Number 1532: What about Bob?

Bob is some kind of unlucky guy, or maybe he’s just dumb...or maybe he plans it to prove Sheena’s love for him...but I’ll be damned if he doesn’t get in a lot of messes that force her to rescue him. In this case he’s being rescued from a witch doctor’s daughter who gives him a choice of being with her or being stomped by an elephant. I know what my answer in that situation would be, but Bob is more noble than that. Sheena is is his woman, and besides, she rescues him at least every month in Jumbo Comics. Bob, who likes a strong woman, will stick with Sheena.

The witch doctor’s daughter appears to revive the dead, but she apparently also has the power to change her skin color. The splash page and end of the story show her as Caucasian, in the rest of the story she’s not. Did anyone check the colorist’s work before it went to the engraver? That is an editor’s job.

From Jumbo Comics #83 (1946), drawn by Robert Webb:

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More Sheena here. Just click on the thumbnails:

Number 1465: Jungle royalty

Queen of the jungle and princess of the jungle are mighty highfalutin titles for women wearing abbreviated costumes and swinging through trees, wouldn’t you say? I guess it all started off with Tarzan, who was really England’s Lord Greystoke, and back home in Africa known as Lord of the Jungle. Sometime in the thirties when Sheena was created it sounded good to say “Sheena, Queen of the Jungle.” The name and title roll off the tongue. It wouldn’t sound right to have her called “Lady Sheena” or even a title like “Sheena, Duchess of the Jungle.” They just don’t have the same ring, do they?

So Sheena was queen and Taanda, who came along later and could not be queen because Sheena was queen, was the white princess of the jungle. I’ve got stories featuring both of these royal jungle gals today.

Sheena’s story is from Jumbo Comics #101 (1947), and Taanda is featured in a cover story from Avon’s White Princess of the Jungle #4 (1952). The Sheena art is by Robert Webb, the Taanda artist is unknown by the Grand Comics Database.

Number 1343: Sheena, I seen ya

This is the third entry in our Jungle Jive theme week.

When it came to blonde queens of the jungle, Sheena was the blondest and the queenest. She was the original, created by Will Eisner, with the beauty and attributes of female villains found in Eisner’s Spirit stories, wrapped in leopard-skins; a voluptuous woman holding court over her queendom of the jungle. Do not mess with Sheena, pal, because she will knock you out, then chase you off.

I wonder about her mate, Bob. I mean...Bob. My brother’s name is Bob. Bob is a perfectly good name, but to share a throne with a queen? Bob, King of the Jungle? I don’t think so. It’s no wonder Sheena keeps Bob kind of behind, under her protection. She is stronger, smarter and she has a wicked punch. She doesn’t need Bob to take care of the innumerable evil white men who invade her corner of the jungle. Unlike Greg, who is boyfriend to Lorna the jungle girl, whom we saw Monday, Bob isn’t a male chauvinist. He likes being submissive to his queen, and I’ve said this before: maybe a lot of guys who read Sheena during the '40s wished they had a big blonde woman to submit to. Perhaps a 6’2” Sheena could tuck me under her arm and swing me through the treetops. That wouldn’t be the worst way to spend a Sunday afternoon.

Drawn by Robert H. “Bob” Webb, from Jumbo Comics #127 (1949):

Number 1083


"Our wrath shall be written in thunder and flame!"


Sheena deserves credit for consistency. From the time she was created by the Eisner-Iger Studio she stayed much the same: blonde jungle queen going about said jungle in an imaginary Africa, helping out natives who apparently need to be saved on a fairly regular basis. This episode, "Viper Gods of Vengeance Veldt!" doesn't deviate from that template. White people posing as gods in a plot to steal native treasure? How many times have you seen that one?

The guys for whom Fiction House comics were aimed were interested in sexy women, not the story, and in the Sheena stories those sexy babes were provided by longtime Sheena artist, Robert H. Webb.

From Jumbo Comics #102, 1947: