BLACK PANTHER #7, January 1978, Marvel Comics



Cover featuring the unique pairing of Jack Kirby, pencils, and Ernie Chan, inks. I've always liked this logo, despite it not being particularly evocative of the character. 

Kirby’s solo BLACK PANTHER run couldn’t remotely be considered a “jungle comic” until the 7th issue, in which T’Challa returned to Wakanda in “Drums” (by Kirby, with inks and letters by Mike Royer) after 6 issues of journeys to fantastic other settings.

The first five pages are devoted to wrapping up the Panther’s previous storyline in a realm of samurai, with page six returning him, and his companion, the monocle-wearing, collecting-obsessed Mr. Little, to his homeland in Africa, for 12 pages of jungle action in this era of abbreviated length for the standard American comic.

First, Kirby relates some history, of how a meteorite created a unique mound of the unearthly metal mineral, Vibranium, to be mined by the then superstitious ancient Wakandan people. The metal has mysterious properties: it “buzzes”, and men reportedly turn into “evil spirits” and attack others. According to Kirby, the modern society of Wakanda is devoted to protecting the rest of the world from “the harmful effects of an alien infection!”

(This is quite different from later interpretations of Vibranium as a kind of wonder metal. This sounds more like the recent film adaptation of Jeff Vandermeer’s novel “Annihilation.” Read the book instead!).

Next Kirby tells us about Bashenga, the first Black Panther, ancestor of a long line of panther-costumed heroes whose cult guarded against the demon spirits who would otherwise spread if intruders looted the mound. Wakanda does, however, sell this dangerous metal, which “can change men”, to carefully vetted researchers in return for high profit.



With the history lesson over, and T’Challa and Little safely ashore, the submarine returns autonomously to the city of the samurai. Little warns that Princess Zanda, who has been pursuing them in previous issues, may be looking for them in this very spot!

As they proceed toward T’Challa’s home, we shift focus to their destination, where scientist Jakarra has taken unauthorized control over the Vibranium mound, over the objections of N’Gassi. Jakarra is unconcerned about the legends, convinced that “the Vibranium effect is gone!”

Through expositional dialog, we learn that Jakarra is T’Challa’s younger half brother, who is resentful of his elder, when suddenly Jakarra feels the effect of the Vibranium flare, changing him into a horrible creature.



The mutating Jakarra flees, and N’Gassi takes over with the consent of the remorseful rebel guard. N’Gassi orders drumming to signal a warning to avoid contamination with Jakarra, and readies to assemble T’Challa and his family, the “ruling Panthers.”

Unless I miss my bet, Kirby drew a page too many for this issue, as he was known to do when he got wrapped up in his story-telling, because we are abruptly dropped into a scene in which T’Challa and Little have already been captured and taken via air to Princess Zanda and her gang of collectors, with dialog explaining that missing scene. Zanda is furious that T’Challa no longer has the Miracle Water that would have bestowed immortality—a prize he traded to the samurai.

Under the threat of a missile attack against Wakanda, Mr. Little gives up the secret stash he’s been smuggling: a single vial of the Miracle Water! But with only that small sample, the band of collectors immediately pile on top of Little in a struggle to get the first drop—they cannot trust each other with such a limited supply available!

With T’Challa catching the vial when Little tosses it, he is now the target of pursuit, but in the mayhem, a soldier’s bullet shatters the vial! Under fire, T’Challa reaches an aircraft, and heads toward home, confident that Zanda and her cohorts will lose interest now that the Miracle Water is gone.



Back in Wakanda, the first of the ruling Panthers arrives at the summons: young Joshua Itobo, a physician member of the royal family.

OK, this is still not a standard “jungle comic”, but it’s doing something that no other jungle comic I’ve seen has ever done: it begins establishing a fictional jungle nation with its own history, legends, economy, purpose, army, and political structure. Although it has been developed quite differently in recent years, this really is the foundation that made the Black Panther film stand out from the pack, with a richly-rendered country that blends African tradition with scientific advancement. Since Kirby was a middle-aged American white man, I think we can pardon him for relying on some superficial trappings of Africa rather than strict authenticity, because his heart was surely in the right place in using the more evocative and interesting drum signals rather than more sophisticated means of communication. I think the drums suggest the overtones of myth surrounding Jakarra’s transformation. Kirby explicitly points out that the drum alarm has not been used for centuries, suggesting that these primitive ways are not in current use but have been retained as a part of the culture, to be used in specific, critical circumstances. It occurs to me, in fact, that recent events have demonstrated the potential value of maintaining such things, as we have today an American island in devastation, where modern means of communication are useless.

Except for the awkward transition that implies a missing page, this is a fine little comic, and Kirby's oft-maligned dialog reads fine to me, superior from today's perspective to what many of us then perceived as "hipper", better dialog from other writers of the time. Kirby's language is epic, bombastic, and rich, and I didn't experience a single bump in my reading of this book. It's a huge contrast to the Don McGregor dialog that fans of the time missed when Kirby took over the Black Panther. There's a good reason I've been putting off the inevitable sampling of McGregor's Panther in JUNGLE ACTION; every time I've tried to read it, I've found it almost painful. 

This one's a Jungle Gem as far as I'm concerned. It makes me want to read the whole of Kirby's run now, since I stopped after a couple of issues back when these were being published. 

Same, found it awkward back in the day. Enjoyed it on recent re read. I think Kirby was also writing it for younger readers. Maybe remembering those jungle adventures he read as a kid.

Kirby was doing the Hidden Land pulp adventure, ala H Rider Haggard and Edgar Rice Burroughs.

Burroughs was notorious for using antiquated / wrong ideas of how African creations and/or ideas were used, and by the time of this comic, you'd think Kirby would have known better than to still lean in that direction.

COWBOY IN AFRICA #1, Gold Key (Western), March 1968:



Some comics fans love ‘em, apparently—those Gold Key photo covers where they cut up some studio publicity stills, slap them against a geometric background of random solid colors in that distinctive Western Publishing printing ink that just looked indescribably different from what fans of comics published out of Sparta, Illinois were accustomed to, frequently (but thankfully not in this instance) relying heavily on lots of unnatural-looking magenta, tagging the actors and topping the cover with a boring logo that looked like it belonged on 1960’s toy packaging. As you might have guessed, I’m not a fan.

The sole issue of COWBOY IN AFRICA was produced by the prolific scripter Paul S. Newman and illustrated by the Italian art team of penciler Giovanni Ticci and inker Alberto Giolitti. It’s based on an hour-long TV series that ran on ABC in the 1967-1968 season on Monday nights. The series starred Chuck Connors, better known for his two Western tv series The Rifleman and Branded, and was another production from Ivan Tors, who had a long career of producing kid-friendly film and television products, including Daktari, Flipper, Sea Hunt, Primus, and Gentle Ben, all of which had comic book adaptations published.

As with Daktari, Cowboy In Africa came to the television screens from a prior film release, in this case 1967’s Africa: Texas Style!, in which Hugh O’Brian portrayed Jim Sinclair, a 1960’s-era American cowboy hired to work on a ranch in Africa. For the small screen, the role was taken over by Connors, supported by Tom Nardini as Jim’s Navajo friend, John Henry, who accompanied him to the job, and Gerald Edwards as the native boy Samson, who is informally adopted by Jim Sinclair. Ronald Howard takes over the role of Commander Hayes, owner of the ranch where Jim is hired, from the film’s John Mills.

I never watched the show, which faced stiff competition from Gunsmoke and The Monkees airing at the same time on rival networks. If you’d like a taste of the series, here are the opening credits:



There is only one long story in this issue, “Roundup of Danger”:



(I’m pretty confident that Samson never rode a zebra on the tv series, as the attempt would probably have resulted in Gerald’s Edwards’ quick demise. Such a fate would have deprived us of the voice of Weird Harold on Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids, which seems to have been Edwards’ most memorable acting job.)

“Roundup of Danger” has Jim & co. heading to a local watering hole with governmental permission to capture some rhinos for their preserve. When Samson runs ahead to scout out the situation, he’s attacked by a charging rhino with a…green face?!

Indeed, it’s not just the rhinos, but all the animals that are now sick, crazed, and green:



The men soon find that the watering hole is polluted with some sort of green chemical, streaming in from the hills. They have to block off the watering hole and find the source before more animals are poisoned.

Jim traces the chemical to a canyon, from which he and John Henry are attacked by gunfire. We’re out of the usual jungle fare and squarely into Western trope territory now:



The culprits are fugitive German Nazis storing counterfeiting equipment, and it’s a tank of green ink leaking into the water supply which is responsible. Jim is interfering with their plans, and is targeted for death.
As the men are herding the runaway animals back to the ranch, the Nazis make their first strike, bombing Commander Hayes’ plane as the second chapter opens:



In the debris of the explosion, Jim finds evidence of a German land mine, putting him on the trail of local Germans. In town, he profiles all the Germans, and settles on the one wearing a monocle as the likely responsible party—always a good bet!—but the Germans take Samson as hostage to make their escape. They left behind a map, though, which reveals their destination: a mountain cave. Reaching that hideaway is challenging, but Jim’s cowboy skills allow him and the now-recovered John Henry to breach the villains’ lair and come to Samson’s rescue, capturing the counterfeiters.

At the story’s conclusion, the poisoned animals have been healed and are set free to return to the purified watering hole.

Well, I can’t rag on this one too much. It’s nothing special, but it’s competently done, with some decent likenesses of Chuck Connors, authentic wildlife, and a little more suspense and action than we saw in DAKTARI. As a genre blend, this strikes me as heavier on the Western element than on the jungle; the wildlife is mostly dressing on a familiar cowboy manhunt tale. Neither gem nor junk, I’m sure some kids got their dime and two cents’ worth out of this purchase.

Looking over the UNCLE and WWW covers, I can certainly believe that they were more interesting than the interiors may have been, given Gold Key's tendency to produce adaptations that were more sedate than the films and shows they were based on. And that distinctive aesthetic, so clearly apparent looking at thumbnail galleries:



was undoubtedly much more effective in the swinging 60's than it is now. But it still strikes me as tacky, especially when they settled for black & white photos, and given the poor capability of comics printing processes of the time to capture photographic quality.

EXCITING COMICS #55, May 1947 and #59, January 1948, (Pines)

You can read EXCITING COMICS #55 at comicbookplus.com.

EXCITING COMICS was not, per se, a jungle comic, but Judy of the Jungle took over as cover feature, displacing the better-remembered Black Terror, with issue 56, May 1947, just one issue after her debut (which included a cover cameo proudly promoting her introduction. Judy retained the cover position through issue 66, after which EXCITING opted to promote Western features on the covers of the remaining three issues in the run. Judy continued to appear inside, in both a comics story and a text story in issues 67-69, making her final original appearances in EXCITING COMICS #69, September 1949. With a two-year total run, most of it as the lead, Judy of the Jungle merits a sampling in a comprehensive review of American jungle comics. (And after a two-month break recovering from the fatiguing after-effects of jungle fever, this will be an easy one for me to get back into the swing of the vine!)



Judy’s initial appearance in EXCITING COMICS #55 benefited from the contributions of three memorable comics artists. Alex Schomburg drew the Black Terror cover which included the prominent Judy cameo.

Graham Ingels illustrated the contents page depicting the issue’s “exciting headliners in this issue.”



The introductory Judy of the Jungle installment was graced with the art of Ralph Mayo. While not among the most remembered Golden Age comics artists, Mayo did some very satisfying work, and excelled at rendering distinctive, individualized faces. His jungle scenery was not particularly lush or detailed, no, but it has an effective moodiness with heavy (if perhaps conveniently time-saving) use of solid blacks.

Mayo was the artist on almost all the Judy stories, which ran between 8 and 10 pages each. Judy also starred in all the text stories from issue 59 onwards, which included illustrations by Mayo as well as by Dan Gormley and Art Saaf.



The first thing that strikes me about the splash is the vine-entangled logo. It’s a unique concept, but the messy feel of it may be why no other jungle characters’ logos, that I can recall, tried it. I also wonder about “OF” being placed in the full scale font while “the” is diminished.

According to the opening panel, we’re in store for the first episode of “a new and dramatic adventure tale!” “Episode” suggests to me a serialized approach to the storytelling, and as we’ll see, that’s sort of what we’ll get, although that strategy shall backfire immediately, leading to the installments being conventionally standalone for the majority of Judy’s run.

The start of Judy’s origin is neither completely conventional nor Golden Age Bizarro. Yes, Judy is being raised by her widowed naturalist father in the African jungle, where she has become “completely at home”—old hat for jungle queens—but Judy’s Van Dyke-sporting pop tells her that “Because I never trusted my fellow men, I brought you up to despise people! Alas—how wrong I was!”
When Papa suggest that Judy might want to see the outer world, she declines the invitation, her love for her father keeping her there. The way Mayo chooses to depict Judy’s daughterly affections…well, let’s just say the possible consequences of isolation on Judy’s development could raise some concerns:




Later, Papa is collecting butterflies for the museum when he is startled by the arrival of white men in the jungle. The caption, evoking silent movie screen title cards, declares:
“Introducing Kurt von Saber, international gangster—and his killer crew!”

Concerned with keeping their presence a secret, von Saber immediately shoots Papa in the chest, and the crew moves on in search of a “place to commence operations.”
Judy, evidently already trained as a jungle queen, takes to the vines with her monkey, “Chan”, in search of her overdue father. She finds him dying, and his last words are for Judy to “live for revenge” and to “trust no man!”

Judy swears vengeance while cradling the head of her deceased father.

Meanwhile, von Saber and company happen upon a lone white man with a unibrow resting by a tree, about to pass out from thirst. This beefy thug is evidently less concerning than an old man with a butterfly net, because they let him live for a bit, putting off the inevitable murder for long enough to find a wanted poster on the man leading them to realize that this is “Pistol Roberts”, a wanted murderer—one of their own kind! Von Saber elects to aid the man and recruit him to their cause, not knowing that Judy is “on the vengeance trail,” tracking the villains’ easily-detected spoor.
That evening, Judy spies on the bad guys and sets fires in various spots around the camp:



Von Saber spots Judy, and sends men after her. She’s intent on their not returning alive, but she is cornered. Leaving Chan behind, she surrenders, but she refuses to speak.
Pistol Roberts insists that she’s “too pretty to kill—yet!” and convinces the gang to tie Judy up rather than shoot her. While the gang begins building a stockade, Roberts quietly frees Judy, but they are interrupted by von Saber, who has harbored suspicions against Roberts from the start. Together, Judy and Roberts disarm von Saber and flee. Roberts is an undercover “special government criminal agent”, not a murderer!

As the story winds down, Judy kills a jaguar that attacks Roberts, Roberts imposes an uninvited kiss on the beautiful redhead, and von Saber vows vengeance of his own:



While the closing caption promises Judy’s “crucial clash” in the next issue, due to a publishing snafu, the following issue instead printed the first installment of Judy’s second adventure, and her next encounter with von Saber was delayed until #57. The story which began in #56 was, consequently, continued in #58. Afterwards, Judy’s stories were self-contained. I can’t guess whether these errors in publication order led to the need for the fill-in artist who dropped in to illustrate the next episode, but it was too interesting a pinch-hitter for me to ignore.



Man, do I love that nicely-colored Alex Schomburg cover!

You can read EXCITING COMICS #59 at comicbookplus.com.

Okay, the fill-in artist brought in to illustrate Judy’s story in EXCITING COMICS #59 was the legendary Frank Frazetta. That should be “EXCITING” for sure, right? Frank Frazetta drawing a jungle queen?

Well… be aware that this is young Frazetta, still in his teens, dropping one of the t’s from his last name for some reason, and clearly enamored of and heavily influenced by Milt Caniff. There’s plenty of evidence of Frazetta’s remarkable talent, but faces, in particular, are quite Caniffesque.



“The Deadly Quest” is about a band of murderous men who intend to capture the legendary Judy of the Jungle for use as a circus attraction. The mastermind, Elliott, recruits jungle expert Red Adams to track her down “near the veldt on the Yazoo River”, where Judy is indeed currently located. She tells Pistol Roberts—who has by this point groomed down his unibrow--that the monkeys have summoned her to deal with a danger. Said danger proves to be a ferocious lion, and Judy slaughters this “evil prowler of the jungle” with her knife. So apparently Judy, like any good jungle heroine, can communicate with the animals…and she plays favorites, saving Angela the doe from death from a lion that was just doing what comes natural. An unusual silent panel draws a parallel between Judy and Pistol and Angela and her mate:



Spoiling Judy’s intervention in the Law of the Jungle, Red Adams and Elliott are nearby, and Red shoots Angela for dinner, which brings Elliott face to face with the object of his pursuit:



When Pistol Roberts intrudes with his own gunfire, Red draws a handgun and shoots Pistol Roberts. A pair of muscular natives capture Judy as she cries over Roberts’ dead body—but Pistol’s not dead after all, having suffered only a bullet-grazed head. He and Judy find themselves in a wooden cage, and Judy mimics an elephant mating call to attract a bull, who she convinces to free them:



The escape causes a conflict between Red and Elliott, leading to Red shooting his employer when Elliott refuses to pay for a botched capture. Red sets fire to the tent, intending to cover up his murder of the still-living Elliott.

In a poorly-thought-out finale, Judy, Pistol, and the elephant rescue Elliott and have the repentant would-be human trafficker escorted “safe to a white settlement” while Red Adams encounters a lion and is eaten alive before Judy’s ambivalent eyes:



What a strange conclusion! I had no sense that the reader was supposed to view Elliott as any less culpable and criminal than Red Adams. It was his plan and his financing, and even if he wasn’t the one pulling the trigger, he definitely took aim. But Judy treats his as a misguided man worthy of not just mercy but rescue. She’s apparently over her vow to “live for revenge” and “trust no man”!

Judy also gets the text story in this issue:



Pistol Roberts is working to prevent an uprising of the Haussa natives in British West Africa. The Haussas were considered “some of the most trustworthy forces in the British Colonial Army”, according to Judy, but they are being agitated by a medicine man named Wabongi, who is financed by Fascist forces in Europe.

Wabongi is avoiding detection by having all the Haussa warriors, as well as himself, dressed in identical headdress and body paint. Roberts’ challenge is to distinguish Wabongi from among the horde, hoping that his ability to do so will so impress the superstitious natives that it will resolve the situation.

Judy is confident in her own ability to ferret out the ringleader, and they discuss her potentially dangerous plan.

Judy intrudes on the warriors, proclaiming peaceful intent and a willingness to assist the Haussa. The man who speaks to refuse her offer is the one she identifies as Wabongi. She butters him up:
“Wabongi is a great man. One day he will rule all Africa. He will be like Chaka of the Zulus who was a friend of the great Napoleon.”

When the man protests that he is not Wabongi, but just another warrior, Judy claims to be an all-knowing goddess. She attempts to encourage Wabongi, who has admitted to his identity, to call for the ritual dance, but he insists on waiting for the supply of guns coming in a few days.

Judy instead volunteers to perform the “dance of delight”, and the men, of course, are all for that dance!

Her presumably erotic dance lasts for twenty minutes, until Pistol Roberts bluffs from outside the camp that they are surrounded by the Jungle Patrol of the United Nations, who are seeking the surrender of Wabongi. The warriors deny the existence of any Wabongi, but Roberts enters the circle (calling back to his non-present army to continue the charade) and picks out Wabongi.

As to plan, this impresses the natives, who surrender the troublemaker. How did he identify Wabongi? Judy’s dance had incorporated “deaf and dumb sign language” through which she identified Wabongi to the spying Pistol Roberts.

This was far from the worst obligatory text story I’ve seen in these old comics, and I could imagine kids actually reading through this one. Some of the language is offensive by current standards, but the implication of eroticism spiced this up a bit, and wouldn’t have been as easily spotted by parents leafing through their kids’ purchases!

I lean toward declaring Judy of the Jungle a Jungle Gem, with some reservations. Based on these samples, the stories are clumsy, but the heightened violence and erratic but surprising aspects of the stories make this a fun feature that I’m eager to keep reading.

Now that the jungle drums have resumed their beating, I hope to make a lot of progress on my quest to sample all of the American jungle comics over the coming weeks. I’ve got 26 more series on my list to sample, several of which will be combined into single posts, when it makes sense (and at least one of which I promise you won’t be able to predict!). There are:
7 Fox comics
6 Marvel/Atlas comics
3 Fiction House comics
3 DC comics
2 Star comics
2 Western Publishing comics
1 Magazine Enterprises comic