Number 2552: From immortal goddess to everyday queen

Camilla the Jungle Queen was introduced in Jungle Comics #1 (1940), and was seen in that comic book until the publisher, Fiction House, closed shop in 1954. The curious part of this back-of-the-book jungle girl is that she was introduced as one thing, and then became someone else. Don Markstein, in his Toonopedia blog, describes her first appearances as a “knock-off of H. Rider Haggard’s” 19th century Ayesha. ‘She Who Must Be Obeyed,’ who ruled a lost kingdom hidden from European explorers in a previously little-visited part of the world.”

After awhile Camilla had a re-origin, if there is such a word. She became a typical comic book jungle girl, who was descended from an heiress. During those comic book days jungle queens were readily available. Fiction House had a few of its own as regular features of issues of comic books coming off the presses every month. Did anyone wonder why Jumbo Comics had “Sheena the Queen of the Jungle” and Jungle Comics featured “Camilla, the Jungle Queen” in the same line of comic books? Fiction House was its own universe, and each comic they produced had no relationship to the other Fiction House comics. Did anyone care? It is obvious to me why the guys buying these comic books liked beautiful women in abbreviated costumes, and sex appeal was part of the Fiction House appeal.

This entry in the Camilla saga is from Jungle Comics #88 (1947), and is drawn by Fran Hopper, one of the female stars of Fiction House.