LEGENDARY HEROES #28

SHEENA, QUEEN OF THE JUNGLE

In the late 1930s two popular forms of media came into existence - paperbacks and comic books.  Comic books were so popular that publishers were scrambling to get into the market with their own titles.  While the original comic books were mostly reprints of newspaper comic strips, publishers recognized the need for original material.  To help fill that need was the enterprising comic art studio of Jerry Iger and Will Eisner.  They produced comics on demand for publishers and syndicates.  And Will Eisner created "Sheena, Queen of the Jungle" for the British magazine Wags which debuted in issue #46 in January 1938.  Sheena was distributed to Wags by the Editors Press Service and to conceal the fact that the Iger - Eisner studio only consisted of the two of them, Eisner signed the stories "W. Morgan Thomas".  Sheena came to the United States in September 1938 in Jumbo Comics #1 published by Fiction House and appeared in every issue after that until April 1953.  She also had her own groundbreaking 18 issue spin-off "Sheena, Queen of the Jungle" that ran from Spring 1942 until Winter 1952, and became the first female comic book character to have her own title.  Sheena beat Wonder Woman in that regards.  Sheena also appeared in Fiction House's "Ka'a'nga" #16 in the Summer of 1952 and in a 3-D comic published in 1953.  Fiction House, originally a pulp magazine publisher, featured her in her own pulp "Stories of Sheena" in Spring 1951, and ran fiction stories in "Jungle Stories" in Spring 1954.

  

Sheena was the young, blonde daughter of Cardwell Rivington, the African explorer.  Cardwell dies accidentally after drinking a potion made by a witch doctor and Sheena is orphaned in the strange continent.  Koba, the native witch doctor who accidentally caused her father's death, raises the girl and teaches her the ways of the jungle.  She learns how to survive and possesses the ability to communicate with wild animals.  She is also proficient at fighting with knives, spears, and bow and arrows.  As an adult she acquires a monkey sidekick named Chim and a boyfriend, the great white hunter Bob Reynolds.  Originally she was costumed in a simple red dress but by issue #10 of Jumbo Comics she had acquired her iconic leopard skin outfit.  In her years of African adventures Sheena fought everything under the sun including hostile natives, hostile animals, giants, a super ape, sabre tooth tigers, voodoo cultists, gorilla men, devil apes, blood cults, devil queens, dinosaurs, army ants, lion men, lost races, leopard birds, cavemen, serpent gods, vampire apes...I think you get the idea.  Sheena was a busy lady!

Sheena became a syndicated TV series during the 1955-1956 season starring Irish McCalla, and a 1984 movie by Columbia Pictures with Tanya Roberts.  Irish McCalla (1928-2002) was born in Pawnee City, Nebraska and was one of 8 siblings.  The family moved often and travelled from Des Moines to Omaha before returning to Pawnee City where Irish graduated from high school.  At age 17 she joined some of her siblings in Southern California where she worked as a waitress at an aircraft factory.  Throughout the 1950s Irish McCalla appeared on the covers and in pictorials of "girlie" magazines like "Eve", "Cavalier" and "Frolic".  Part of her modeling career was as a "Varga Girl" for pin-up artist Alberto Vargas.  In 1951 she married an insurance salesman with whom she had two sons, and by 1952 she was one of the country's top pin-up models.  Then in 1955 she was discovered by Nassour Studios while throwing a bamboo spear on the beach at Malibu.  She was chosen to play Sheena for the TV series.  Said McCalla, "I couldn't act, but I could swing through trees".  The 26-episode series was filmed in Mexico and she performed her own stunts.  One day she grabbed an unsecured vine and slammed into a tree and broke her arm.  Her oldest son recalls watching her on set as she swung from vine to vine and wrestled with mechanical alligators.  After "Sheena" Irish made five movies and appeared in the TV shows of "Have Gun, Will Travel" and "Route 66".

Irish McCalla became an artist and painted numerous oils and collector plates, and sold prints of her works.  She was a member of the Women Artists of the American West and her work was displayed at the Los Angeles Museum of Arts and Sciences.  She has a star on the Hollywood walk of Fame on Vine Street, and asteroid 83464 Irishmccalla is named in her memory.  Irish McCalla died at age 73 of a stroke and complications from her fourth brain tumor.  The popularity of Sheena inspired countless imitation comic book jungle heroines, but there was only one true Queen of the Jungle.  In a 1994 issue of "The Realist" author Carol Hatfield wrote about the TV series - "Sheena was the only female portrayed on the tube who didn't conform to the fifties stereotype.  Sheena was a real rugged individualist.  Watching her struggle with a new adventure every week made me feel more capable at a time when everything was so unexplored.  If she could handle the jungle, I felt sure that I could handle my world".