Sheena, Queen of the Jungle is a fictional, American comic book

American comic book

An American comic book is a small magazine originating in the United States and containing a narrative in the form of comics. Since 1975 the dimensions have standardized at 6 5/8" x 10 ¼" , down from 6 ¾" x 10 ¼" in the Silver Age, although larger formats appeared in the past...

 jungle girl heroine, published originally by Fiction House

Fiction House

Fiction House is an American publisher of pulp magazines and comic books that existed from the 1920s to the 1950s. Its comics division was best known for its pinup-style good girl art, as epitomized by the company's most popular character, Sheena, Queen of the Jungle.-History:-Jumbo and Jack...

. The female counterpart to Tarzan

Tarzan

Tarzan is a fictional character, an archetypal feral child raised in the African jungles by the Mangani "great apes"; he later experiences civilization only to largely reject it and return to the wild as a heroic adventurer...

, Sheena had two things in common with Edgar Rice Burrough's Jungle Lord: Both possessed the ability to communicate with wild animals and were both orphans growing up and learning how to survive and live in the jungle. She was fiercely proficient in fighting with knives, spears, and bows, and improvised with makeshift weapons. Her primary ability was to surprise her opponents, either human or animal.

She was the first female comic-book character with her own title, with her 1937 (in Great Britain, 1938 in the United States) premiere beating Wonder Woman

Wonder Woman

Wonder Woman is a DC Comics superheroine created by William Moulton Marston. She first appeared in All Star Comics #8 . The Wonder Woman title has been published by DC Comics almost continuously except for a brief hiatus in 1986....

#1 (December 1941). Sheena inspired a wealth of similar comic-book jungle queens. She was predated in literature

Literature

Literature is the art of written works, and is not bound to published sources...

  by Rima, the Jungle Girl

Rima

Rima, also known as Rima the Jungle Girl, is the fictional heroine of W. H. Hudson's 1904 novel Green Mansions: A Romance of the Tropical Forest. In 1974, she was adapted into a comic book character and featured in the short-lived monthly series Rima the Jungle Girl, published by DC Comics...

, introduced in the 1904 William Henry Hudson

William Henry Hudson

William Henry Hudson was an author, naturalist, and ornithologist.- Life and work :Hudson was born in the Quilmes, a borough of the greater Buenos Aires, in Buenos Aires Province, Argentina, son of settlers of U.S. origin...

 novel

Novel

A novel is a book of long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century....

 Green Mansions

Green Mansions

Green Mansions: A Romance of the Tropical Forest is an exotic romance by William Henry Hudson about a traveller to the Guyana jungle of southeastern Venezuela and his encounter with a forest dwelling girl named Rima.-Plot summary:...

.

Publication history

Sheena debuted in Joshua B. Power's British

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 magazine Wags #1, in 1937. She was created by Will Eisner

Will Eisner

William Erwin "Will" Eisner was an American comics writer, artist and entrepreneur. He is considered one of the most important contributors to the development of the medium and is known for the cartooning studio he founded; for his highly influential series The Spirit; for his use of comics as an...

 and S.M. "Jerry" Iger

Jerry Iger

Samuel Maxwell "Jerry" Iger was an American cartoonist. With business partner Will Eisner he co-founder of Eisner & Iger, a comic book packager that produced comics on demand for new publishers during the late-1930s and 1940s period known to fans and historians as the Golden Age of Comic...

 of the comic-book packager Eisner & Iger

Eisner & Iger

Eisner & Iger was a comic book "packager" that produced comics on demand for publishers entering the new medium during the late-1930s and 1940s period fans and historians call the Golden Age of Comic Books...

, one of a handful of studios that produced comics on demand for publishers and syndicates, and whose client Editors Press Service distributed the feature to Wags. To help hide the fact their studio consisted only of themselves, the duo signed their Sheena strip with the pseudonym "W. Morgan Thomas". Eisner said an inspiration for the character's name was H. Rider Haggard

H. Rider Haggard

Sir Henry Rider Haggard, KBE was an English writer of adventure novels set in exotic locations, predominantly Africa, and a founder of the Lost World literary genre. He was also involved in agricultural reform around the British Empire...

's 1886 jungle-goddess novel She

She (novel)

She, subtitled A History of Adventure, is a novel by Henry Rider Haggard, first serialized in The Graphic magazine from October 1886 to January 1887. She is one of the classics of imaginative literature, and with over 83 million copies sold in 44 different languages, one of the best-selling books...

.

Sheena first appeared stateside in Fiction House's Jumbo Comics #1, and subsequently in every issue (Sept. 1938 - April 1953), as well as in her groundbreaking, 18-issue spin-off, Sheena, Queen of the Jungle (Spring 1942 - Winter 1952), the first comic book to title-star a female character. Sheena also appeared in Fiction House's Ka'a'nga #16 (Summer 1952) and the one-shot 3-D Sheena, Jungle Queen (1953) — the latter reprinted by Eclipse Comics

Eclipse Comics

Eclipse Comics was an American comic book publisher, one of several independent publishers during the 1980s and early 1990s. In 1978, it published the first graphic novel intended for the newly created comic book specialty store market...

 as Sheena 3-D (Jan. 1985) and by Blackthorne Publishing

Blackthorne Publishing

Blackthorne Publishing, Inc. was a comic book publisher that flourished from 1986-1989. They were notable for the Blackthorne 3-D Series, their reprint titles of classic comic strips like Dick Tracy, and their licensed products...

 as Sheena 3-D Special (May 1985). Blackthorne also published Jerry Iger's Classic Sheena (April 1985. Fiction House, originally a pulp magazine

Pulp magazine

Pulp magazines , also collectively known as pulp fiction, refers to inexpensive fiction magazines published from 1896 through the 1950s. The typical pulp magazine was seven inches wide by ten inches high, half an inch thick, and 128 pages long...

 publisher, ran prose stories

Short story

A short story is a work of fiction that is usually written in prose, often in narrative format. This format tends to be more pointed than longer works of fiction, such as novellas and novels. Short story definitions based on length differ somewhat, even among professional writers, in part because...

 of its star heroine in the latter-day pulp Stories of Sheena, Queen of the Jungle (Spring 1951) and Jungle Stories vol. 5, #11 (Spring 1954).

Blackthorne in the 1980s also published original Sheena stories in the three-issue series Jungle Comics (May-Oct. 1988). Bruce Jones

Bruce Jones

Ian Roy Jones is an English actor, best known for his role as cab driver Les Battersby-Brown in Coronation Street. He left the role in 2007. His real name is Ian Roy Jones, but he took the name of his father for professional purposes.-Early life:Jones was born to Bruce and Irene Jones in...

 wrote stories featuring Sheena and Ka'a'nga in at least one issue. All three covers are signed by the artist: Dave Stevens

Dave Stevens

Dave Stevens was an American illustrator and comics artist. He is most famous for creating The Rocketeer comic book and film character, and for his pin-up style "glamour art" illustrations, especially of model Bettie Page...

 (#1); Dragan Flaese (#2), who also drew that issue's interior art; and Donnie Jupiter (#3).

A version of Sheena, transplanted from Africa

Africa

Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...

 to South America

South America

South America is a continent situated in the Western Hemisphere, mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere. The continent is also considered a subcontinent of the Americas. It is bordered on the west by the Pacific Ocean and on the north and east...

, appeared in London Night Studio's Sheena, Queen of the Jungle one-shot comic book and subsequent four-issue miniseries

Miniseries

A miniseries , in a serial storytelling medium, is a television show production which tells a story in a limited number of episodes. The exact number is open to interpretation; however, they are usually limited to fewer than a whole season. The term "miniseries" is generally a North American term...

 (Feb. 1998 - Spring 1999). As well, AC Comics

AC Comics

AC Comics is a comic book publishing company started by Bill Black.AC Comics specializes in reprints of Golden Age comics from now-defunct companies whose properties lapsed into public domain and were not reprinted elsewhere...

 publishes Sheena reprints, as well as reprints and some new stories of the jungle femmes that followed in her wake.

Beginning in 2010, Devil's Due Digital

Devil's Due Digital

Devil’s Due Digital Inc. is an American digital publishing company established in 2010 by cofounders Mark Thompson of Checker Book Publishing Group and Josh Blaylock of Devil’s Due Publishing.-History:...

 began digital distribution of the Sheena franchise.

In other media

Model Irish McCalla

Irish McCalla

Nellie Elizabeth "Irish" McCalla was an American actress and artist best known as the title star of the 1950s television series Sheena, Queen of the Jungle. Sheena co-starred actor Chris Drake...

 portrayed Sheena in a 26-episode TV series

Television program

A television program , also called television show, is a segment of content which is intended to be broadcast on television. It may be a one-time production or part of a periodically recurring series...

 aired in first-run syndication from 1955-56. McCalla told a newspaper

Newspaper

A newspaper is a scheduled publication containing news of current events, informative articles, diverse features and advertising. It usually is printed on relatively inexpensive, low-grade paper such as newsprint. By 2007, there were 6580 daily newspapers in the world selling 395 million copies a...

 interviewer she was discovered by Nassour Studios while throwing a bamboo spear on a Malibu, California beach, famously adding, "I couldn't act, but I could swing through the trees".

A 1984 Columbia Pictures

Columbia Pictures

Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. is an American film production and distribution company. Columbia Pictures now forms part of the Columbia TriStar Motion Picture Group, owned by Sony Pictures Entertainment, a subsidiary of the Japanese conglomerate Sony. It is one of the leading film companies...

 film

Film

A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...

, Sheena

Sheena (film)

Sheena is a 1984 Columbia Pictures film based on a comic-book character that first appeared in the late 1930s, Sheena, Queen of the Jungle.A hybrid of action-adventure and soap opera-style drama, Sheena was shot on location in Kenya...

, produced by Paul Aratow starred Tanya Roberts

Tanya Roberts

Tanya Roberts is an American actress best known for her roles in Charlie's Angels, The Beastmaster, A View to a Kill, Sheena and That '70s Show. Roberts was groomed as a Hollywood sex symbol during the early 1980s.- Early life :Blum was born in The Bronx, New York City, of Irish and Jewish descent...

, who had previously co-starred as Kiri in MGM's 1982 movie Beastmaster

The Beastmaster (film)

The Beastmaster is 1982 fantasy film directed by Don Coscarelli that starred Marc Singer, Tanya Roberts, John Amos and Rip Torn. The film was marketed with the tagline "Born with the courage of an eagle, the strength of a black tiger, and the power of a god."-Summary:The Beastmaster tells the story...

. Roberts' Sheena had a much-expanded vocabulary from McCalla's. Marvel Comics

Marvel Comics

Marvel Worldwide, Inc., commonly referred to as Marvel Comics and formerly Marvel Publishing, Inc. and Marvel Comics Group, is an American company that publishes comic books and related media...

 published a comic-book adaptation of the Sheena movie as Marvel Comics Super Special

Marvel Comics Super Special

Marvel Comics Super Special was a 41-issue series of one-shot comic-magazines published by Marvel Comics from 1977 to 1986. They were cover-priced $1.50 to $2.50, while regular color comics were priced 30 cents to 60 cents, Beginning with issue #5, the series' title in the its postal indicia was...

#34 (June 1984), reprinting it as Sheena, Queen of the Jungle #1-2 (Dec. 1984 - Feb. 1985).

Sheena

Sheena (TV series)

Sheena is an American action-adventure/fantasy television series which was produced for first-run syndication from 2000 to 2002.Based upon the comic book character Sheena, Queen of the Jungle, which previously spawned a popular 1950s TV series of the same title, the 2000s series updated the...

 was revived by TV syndicator Hearst Entertainment in October 2000, portrayed by Gena Lee Nolin

Gena Lee Nolin

Gena Lee Nolin is an American actress and model. She is best known for her television appearances on The Price Is Right and Baywatch in the 1990s.-Career:...

. Sheena was given a new power, in this 35-episode Columbia/TriStar

Tristar

The term Tristar may refer to:* Tri-star * Lockheed L-1011 TriStar, a widebodied airliner** Lockheed TriStar , L-1011-based tankers used by the Royal Air Force* TriStar Pictures, a film production company...

 series: the ability to adopt the form of any warm-blooded animal once she gazed into its eyes. She was also depicted as a ferocious killer, capable of becoming a humanoid creature called the Darak'Na; this form she killed numerous individuals, though in her regular form she was also seen in numerous episodes stabbing soldiers and other villains to death. As with Tanya Roberts, Nolin's Sheena spoke whole sentences.

Galaxy Publishing, Inc., circa 1999, launched an animated Sheena series on the Web

World Wide Web

The World Wide Web is a system of interlinked hypertext documents accessed via the Internet...

. In 2007, Galaxy licensed the comic book rights to Devil's Due Publishing

Devil's Due Publishing

Devil's Due Publishing is an independent comic book publishers in the United States. Based in Chicago, Illinois, DDP is best known for its wide selection of genres, including licensed and original creator-owned properties that populate its monthly comic book series and graphic novels.Though...

, which announced plans to publish an ongoing title. In 2011, Galaxy and Moonstone Books

Moonstone Books

Moonstone Books is an American comic book, graphic novel, and prose fiction publisher based in Chicago focused on pulp fiction comic books and prose anthologies as well as horror and western tales....

reached an agreement to publish Sheena comic books and prose stories.

External links

• Holloway, Clark J. "Sheena, Queen of the Jungle", The Holloway Pages (fan site), 2000. WebCitation archive.
• "Jungle Call: A Roster of Jungle Girls", Art4Comics.com (fan site). WebCitation archive.