Images of women in furs, leopard skins and other primitive attire are used to symbolize the wild and untamed side of their nature. Drop them in a jungle setting and they become all the more exotic and alluring.
The voluptuous Jayne Mansfield didn't need a jungle print bikini to look good, but we'll thank her anyway. Very photogenic, she never shied away from an opportunity to be in front of a camera.
Inspired by the Tarzan movies popular at the time, actress and comedienne Joan Davis tried the "Jane" look for a gag shoot for HOLLYWOOD magazine in November 1939. Miss Davis had a second career in TV with her show, I MARRIED JOAN, in the 1950s.
Another example of the popularity of prehistoric babes and their skimpy outfits was no more apparent than in comic books. From Nyoka to Sheena, one thing is for sure -- jungle girls rule!
JUNGLE GIRLS
No. 1
1989 (no month)
AC Comics
Editor and Publisher: Bill Black
Cover: Bill Black
Pages: 28
Cover price: $1.95
The lead story stars Bill Black's Tara, Jungle She-Cat, who debuted in PARAGON PRESENTS #2 (1971). The rest of the issue is filled with Golden Age reprints from CAVE GIRL and NYOKA comics. On the back cover is a photo of Victoria Vetri (PLAYBOY'S Playmate of the Month for September 1967, as Angela Dorian).
Once upon a time I was deeply into Bill Black's AC Comics line. I found that those comics were a wonderful respite during the 90's when other comics companies were imitating the Image boys with often regrettable results. The "Good Girl" stuff was fun to a point, but I drifted away when the line seemed to be catering to a smaller and smaller group less interested it seemed in vintage comics than in zoftig dames, even giant ones. Jungle Girls was a fun blend of reprint and "new". For a time, I guess I viewed AC as the successor to Charlton, a producer of entertaining genre comics, something the others in the field had given up to deliver to us all just more superheroes.
ReplyDeleteI collected quite a few of Black's titles as well, at a time when these types of reprints weren't so readily available at that price point. The new stuff wasn't bad, either. He was obviously into Good Girl Art!
ReplyDelete