Although the comic book jungle has its male heroes, such as Thun’da and Kaanga it is a realm where women are the rulers, Tarzan excepted. In 1937, a Jungle Queen debuted in the British magazine Wags #1. Sheena, created by Will Eisner and Jerry Iger then made her U.S. appearance the next year in Jumbo Comics #1, appearing in every issue until April 1953. In 1942, she made history by becoming the first female with her own title. As can be seen from the titles beneath Sheena spawned a whole new genre, the Jungle Girl. Amongst our fictional characters there are a few real life stars, including Dorothy Lamour the ‘Sarong Queen’. Making a brief appearance is the larger than life Frank Buck, a hunter and animal collector. He was also the author of ‘Bring ‘Em Back Alive’, an actor, director and producer. In the 1930s and 40s he starred in numerous jungle adventure movies. Another movie star, Sabu was the son of an Indian elephant driver. He had his big break, at the age of 13, in the 1937 British film Elephant Boy and other roles followed. Sabu died of a heart attack, aged just 39.
Tarzan (John Clayton II, Viscount Greystoke) is a fictional character, a feral child raised in the African jungle by the Mangani great apes; he later experiences civilization, only to reject it and return to the wild as a heroic adventurer.
Created by Edgar Rice Burroughs, Tarzan first appeared in the novel Tarzan of the Apes (magazine publication 1912, book publication 1914), and subsequently in 23 sequels, several books by Burroughs and other authors, and innumerable works in other media, both authorized and unauthorized.
“Tarzan” is the ape-name of John Clayton, Viscount Greystoke, according to Burroughs’s Tarzan, Lord of the Jungle. (Later, less canonical sources, notably the 1984 film Greystoke, make him Earl of Greystoke.) The narrator in Tarzan of the Apes describes both “Clayton” and “Greystoke” as fictitious names, implying that, within the fictional world that Tarzan inhabits, he may have a different real name.
Burroughs considered other names for the character, including “Zantar” and “Tublat Zan”, before he settled on “Tarzan”. In the language of the Mangani, or great apes, Tarzan means “white–skin”. Though the copyright on Tarzan of the Apes has expired in the United States and in other countries, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc. claims the name “Tarzan” as a trademark.
The community of Tarzana, Los Angeles, was named after Tarzan.
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