Saturday, July 29, 2023

WILD BOY #2 or #11, TAKE YOUR PICK (APRIL-MAY 1951)

 There's a bit of confusion here.  Wild Boy #1, a Ziff-Davis comic book, is given as Wild Boy #10; issue #2 is given as #11; and issue #3 is given as issue #12.  Issue #4 has the correct issue number; the correct issue number is given for the rest of the book's run, ending with issue #15.  This means that the coverissue numbers of two separate issues for #1, #2, and #3 are repeated for #10, #11, and #13.  Also, beginning with issue #8, the books title was changed to Wild Boy of the Congo; and with issue #9, the publisher changed to St. John Publishing.

So who was Wild Boy?  Well, he's the Prince of the Jungle and he has no other name.  Naturally, a comic book Prince of the Jungle has to be white and (optional) have long blonde hair.  Wild Boy is a bit of a misnomer because he is a man, not a boy.  His best friend is Keeto, a native who wears a red shirt and breechcloths.  Keeto has a girlfriend, Lura.  Wild Boy is friends with the good gorillas and various apes.  He works to keep peace among the jungle tribes.  He has a panther named Timba and a falcon names Kaw.  He's pretty strong, can swing through trees, and all-in-all is your typical jungle lord, although perhaps a little on the blah side.  I have no idea what Wild Boy's backstory is, or even if he has one.

In this issue, Wild Boy must go against the evil witch doctor Zabba and fight a maddened gorilla.  In the second story, Wild Boy is with a film crew when they are captured by a tribe of hostile pygmies and a renegade trader named Zarkow.  In the final story, Jogo, the nephew of the chirf of the Kowi's returns and begins working a diamond mine that brings misery to the tribe.

On addition, there's a story featuring jungle guide Joe Barton, who is hired to lead Mr. Parmalee, his daughter Nan, and her fiance Cecil Hathaway into gorilla country.  But Hathaway is a pure-dee sumbitch and proves it on the safari.  It's up to Joe Barton to put him in his place.

Some good artwork by Paul Hodge and a striking cover by Norman Saunders.

Enjoy.


https://comicbookplus.com/?dlid=85571&comicpage=&b=i

1 comment:

  1. Usually this means a mailing permit for some suspended title was shunted over, but that chaos of numbering seems bad even when such games were played...

    ReplyDelete