Other Comix

The first episodes was published in the magazine "Zlatni kliker" in 1975. and few later episodes were published in the magazine "Strip zabavnik". In 1979, the edition had been taken over by "MARKETPRINT" and the episodes 19,20, 21 and 22 were published in the mpost famous Yugoslav magazine "STRIPOTEKA". At the very beginning, "Lieutenant Tara" was concepted as something completely different from the usual comics of that time, which treated the theme of National Liberation War. The individuality was accented, and the stories had a concept of the pure adventure, situated in the milieu of the World War 1941-45. Even the way of drawing (similar to Jean Giraud) stood out of NOB comic hits at that time like "Mirko and Slavko", "The Untaouchables" etc. It is inevitable to compare Lieutenant Tara with Lieutenant Blueberry (not in quality meaning, of course), but thinking of discipline, initiative and the attitude towards the problems. It is more than enough to put some black hats onto the heads of Nazi soldiers to get the illusion of the western, but in European tradition. If we attach some physical similarities of Lieutenant Tara to young Clint Eastwood in the Sergio Leone's movies, it is obvious that his genre surroundings is just conseccion to the poublishing policy of that time and nothing more than that. Simply said, if the "Lieutenant Tara" was filmed, it could have been comparing to "Sutjeska" like "Kellie's heroes" compared to "The Longest Day". Hystoric foundation for the character of the Lieutenant Tara was the script author's uncle, who was the member of Resistance in WW II and had a nickname Tara. Some of his adventures were taken as the basic impulses for some of the scripts and all other similarities stop there. The appearance of Lieutenant Tara could have been significant for the Yugoslav comics as an attempt to treat so called partisan western seriously and proffesionaly, and as the comic which his authors Toza and Bane, as beginners, used to build something which could have been racognizable in their later works.

01 DUGOUT (Kliker,12) June 1975
02 THE WAY TO ABYSS (Kliker, 17) June/July 1975
03 SOLDIER’S HONOUR (Kliker,12) July 1975
04 FIREWORKS (Kliker,14), August 1975
05 BUNKER (Kliker, 14) September 1975
06 SIGNAL IN THE NIGHT (Kliker, 13) Ocotober 1975.
07 THE UNDERGROUND TUNNEL (Kliker 23) November 1975
08 BUMBLEBEE (Kliker,27) Nov/Dec 1975/January 1976
09 The RABBIT's BRAVE HEART (Kliker, 22) 1-11. March 1976.
10 TANGO CALLS FOXTROT (Kliker,16), April1976
11 LUFTWAFFE ASSAULT (Kliker, 16) 30.April-20.May 1976
12 BRIDGE RANDEZ-VOUS (Strip zabavnik,22) 3.July-17.July 1976
13 DEADLY SHORTCUT (Strip zabavnik,22) July/August 1976
14 TRAIL OF THE BEAST ( Kliker, 20) September/October 1976
15 A FRIEND FROM THE OTHER SIDE 1 (unpublished), Oct/Nov 1976
16 A FRIEND FROM THE OTHER SIDE 2 (unpublished) Nov/Dec 1976
17 VINEYARD BALL! (unpublished) , Dec.1976/Jan./Feb 1977
18 DEATH SCISSORS (Strip zabavnik,20) Jan/Feb 1977
19 WINTER TRAPS (Stripoteka 508) 20, Dec.1977-April 1978
20 ESCAPE FROM HELL (Stripoteka 522) 20, April 1978
21 THE COBWEB (Stripoteka 549),16,September 1978
22 THE BULLET FOR THE DEVIL (Stripoteka 577) 22, March/June 1979

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TARZAN
Script: Slavko Dragincic, Svetozar Obradovic,Bane Kerac, Dragana Stankovic, Dusan Vukojev... Ink/Pencil: Branko Plavsic, Sibin Slavkovic, Goran Djukic, Marinko Lebovic, Pavel Koza...

Leaving "Dnevnik" for coming to "Marketprint" Bane got rid of the nightmare called "Blek The Rock". In fact, the first two episodes "The Wild Cat" and "The Broken Heart" , where Bane could express himself were pleasure, but the rest, where he was obliged to draw "Captain Mickey like" covers and to listen to some uneducated editors instructions...horror! Anyway, drawing of Tarzan seemed as salvation. However, the first excitement did not last long. The sterile Tarzan's character (doesn't drink, doesn't smoke, even doesn't fuck), limited by 26 hypocritical rules did not match Bane' s spiritis. Literaly, Tarzan had been worked as any other simple job, at the method "as much you pay, that much you get", meaning the the ordered got something he couldn't complain about. The only exception is five episodes long story "The Kalonga Star" which is, as a mater of fact, Cobra episode. In that story, Bane had maliciously gave an episode role to Tarzan and gave to Cobra and Cindy (so callled Bob and Mindy) to move through the exceptional mileu Pal-Ul-Done, in the terrific creation of Russ Manning. A few more titles deserve the attention ( Tarzan and Barbarians,The Tiger, The Boy from the Stars...) while everything else is an average thing, for the poor ones who don' t read Conan. Besides Yugoslavia, "Marketprint" episodes of Tarzan were published in Sweden,Norway, Germany, Netherlands and Danmark.
Nevertheless, Tarzan got the media popularity to Bane. During those 6-7 years, Bane had more interviews for TV, radio and the press than in any other period in his career.Even today, all those who don' t know much about comics, know Bane for Tarzan, not for Cat Claw. Never heard of it! "Tarzan" is the longest serial in the history of Yugoslav comics. In the period from 1983 to 1989, more than a hundred episodes were made, and Bane took part in about 60, either like the script maker, or like a penciler, inker, and the complete author. Knowing that each episode consisted of 16 pages (another stupid limitation), the total score comes to almost thousand of pages. It would have been worth if Bane had invested all that effort to some serious comic, wouldn't it?