnus, Robot Fighter comics and illustrated many other comics and comic strip series such as Tarzan and Star Wars. ... The current DC Comics logo, adopted in May 2005. ...

External Links

• Toonopedia entry on Brothers of the Spear