Jungle Tales (later called Jann of the Jungle) is an American comic book title published by Atlas Comics, the 1950s predecessor to Marvel Comics. It was an anthology title of stories set in an jungle.
Publication history
Jungle Tales ran seven issues,
September 1954 to September 1955.
[ Jungle Tales #1 (Sept. 1954) at the Grand Comics Database] It was renamed and continued as
Jann of the Jungle from #8-17 (Nov. 1955 – June 1957), starring the
title character jungle girl.
[ Jungle Tales, at the Grand Comics Database.]
Marvel's first series star of color
One regular feature in
Jungle Tales, "Waku, Prince of the Bantu", starred an African chieftain in
Africa,
with no regularly featured
Caucasian race characters. Marvel Comics' first Black feature star,
he was created by writer
Don Rico and artist
Ogden Whitney, succeeded by artist John Romita Sr. Waku, who predated mainstream comics' first Black superhero, Marvel's Black Panther, by nearly a dozen years, headlined one of four regular features in each issue. It would take a decade for the first African-American series star, the
Western comics character Lobo, to appear, and nearly two decades before the likes of the Black Panther,
Luke Cage, and the Falcon would star in solo series.
The other features were "Jann of the Jungle", created by writer Rico and penciler Art Peddy; "Cliff Mason" a.k.a. "Cliff Mason, White Hunter", created by Paul S. Newman and penciler Sid Greene; and "The Unknown Jungle", featuring stories of African animals and nature in conflict.
Collected editions
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| Marvel Masterworks Atlas Era Jungle Adventure, Vol. 2 | Jungle Tales #1-4, Lorna the Jungle Girl #10-12, Jungle Action #1-3 | June 2011 | |
| Marvel Masterworks Atlas Era Jungle Adventure, Vol. 3 | Jungle Tales #5-7, Lorna the Jungle Girl #13-16, Jungle Action #4-6) | March 2013 | |
Additional Atlas jungle titles
Two brethren titles were published by Atlas. The six-issue
Jungle Action (Oct. 1954 - Aug. 1955) featured "Lo-Zar, Lord of the Jungle"; "Jungle Boy"; "Leopard Girl"; and "Man-Oo the Mighty".
[ Jungle Action, Marvel, 1954 series, at the Grand Comics Database.] The second title,
Lorna, the Jungle Queen, renamed
Lorna, the Jungle Girl with issue #6, ran 26 issues (July 1953 - Aug. 1957).
[ Lorna, the Jungle Queen and Lorna, the Jungle Queen at the Grand Comics Database.]
External links
