Zegra the Jungle Empress. Fox Features Syndicate.

I've always wondered about jungle girl comics. How come you never see a hideously scarred jungle girl? With all the half-naked bushwacking they do, you'd think they'd just be covered head to toe with scars.

Take Zegra, for instance. Here she is getting ambushed by a tiger whilst straddling a tree limb in knee length grass. Unless she's extremely lucky, the chances of her emerging from a tiger fight completely unscathed seem remote, particularly since it looks like she bought that knife at a gas station. Since jungle girls battle tigers, lions, jaguars, and gorillas on a daily basis, it seems like Zegra would be a mass of scar tissue and weeping wounds.

What's your secret, Zegra? Aloe?

Labels: comics that need to be published again

Tragg and the Sky Gods. Gold Key Comics.

How is it that Tragg and the Sky Gods has not been continually published for 40+ years, spawning video games and spin-off comics and cartoons and major motion pictures? Who wouldn't want to read a caveman vs aliens comic? What the hell does Turok have that Tragg doesn't?

Aside from genitalia, I mean.

This was the issue where Tragg had his manhood bitten off by a generic dinosaur type monster. Sure, Tragg managed to beat the dinomonstroid to death with a rock, but when you win a dinosaur fight but lose your penis? That's what you call "winning the battle but losing the war."

OK, I'm starting to see why Turok had more staying power than Tragg.

Labels: comics that need to be published again

Toka, Jungle King, Dell Comics.

"I must save my strength. Worse dangers lie ahead." Toka knows how to pace himself and conserve energy. He probably just doesn't want to kill his buzz.

I find this cover mystifying. Did one of those savage jungle queens tie Toka's ankle to a log? Does Toka always speak in a monotone stoner voice, with no exclamation points? Why couldn't they have actually drawn the stake or post that the damsel is tied to? Can you really put a jaguar in a sleeper hold? Are slavery, death, and civilization equally deadly choices? One seems much deadlier than the others (hint: death).

Toka: the comic book that entertains and makes you think. Clearly this needs to be published again.

Labels: comics that need to be published again

Kona, Monarch of Monster Isle from Dell Comics.

Either Kona is a tiny little man who is saving equally tiny people from a giant cat, or holy shit look at the size of that tabby!

Are primitive weapons "the only hope" against the monster cat, as the cover suggests? 'Cause I'm guessing Kona wouldn't say no to anti-tank weapon at this point.

Labels: comics that need to be published again