This post is brought to you by Bearshirt #2: The Hidden World by G. W. Thomas. The Arthan series is Sword & Sorcery but for this novel he finds himself in an underground world filled with lizard men and dinosaurs. After fighting the primitive beasts of Sharn, he journeys across the rest of the Pellucidarian realm to find the great evil that lurks over the hidden world. Inspired by Edgar Rice Burroughs and Pellucidar, this particular adventure is filled with action, monsters and excitement.
I’ve read lots of Edgar Rice Burroughs comics over the years: the Joe Kuberts, the Russ Mannings, the Hal Fosters, the Burne Hogarths, the more obscure Byblos, Charlton, Jaime Remohi, Kiran, Topsellers, Peters and even the TV21. But I never saw this one before!
How could I have missed this…
The Iron Mole Is Prepared
The Iron Mole Breaks into Pellucidar
Captured by the Sagoths
Into the Mahar City
Sagoths and Mahars
David Meets Ja and the Sea Serpent
Feed to the Mahars
David Versus Jubal the Ugly One
Over the Misty Mountains
The Army of Pellucidar
Defeat of the Mahars
Tanar and the Dinosaur
Tarzan Shows Up Later
And the reason is….it’s not a Pellucidar comic at all. Not really. This is the English rendition of a French comic, Les Pionniers de L’Esperance (The Pioneers of Hope) from 1951. The script was written by Roger Lecureaux. Art was done by Raymond Poivet. When the comic was adapted for British audiences, Bill Lacey added some connecting art. This was for a comic called Super Detective Library #50, March 3, 1955, #54, May 5, 1955 and #57, July 7, 1955. 
I will admit that I re-arranged these scenes to roughly follow ERB’s novels. The Pioneers don’t actually enter the underground world by Iron Mole until #54. They get in through a cave (ala Turok, Son of Stone). The comic goes off into submarine and despots after #57 and feels more like Caspak than Pellucidar.
Les Pionniers de L’Esperance originally appeared in Valliant then Pif Gadget from December 14, 1945 to September 26, 1973. It was France’s first major SF comic. The strip begins in the Flash Gordon outer space mode before switching to the interior of the Earth. Super Detective Library, which began with detectives like Bulldog Drummond and The Saint, diverts into occasional SF with Rick Random and these three stories: “Lost in the Underworld” (50), “The Riddle of the Blue Men” (54), “Despot of the Underworld” (57). Unlike the Flash Gordon stuff, these stories are obviously descended from Jules Verne’s Journey to the Center of the Earth (1865), Arthur Conan Doyle’s The Lost World (1912) and Edgar Rice Burroughs’ At the Earth’s Core (1914).
I do have to wonder if Russ Manning was familiar with this strip? Some of the dinosaur stuff looks similar. I know his comic strips for the newspapers were cut up and re-formatted in a very similar way (with Joe Kubert occasionally doing a small linking bit in the Bill Lacey fashion). European comic readers may find this entire post stupid but in North America comics like Les Pionniers de L’Esperance were outside our circle of experience. Our comics were dominated by American superheroes. (Being in Canada, I got whatever the US sold here. Occasionally you stumbled onto something brought over from Europe but it would be in a language you couldn’t read.)
Conclusion
Of course, I recommend you read Les Pionniers de L’Esperance as it was intended if you can find it. If not, the Super Detective Library is online for free. Pellucidar fans will recognize certain scenes and elements as I did, but the comic has its own virtues. Raymond Poivet is an excellent artist for one thing. The stories are good too with plenty of action and monsters but also a political agenda different from David Innes’ empire-building of the old Pulps.
I have to admire a culture that values comics as an art form. The Europeans early on saw this as good entertainment but also great art. Comics came in hard-backed graphic novels rather than flimsy comic books that were meant to dissolve at the same rate as the old Pulps, their progenitors. They were also issued in many different languages. Names like Thorgal, Rahan, Asterix & Obelix, Valerian, Metal Hurlant, etc. and of course, Herge and Tintin, the comic that inspired the creators of Les Pionniers de L’Esperance as much as Alex Raymond’s Flash Gordon. Here is part of that amazing legacy for ERB fans and comic fans alike.
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