When American writer Edgar Rice Burroughs penned Tarzan of the Apes for a racy, pulp magazine back in 1912, little did he imagine that the loincloth-clad action hero would swing from branches and land in our hearts, and camp there for generations.

The English scion orphaned in an African jungle — who is reared by apes and grows up to lead them, falls head over heels for Jane Porter of Baltimore and even grasps the ways of civilisation only to reject it — has since featured in numerous novels, comic strips, movies, animated series and even on Broadway.