For
most of the Golden Age there was a subgenre of comics that was
dependable and commercial; jungle tales. Damned near every publisher
had a strip that featured a white jungle lord or princess. To share
any of this stuff we need to face the basic fact that these works are
fundamentally racist. In almost every case the Caucasian lead is
superior to the dark skinned native population. Typically the lead is
fair and just whereas the aboriginals are cruel and savage. Now if
were can admit this sin and judge the tales solely on the quality of
the narrative and the art, then some features were better than the
rest. One of these, in my opinion, was the Magazine Enterprises comic
CAVE GIRL.
The
feature ran for four issues beginning in 1953 as a kind of companion
book to THUNDA. The latter title was a heavily Burroughs influenced
strip that was co-created by Gardner Fox and Frank Frazetta.
Frank
only did the first issue and then the art chores were given to the
talented veteran, Bob Powell. Powell had been a co-creator of the
queen of the female jungle characters, Sheena. His chores on Thunda
combined with his long stint on Sheena made Powell the obvious choice
to guide the new strip. Like Thunda, Cave Girl was highly informed by
the work of ERB. She was a feral child just as Tarzan was and was in
confrontation with Neanderthal beings similar to those populated in
Burroughs fiction. Here then is the initial story from issue 11,
which despite the numbering was the debut book.
Pat
