(1944) “The Menacing Medicine Man”

Mystery Comics #2 (September 1944) offers up Zudo the Jungle Boy’s second adventure. The author is not known but Ken Battlefield provided the artwork. The pre-Code violence of this strip may be shocking to those used to Silver Age DC and Marvel Comics. The villains gun down Africans, while the lion and spears finish off […]

(1945-1947) Toka the Jungle King

Ray A. Palmer, editor of Fantastic Adventures, was always on the look-out for a good Edgar Rice Burroughs clone. He published the actual ERB in novellas from 1940 to 1943. But Palmer wanted more. Robert Moore Williams took on the task and began the Jongor trilogy in the Pellucidar vein in October 1940, penning two […]

(1950) Farewell Edgar Rice Burroughs

Edgar Rice Burroughs died on March 19, 1950. To the mainstream this fact might have been a half-inch in the newspapers, but to fans of fantastic literature it was felt deeply. Here is the tribute Ray A. Palmer published on the inside covers (usually dedicated to paying advertising) of Other Worlds #5 (July 1950) to […]

Doc Savage in the Jungle

One naturally thinks of Doc Savage and the jungle since his father Clark Savage Sr. found the gold fortune in Hidalgo. The very first (and several later) adventure took place in the jungles of South or Central America. Lester Dent, who wrote under the name “Kenneth Robeson”, liked to switch the locales around so he […]

(1947-1948) Jungle Lord – Part 2

These comics are in the public domain. Issue 30 Issue 31 Issue 32 Issue 33 Issue 35 Issue 37 Issue 38 Issue 41

(1947-1948) Jungle Lord – Part 1

Published fortnightly in the British weekly, Comet, “Jungle Lord” graced the front page during 1947 and 1948. Exact dates are hard to find but the strip was begun before Issue 19 in May 30, 1947, and went as long as April 1948. The strip was drawn by Reg Beaumont and written by his younger brother, […]

(1949) “Jungle Drums”

“Jungle Drums” appeared in Thrilling Comics #71 (April 1949), seventy years ago. It was written by Western writer, Donald Bayne Hobart. Hobart wrote filler stories for the comics published by his Pulp chain, Nedor. He produced dozens of these one or two page stories for all kinds of comics. His best are usually Westerns or […]

(1932-1934) Tarzan, the Radio Show

James Pierce played Tarzan in the 1927 film, Tarzan and the Golden Lion. In 1928 he married his co-star, Joan Burroughs. Yup, Edgar Rice Burroughs’ daughter. So to keep the family franchise going, it made sense for Pierce to continue his connection with Tarzan with a radio show. The show premiered September 12, 1932 and […]

(1962) Hatari

Director: Howard Hawks Writer: Leigh Brackett Starring: John Wayne, Hardy Kruger, Elsa Martinelli, Red Buttons, Gerald Blain, Bruce Cabot and Michelle Giradon. This multi-character adventure follows Sean (John Wayne) and his band of helpers as they capture animals the hard way (no tranquilizers here!) for zoos. To complicate things an Italian photographer (Elsa Martinelli) joins […]

(1939-1954) Ki-Gor

Ki-Gor was a Tarzan clone who headlined in the Jungle Stories Pulp. As Don Hutchison points out in The Great Pulp Heroes (1996), Ki-Gor was a very successful Pulp Jungle Lord because he was featured in so many novels, even more than Tarzan. Jungle Stories achieved this by stealing the best of the formula from […]