LEGENDARY HEROES #7

NYOKA, THE JUNGLE GIRL


The creation of "Nyoka, the Jungle Girl" is an interesting one.  Republic pictures released a 15-chapter serial in 1941 titled "Jungle Girl" that gave partial writing credit to Edgar Rice Burroughs of Tarzan fame.  Burroughs' short story "The Land of Hidden Men" was published in the May 1931 issue of the pulp Blue Book.  Burroughs expanded his own short story into the Lost World novel "Jungle Girl" published in 1932.  The novel was set in Cambodia and the title character was an Asian princess named Fou-Tan.  The novel bears no resemblance to the 1941 movie serial, nor is there any character in the novel named Nyoka.  The only similarity is the title "Jungle Girl" which resulted in a writing credit for Burroughs.  

The serial "Jungle Girl" had as it's heroine Nyoka Meredith, a white woman living in Africa and starring Frances Gifford in the title role.  Filming took place from March 25 to May 9, 1941, a total of 45 days.  This was the longest shoot of any Republic serial produced that year, and the most expensive.  It came in over-budget at a cost of over $177,000, which was a lot of money for a serial.  But the feature was successful and Republic produced a sequel in 1942 called "Perils of Nyoka" that starred Kay Aldridge in the title role.  Supposedly, Frances Gifford was not available as she had moved on to feature film roles.  Edgar Rice Burroughs received no writing credit for this film as Jungle Girl was avoided in the title.  Most of the 1942 film was filmed at the Iverson Movie Ranch in Chatsworth, California as a substitute for darkest Africa.  The 15-chapter film had a total run time of 261 minutes (over 4 hours) and was recut as a 100 minute film that was released to television in 1966.

More successful than the movies was the comic book version of Nyoka that was published by Fawcett Comics beginning in Winter 1942 with art by illustrator Harry Anderson, and running until June 1953.  In the comics Nyoka fought a variety of criminals including gorillas with transplanted human brains, and Nyoka's main nemesis The Vulture, queen of a band of Arabian bandits whose bodyguard was a giant gorilla named Satan.  Fawcett sold the rights to Nyoka to Charlton Comics who launched "Nyoka, Jungle Girl" in November 1955.  It ceased publication exactly two years later.  30 years later, Charlton sold the rights to AC Comics which published "The Further Adventures of Nyoka the Jungle Girl" with a five issue run in 1988.  If Nyoka is remembered at all today, it's probably for inspiring several jungle heroines over the coming years.



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