I was asked by a friend to do a drawing for a special edition of a comics magazine (more of a fanzine, actually) dedicated to Tarzan. As a kid, I remember reading all sorts of Tarzan comics. While some seemed deeply rooted in the fantastical worlds of ERB, others were more down-to-earth, set in modern African settings, with the titular hero going up against drug dealers and dictators. For the life of me, I can’t remember who made those, but I could look it up.

When I was asked to do a Tarzan piece, those long-forgotten stories sprang to mind. At the same time, I had recently been researching the Congo Crisis of 1960–1964 for a spy graphic novel I plan to do, so I decided to tie the two points of interest together.