Jungle Jim is the fictional hero of a series of jungle adventures in various media. The series began on January 7, 1934 as an American newspaper comic strip chronicling the adventures of Asia-based hunter Jim Bradley, who was nicknamed Jungle Jim. The character also trekked through radio, film, comic book and television adaptations. Notable was a series of films and television episodes in which Johnny Weissmuller portrayed the safari-suit wearing character, after hanging up his Tarzan loincloth. The strip concluded on August 8, 1954.
Publication history
The strip was created by King Features Syndicate in order to compete with the popular United Feature Syndicatecomic stripTarzan, by Hal Foster. Illustrator Alex Raymond and pulp magazine author Don Moore created the original strip as a topper to run above Raymond's Flash Gordon. Jungle Jim and Flash Gordon were launched simultaneously on January 7, 1934. The character was named after Alex's brother Jim Raymond. During World War II, artist Raymond enlisted as a Marine. Successors included John Mayo and Paul Norris. Don Moore continued to script through the succession of artists. The strip, which never ran as a daily, came to an end in 1954. From 1937 to 1947, the comic strip was reprinted in Ace Comics, published by David McKay. From 1949 to 1951, there were 11 original Jungle Jim comic books produced by Standard Comics. Dell Comics published 20 issues of Jungle Jim from 1953 to 1959; the last eight issues were written by Gaylord Du Bois. King Features Syndicate published a single issue of Jungle Jim in 1967. This was designated #5 and was a reprint of Dell's issue #5 with a new cover by Wally Wood. Charlton Comics then picked up Dell's numbering for another seven issues in 1969–70 with stories scripted by Wood, Pat Boyette, Bhob Stewart, Joe Gill and others. Artists on the Charlton stories were Wood, Boyette, Steve Ditko, Roger Brand and Tom Palmer. In January 2015, Dynamite Entertainment announced a new series of Jungle Jim as part of their "King:Dynamite" series. This version of Jungle Jim is written by Paul Tobin and illustrated by Sandy Jarrell.
Characters and story
Unlike the protagonists of Tarzan, Ka-Zar, Kaanga and other comics with jungle themes, Jim Bradley was based in Southeastern Asia rather than Africa, and he was a hunter rather than a wild man in a loincloth. Other characters included the large, strong native Kolu. The femme fatale Lille DeVrille was added to the cast two years after the strip's debut. The comic's early years generally featured stories revolving around pirates, slave traders and other common jungle antagonists. As World War II approached, Jungle Jim, like many American comics, developed a wartime theme, with Jim fighting the Japanese, and it moved from its position as a topper strip to its own independent Sunday page.
Other media
Radio
Syndicated by Hearst and sponsored by the Comic Weekly, The Adventures of Jungle Jim radio series premiered November 2, 1935. Matt Crowley had the title role for three years, until Gerald Mohr stepped in as Jungle Jim beginning April 24, 1938. Vicki Vola and Franc Hale portrayed Shanghai Lil, and Juano Hernandez was the Hindu servant Kolu. Each episode ran 15 minutes. Several episodes were based directly on the comic strip, such as The Ghost of the Java Sea. Gene Stafford scripted for producer Jay Clark. Glenn Riggs was the announcer, among others. In the opening episode, "The Bat Woman," Jungle Jim meets Miss Chalmers, and Jacques LaBarr gets into a barroom fight with Jim.
Columbia Pictures produced a series of 16 Jungle JimB-movies from 1948 to 1955, set in Africa and starring Johnny Weissmuller, who had gained fame playing Tarzan. In the last three of these movies, the name "Jungle Jim" was not used. Rather the main character was referred to in the films as "Johnny Weissmuller", with Weissmuller essentially playing an idealized version of himself, as did cowboy stars Roy Rogers and Gene Autry. This was because these three features were produced concurrently with a "Jungle Jim" TV series starring Weissmuller produced by Columbia's Screen Gems and the series had the rights to "Jungle Jim."
A single-season Screen Gems television series ran in 1955–56, as Jungle Jim. There were 26 episodes, all starring Weissmuller.
