LEGENDARY HEROES #19

JUNGLE JIM


The comic strip "Jungle Jim" was created by Alex Raymond as the "topper" for his main feature "Flash Gordon", and both strips debuted on January 7, 1934.  Alex named the character for his brother, fellow cartoonist Jim Raymond who assisted Chic Young on "Blondie".  (Jim Raymond took over drawing the "Blondie" strip in 1950 when Young's eyesight diminished, though he never received a byline until Young's death).  Unlike the other jungle comics of the time that were set in Africa, Alex Raymond established the locale of his strip in Malaysia in the South Pacific.  Jungle Jim Bradley was a big game hunter who was assisted on his safaris by his native friend Kolu.  The comic was always a Sunday feature, never a daily, and the adventure stories centered around pirates, slave traders, and other dastardly villains.  During WWII Jungle Jim joined the cause and fought against the Japanese.  In 1944 creator Alex Raymond volunteered for active duty in the Pacific when he joined the Marines and John Mayo took over the job of illustrating the strip.  At this time the strip had moved from being a "topper" to having it's own individual page in the Sunday comics.  Paul Norris, creator of Aquaman, took over the illustrating duties in 1948 and continued until the strip ended in 1954.

"The Adventures of Jungle Jim" debuted on radio on November 2, 1935 in the timeslot vacated by "Flash Gordon", and proved to be one of the more successful comic-adapted shows, running on radio until 1954.  Matt Crowley was the voice of Jim until 1938 when he was replaced by actor Gerald Mohr, and film actor Juano Hernandez portrayed Kolu.  Each episode was 15 minutes in length and several of the plotlines were based on the comic stories, like "The Bat Woman" and "The Ghost of the Java Sea".  The newspaper strips were reprinted in Big Little Books and Ace Comics from 1937-1947.  Standard Comics released a series from 1949-1951 with original content and DC Comics published a series from 1953-1959.  In the mid-1960s King Features published several titles of their most popular comics like "Flash Gordon", "The Phantom", and "Mandrake the Magician", and they printed a single issue of "Jungle Jim" with an original cover by Wally Wood.  The series then moved to Charlton Comics with original stories and artwork by Wood, Pat Boyette, and Steve Ditko.

Universal Studios released a 12-chapter movie serial starring Grant Withers in 1937, but Columbia Pictures began producing a series of 16 movies starring Johnny Weissmuller as Jim in 1948.  Weissmuller, fresh from his long run of Tarzan films, took over the Jungle Jim franchise which ran until 1955 when he moved to the small screen in 26 episodes of the Jungle Jim TV series produced by Screen Gems that ended in 1956.  In 1957 Marx toys released a Jungle Jim playset with characters from the strip along with generic jungle figures of hunters, natives, and wild animals.  The 4400th Combat Crew Training Squadron adopted Jungle Jim as a code name and later a nickname for their unit.  The 4400th was renamed the 1st Air Commando Group in early 1961 and their members wore Jungle Jim style safari hats.



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