Friday, July 13, 2007

40 Years Ago Today From DC Comics -- Bomba the Jungle Boy #1

Bomba the Jungle Boy #1 (On Sale: July 13, 1967) as a cover I would not have guessed is by Carmine Infantino and Charles Cuidera.

Inside we have "The Jaws of Doom" written by George Kashdan and drawn by Leo Sommers. I remember Sommers work from Warren, but did not know that he did any work for DC. Apparently, this and the next issue of Bomba contain the only DC artwork by Sommers.

Bomba the Jungle Boy was first published in 1926, was one of the earliest and most successful of the many Tarzan imitators. , Authorship was credited to Roy Rockwood, a Stratemeyer Syndicate pseudonym, but the actual author for most of the series was probably John Duffiel), The books were popular and sold well, as indicated by the number of titles in the series, the longevity of its time in print, and the number of spin-offs into movies and comics.

Monogram's Bomba the Jungle Boy film series was inspired by the adventure-book series. Johnny Sheffield, formerly "Boy" in the Tarzan pictures, starred as Bomba. Economically produced, and not one of their best efforts, Bomba the Jungle Boy turned out to be one of Monogram's most successful series. In 1962 a 13-episode syndicated series, "Zim Bomba" was produced by editing down footage from the Monogram films. This might be what the cover blurb, "TV's Teen Jungle Star!" is referring to. I don't think I ever saw the series or read the comic books.

Some of the stories from these comics were later reprinted with minor art and lettering changes as Simba stories in DC's Tarzan comics.

Edited by George Kashdan

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