Dinosaurs in the Pulps

If you’re like me you grew up with dinosaurs. Any show, any cartoon, any comic, any book with a dino was a sure thing. If you were lucky you got to go to place like Brooks or Drumheller, Alberta and experience the Badlands, and all things paleo. If you are my son’s age, it was […]

(1948) “So Near Yet Safari” – Part 1

Abbott & Costello Comics #2 (April 1948) predates one of Abbott & Costello’s classic films, Africa Screams (1949). Sadly, the film doesn’t have a sexy jungle girl in it, but it did feature cameos by Clyde Beatty and Frank Buck. In the comics we meet Tawana the Jungle Girl who resembles Rulah with black hair. […]

(1953) Jungle Poison

“Jungle Poison” was written by an unknown writer for Terrors of the Jungle #6 (September 1953). This comic is in the public domain.

(1951) Tarzan Radio

1951 saw the third attempt at a Tarzan Radio show, this time starring Lamont Johnson. It ran for 52 episodes on CBS from March 22, 1952 – June 27, 1953. Produced by Walter White Jr. Written by Bud Lesser Music by Albert Glasser Listen to episodes here.

(1914) The Mahars

“Involuntarily I shrank back as one of the creatures approached to inspect us. A more hideous thing it would be impossible to imagine. The all-powerful Mahars of Pellucidar are great reptiles, some six or eight feet in length, with long narrow heads and great round eyes. Their beak-like mouths are lined with sharp, white fangs, […]

(1912) The Lost World Illustrations

Arthur Conan Doyle is ever-remembered as the author of the Sherlock Holmes stories but his second most famous tale is certainly The Lost World (serialized in The Strand in April-November 1912 and illustrated by Harry Rountree). This book shaped the future writings of Edgar Rice Burroughs and hundreds of others. For better or worse, it […]

(1938) “Leiningen Versus the Ants”

Stephenson’s classic adventure tale of a man fighting an army of ants was required reading in high school for years as an example of “Man Vs. His Environment” theme. The story has Leiningen and his workers trying to survive an invasion of army ants. The tale was published in Esquire, December 1938. “The hostile army […]

Arthur O. Friel (1887-1959)

Arthur Olney Friel was a writer of jungle adventure stories for Adventure magazine. Unlike Edgar Rice Burroughs and his many imitators, Friel was actually an explorer, having spent six months on Venezuela’s Orinoco River. His short story series features two explorers named Pedro and Lourenco. These stories use natural and supernatural creatures of the jungle. […]

(1887) Ayesha, She-Who-Must-Be-Obeyed

H. R. Haggard’s second great series is not as long as the Allan Quatermain saga but just as important in the development of “Romance” in fiction. (I use “Romance”, not in the way of a man and woman falling in love, but as a branch of fiction that is not realistic. The Henry James school […]

(1952) “Revenge of Blood”

Terrors of the Jungle was published by Star Publications, a reprint comic publisher. Taking their comics from previous fare such as Rulah and Camilla comics, they repacked the comics of the 1940s for the 1950s. The fiction fillers for each issue were not reprints but new stories. Unfortunately we don’t know who wrote them. “Revenge […]