On this occasion I want to make an outline of the Chilean comic magazines dedicated to adventures in the jungle or with content related to the subject and the mention of some international characters of the aforementioned genre who have been present in magazines published in the country, excluding magazines foreigners that circulate or circulated in Chile.
In the first place we will treat as adventures in the jungle those carried out by children raised by animals; men or women who live in this area, in struggle with nature or with ambitious adventurers and the adventures of hunters or guardians of their secrets or nature, among others. They are the main themes imposed by the precursors of the genre in the novels: Rudyard Kipling and his tales of the tropical forests and Edgar Rice Burroughs with Tarzan. Also Alex Raymond with the comic Jungle Jim and Lee Falk with The Phantom.
The first adventure comics in the jungle.
As it happens in other manifestations of the comic strip, in Chile there are Comic Strips of adventures in the jungle that could be called pioneers, where classic topics such as children raised with animals are discussed and Tarzan, the king of the jungle, is presented in a booklet style, generally without sandwiches, with text at the bottom of the drawing, in magazines that initially they maintained a majority percentage of stories or continuous novels and only in the mid-twentieth century they are true comic magazines, with a large number of series in panels on their pages, until they reached one or two fixed protagonists per number. In this case we are interested in highlighting that the first comics are made for newspapers, especially the journalistic consortia of the United States, generally with comics or humorous cartoons. The first adventure cartoon proper is from 1929: Tarzan, the man raised by apes and who becomes king of the African jungle, based on the famous novels by Edgar Rice Burroughs, who had also succeeded in film. The drawings were by Harold Foster, later famous fo Prince Valiant, who adapted Tarzan, the ape man, which, with its success, gave rise to the comic saga that we all know and its multiple imitations.
In our country, among the comics and magazines that collected these adventures, it is worth highlighting: In the newspaper La Nación since approximately 1938 and for almost 30 years Tarzan was published. In El Colegial, a magazine published by Eleodoro Caro in 1942, the New Adventures of the Werewolf (Nuevas Aventuras del Hombre Lobo) appear, based on Mowgli, the famous character in The Jungle Book by English writer Rudyard Kipling. The adaptation and drawings are made by Machuca, of which we have no further background. There are two pages per number, in a brochure and text at the bottom of the comic.
Kipling's work would only have a real quality comic strip adaptation in El Cabrito, by Editorial Zig Zag, between 1946-47. The author is the great Spanish draftsman and screenwriter Victor de la Fuente, who lived in Chile during those years. The work is presented under the name of The Jungle Book (El Libro de la Selva), on a 1 page panel, with text at the bottom of the drawing.
Returning to Tarzan, in the magazine El Peneca, by Editorial Zig Zag, which circulated with great success between 1908 and 1960, with more than 2800 issues, Sandar, the titan, who is the local counterpart to Tarzan by Burne Hogarth, one of the best known cartoonists after Harold Foster. Also in El Cabrito, since No. 288, April 1947, and syndicated by the United Features Syndicate, Tarzan by Rex Maxon is published, the same cartoonist as from No. 8 in the magazine Okey, by Zig Zag, of October 24, 1949, presents The new adventures of Tarzan, sometimes on the cover, with two pages, in a booklet and text at the bottom of the drawing.
There are also other stories with a jungle setting. In the 1940s there is one that was not a comic strip itself, called Linda and the Jungle Boy (Linda y El Niño de la Selva), by Mario Silva Ossa, the famous Coré, whose hero, the boy Kendru, would have been a precedent for Mario Igor and his future work The Untouchable (El Intocable). Also The Adventures of Bill and Bosy, a shipwrecked boy and an indigenous boy on an island, which was created in the late 1950s.
Okey was one of the most prominent comic magazines, with more than 850 issues, with a first stage in black and white, plus a light brown color, with a format larger than the traditional magazines, 36 x 21 cm, and after almost 800 numbers would change colour, with 32 pages and a format that would become almost uniform, 26 x 18 centimeters. In panel style, it published foreign, unsigned cartoons, such as Togar, a young shipwrecked person in Asia, or stories such as The White Elephant with white hunters in Asia.
It was also usual, from 1954, a series with a heroine named Blonde Panther (Pantera Bionda), an Italian classic, but identified in some magazines as created by the late artist Ingam, which features a blonde Amazon in the jungles of Borneo and fellow islands of the Sunda archipelago probing around. The artist's real name is Enzo Magni and the scripts are by Gian Domenico Dalmasso himself.
In addition, in the 1950s, since 1955, he published an American classic: Jungle Jim by Alex Raymond, about a hunter in the jungles of Burma and Asia in general. Sinbad magazine also had it on its pages. We will talk about this comic later, when dealing with his own magazine.
In Pulgarcito, by Editorial Arcilla, during the early 1950s the series Aventuras de Aguilucho was published, which we will also talk about later, when dealing with his magazine. The material was exclusively American, prepared by the King Features Syndicate in daily size. The magazine is Sinbad (Sindbad). I present a story called Prisoners of the Jivaros in the 1950s.
In the magazine Cascabel, published by El Mercurio, through Editorial Lord Cochrane, between 1960 and 1962, a series is presented with another heroine of the jungle, Rani of the Tigers (Rani De Los Tigres), a princess of India, who first appeared in N ° 1 of the magazine, on the cover, is usually presented. No signature. The usual dress of the protagonists of these stories was a kind of bikini, leopard skin or another animal. Also, in Cascabel there was a giant blonde from the African jungle, Lovarzán, signed by Syd Shores, with some cover signed by Abel Romero.
The golden age of the Chilean adventure cartoon.
In 1966, as a secondary character in the magazine la historia de Chile, under the direction of Enrique Melcherts at Phoenix Ltda. Editions, named Pardo, the lord of the jungle, was born, with a script by Ruth Eliana Merino, first scriptwriter of adventure comics. and drawings by Eduardo González Olea. Of course, the protagonist's outfit is leopard skin.
In the same year and following Editorial Zig Zag begins the publication of two adventure magazines in the jungle: El Intocable and Jungla, both with 32 pages, in colour, biweekly, with more than 150 issues each.
El Intocable magazine was published between 1966 and 1972, first by Zig Zag and then Editorial Quimantú. Initially monthly, then biweekly. The adventures of Mizomba, a white, blond giant, with his leopard skin outfit as all clothing are presented. Raised by a black king in the equatorial African jungle, after the death of his parents on the Argos yacht, a recurring theme in many stories. Mizomba, with his dog Kiron and the Walkis, warriors who obey him, is the scourge of slave hunters, mainly Arabs, fighter against unscrupulous hunters, help of explorers and scientists, all between the love of a young black woman named Karola and a beautiful white lady, Mariana. Stories also abound in strange places, of extinct cultures or distant time periods, animals with strange powers and black magic of their occasional enemies.
The story is a creation of the Zig Zag Comic Department, with scripts by José Zamorano and drawings by Sam (Samuel Gana) and Mario Igor. After the first numbers, Abel Romero, José Orellana, Hernán Jirón, Máximo Carvajal, Hildegardo Igor, Lincoln Fuentes, Manuel Cárdenas, Juan Francisco Jara and Manuel Soto, among others, also draw. In general, the continuity of the stories is not very faithful and in some cases the script and/or the drawing is irregular.
In the first stage, by Zig Zag, there is usually as a complementary series a story of a hunter named Tipp Kenya (Kenia), a creation by Héctor Germán Hoesterlheld and drawings by Carlos Roume, both from Argentina. Later he's drawn by the Chilean G. de la Vega.
We will expand on the Quimantú era and a second stage of the magazine later.
The magazine, Jungla, published between 1967 and 1975, monthly and then biweekly, started with two base characters who each occupied almost half of the magazine: Mawa and Elundí. The latter would eventually disappear in the face of public preference for the former. Both stories are located in the Amazon and the Matto Grosso.
Elundí is the white Jivaro, a mestizo or caboclo, the son of an explorer and an indigenous woman. The stories had a good plot and drawings of a quality superior to the medium, showing the character in permanent contrast with society, as in the rescue of an astronaut, fighting against hunters or wars between the peoples of the Amazon, with a very expeditious justice. In No. 1, Juan Bley is indicated as a screenwriter. The cartoonists: Juan Francisco Jara, Mario Igor, Manuel Rojas, Germán Gabler, Abel Romero, Máximo Carvajal and Manuel Cárdenas.
Mawa is the priestess of the Devil's Chair, who is white and with a mysterious past related to India. It is a story that takes the classic Sheena and the Blonde Panther, as well as Pardo’s leather suit. She reigns in the Amazon jungle with the help of the Great Lotus, a wise old man, two jaguars who obey her and a group of warriors, with whom she faces hunters, explorers, mad scientists, mysteries, monsters and, on occasions, she comes out in defence of the earth against aliens.
The search for her origin makes her leave the Mato Grosso on a trip to India, facing new adventures, in the company of an indigenous person and a mestizo hunter, with whom there is an ambiguous love relationship. The stories acquire a certain police character, being perhaps the best moment of the series.
The initial scripts are by Juan Bley and Juan Marino. The base cartoonist was Juan Francisco Jara. Hernán Jirón, Lincoln Fuentes, Guillermo Varas and others also collaborated. In this first stage, Zig Zag, a series titled Shekkai, a boy in the Indian jungle, who communicates with animals, was presented without a signature.
Later we will continue with the character and his change during the publication by Quimantú and then the Editorial Gabriela Mistral. In the picaresque sphere, which in the 50s and 60s had varied productions, the long-running magazine El Pingüino stands out, which in the mid-60s featured on its pages a great cartoon about a certain king of the jungle, Farzán by Hervi (Hernán Vidal), which was also published in the Can Can magazine. Likewise, in El Pingüino, the great Themo Lobos achieves a high-quality semi-rich comic Tarzan, the cute man in a series about the heroes of the 20th century.
In humor, in Condorito, by Pepo, Condorzán appears, in an obvious caricature of the king of the apes and permanent adventures of hunters, cannibals. There is even a special Condorito in the jungle, No. 4 of the thematic compilation.
For its part, Lord Cochrane Editorial, from 1967 and 1968, by agreement with King Features Syndicate, published in color, in 32-page magazines, three classic jungle adventures well known in Chile for their appearance in newspapers. and magazines: El Fantasma, Jim de la Selva and Aventuras de Aguilucho.
The first, The Phantom, created by Lee Falk in 1936, with drawings by various authors, especially Ray Moore and Sy Barry. Bill Lignante signs in the magazine. The walking ghost, the twentieth hero wearing the violet suit and mask that identifies him, the guardian of Bengalla, an eternal fighter against piracy and crime in the jungle. The character also appeared at length in the newspaper La Tercera. In the magazine appears like complementary series King, Queen and Jack, about two hunters and a young orphan and Hunter, a hunter and his friend Oloo.
The second character, Jim de la Selva, based on Alex Raymond's character, Jungle Jim, contains drawings by various cartoonists, including Paul Norris and Frank Thorne. They are an adventurer hunter and his helper in the jungles of India or Malaysia. Back stories are Shankar the Shikari, a hunter's guide, and Ranee the tigress, where an Asian tigress's lifestyle is shown.
The last character is Aguilucho and his friend Pepe, known internationally as Tim Tyler’s Luck (in Spain Jorge and Fernando). A Creation of Lyman Young, it presents Aguilucho in his adventure stage in Africa, in the Patrol of Nadowa or Ivory, a police entity in an Africa without identity or culture. The artist who did it the longest was Nat Edson. The comic strip also appeared in the newspapers El Mercurio and La Tercera.
Despite all their historical interest, we will not go into all of them for being foreign material. Largely national in nature, Editorial Lord Cochrane presents the Mampato magazine, generally 52 pages, in color, in a 28 x 21 cm format. The main character is a boy, Mampato, created by Eduardo Armstrong and Oscar Vega, Oskar, in the drawing. But it would be Themo Lobos after the first numbers that would immortalise him in scripts and drawings. Mampato, despite his stories in space and time, is an adventure character who, since magazine issue 105, January 1972, begins a long adventure in the Congo, Africa, together with Ogú and Ojo Mágico, a great hunter. In pursuit of the evil Smith and Wesson, they stumble across the elephant graveyard and other classic elements of the jungle adventure.
Notwithstanding this adventure, the magazine includes in its almost ten years of existence other adventures set in the jungle, some with a mixture of science fiction, which with the classic continued delighted us every week, apart from Max the explorer, a humorous one page cartoon. For the time of publication of the rest of the material, we will deal with it later.
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