Rulah, Jungle Goddess
Entry updated 12 January 2026. Tagged: Character, Comics, Publication.
US Comic (1948-1949). Fox Publications, Inc. 11 issues numbered #17-#27. Artists include Matt Baker and Jack Kamen. Script writers include Alec Hope. 36 pages with 3-4 long strips and a short text story each issue, plus occasional short filler material.
Rulah was one of the era's many jungle girls (see Sheena, Queen of the Jungle), a female Tarzan, based in or near the Congo. She stars in three strips per issue, any others also usually being jungle-related. As with most Fox jungle comics, African villages would be populated by black males and white females, the latter dressed in bikinis. Attractive, scantily clad women feature heavily in #17-#22 and are clearly designed to be part of the comic's appeal (see Fan Service); whilst the majority of #17-#21's strips have genre elements, both these features then became less prominent, though #26 recaptures the verve of earlier issues. The non-Rulah strips are not usually fantastic (though in #24 a man is turned into a dog); the most interesting is a Zago, Jungle Prince (see Zago, Jungle Prince) story in #22, where a (human) lion queen builds her own variation of the trojan horse: a giant gold lion full of her trained lions. #18 has a short strip featuring another female Tarzan character, named Numa; this appears to be her only appearance. #17-#22 and #26 are the best issues, often being lively. Though not the worst-portrayed Africans in contemporary comics, those in Rulah's territory defer to her in all things (see Race in SF): a visitor wonders, "I'm amazed at the power you, an American girl, have over these natives." "They are my adopted people ... I don't look at it as power." Besides being a good fighter – able to kill lions – Rulah is also portrayed as intelligent and strong-willed (see Feminism).
#17 (that is, the first issue) opens with "The Wolf Doctor": here a London doctor receives a "mere scratch" only to become a Werewolf, so flees to Africa to practice in Rulah's territory, where he turns some of the local women into werewolves who prey on other villagers. Another story features sea serpents (see Monsters). In #18's "Land of Giants", said giants (see Great and Small) ride elephants like horses; "The Vampire Garden" has a woman cultivating plants which eat flesh, exhale chloride gas and expel thorns (rather anticlimactically, she trips over a ladder into one of her plants). "The Pigeons of Flame" have capsules of magnesium powder tied to their backs and are trained to fly into buildings, setting them alight; those responsible believe "the world will be ours" as a result. #19 includes "Devil Ladies", where a foreign agent tests a new "fire gun" on locals captured by his henchwomen, who are dressed in skintight asbestos red-devil costumes. In "Plazma Peril" a female witch doctor makes humanoid blobs which engulf their victims – Rulah defeats them with fire and they turn on their creator: "Keep away, have you forgotten that it was I who created you?"
#20 includes Rulah's origin story: "Society aviatrix missing on daring African flight" reads a headline, with Joan Grayson then being "regarded by the natives as a Goddess from the skies". A boyfriend recovers from Amnesia (it can be inferred that Joan's crash was a Suicide attempt following his disappearance) and he goes to bring her back, but they both realize she is a different woman now: "I'm not the same, the girl he knew is dead." After convincing her not to kill a women who tried to murder them, he leaves. #21 has "The Wondrous Jade Ju-Ju", which includes Amazo and her warrior women, a Poison that makes the victim fall in love before dying, and the lost language "Sansceltic". In the "Silent Death" a gangster steals a Scientist's newly developed killer bacteria (see Weapons) and comes to Africa to carve out an empire. "Miserable Mankillers" features a lost white tribe "from the hidden city of Nocturne where the curse of ugliness reigns" (see Lost Cities), with Rulah reasoning their ugliness (actually, hairiness) results from shade and a chemical reaction of sunlight on foliage; there is also a Dinosaur-like creature. #24's "Satan's Shoes" are Satan's (see Gods and Demons) spike-soled boots, which convey Superpowers on the wearer. "The Ice Vikings of Valhalla" (#26) sees Rulah accompany a mining engineer to the site of a reported mountainous uranium deposit (see Nuclear Energy): he uses dynamite to expose the site, revealing a tunnel which leads to a snowbound Underground Lost World inhabited by Vikings, many of whose warriors are women. Initially aggressive, they find the surface too hot and retreat underground again. Also in this issue are the "Ape Women of Antilla", who raid villages to kidnap and enslave men; sturdily built, they are human save for hairy limbs below the elbow and knee. [SP]
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