Zago is blond Tarzan wanna-be with a zoftig brunette mate named Wanna who bears a startling resembalnce to Sheena. Zago began in Zago #1 from Fox Feature Publication and continued for only another three bimonthly issues. He also appeared once in Rulah, Jungle Goddess #22. Zago seems to be popular with the ladies -- Wanna was replaced with Mabu, then with Lola. Three mates in five issues may be a record! (It should be noted that by "mate" is meant "female companion" and that Zagu, in his basic chopped English, refers each lady as "her" or "woman." It should also be noted that, in this issue, a native chief -- quite black -- refers to Wana -- strikingly white -- as his "daughter;" we also see another of the "native" women racing through the village and she's white and as voluptuoous as Wana, both wearing two-piece outfits, one tiger patterned and one leopard patterned. Jungle ladies were certainly knockouts in the Golden Age of Comics.)
Anyway, there's this mad scientist and his madder wife who create a race of killer robots with which to take over the world. Is there any better place to do this than deep in the African jungle? After having one of the robots kill a native, the wife shoots her husband because she no longer needs him. She then sends her robot army through the jungle to destroy Zago and the native village. To show how tough the robots are, they slaughter along the way one lion, one python, one jaguar, one gorilla, and one silhoetted large cat that may have been another lion. They also kidnap Wana, who is tied to a stake for no discernable reason. Spears and knifes have no effect on these strange "square men" -- no one in Africa knows what a robot is, I guess. It's up to Zago to find a way to defeat the robots. Well, all but one robot. It turns out the murderous wife is inside this one, controlling it. The robot of course rends her into little pieces because "Evil will always be the loser when fortune's wheel is spun."
Pfew!
In this, Zago's initial outing, we are given no backstory or origin or any sort of rationale. A white jungle prince as a guardian of a native tribe is all that you need to know.
(The cover art on this issue features the goofiest looking leopards that ever graced a comic book. You have been warned.)
Also in this issue is
- An adventure of Toni Luck, a pluky young reporter who goes where government agents dare not.
- A story about Dan Garret (the Blue Beetle) as he goes against the lethal Cobra Woman
- A one-pager about Hall, the "Plaid Clad Killer," who meets his just end in the gas chamber.
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