White Princess of the Jungle
Entry updated 20 May 2024. Tagged: Comics, Publication.
US Comic (1951-1952). 5 issues. Avon Periodicals Inc.. Artists include Gene Fawcette, Everett Kinstler and Fred Schwab. 36 pages. Four long strips (three featuring Taanda) plus one or two pages of humorous strips or text stories.
In Central Africa there is "a wild, mysterious sun-bronzed beauty with flaming hair ... her unsheathed blade, ever poised to strike against deceit and treachery ... she is Taanda, white princess of the Tauruti tribe": she was raised from a baby by its chief – "my adopted father" – after her explorer parents were murdered. She grew to be athletic and have the strength of ten men, defending the jungle and its inhabitants from would-be exploiters. In the first couple of issues these are various white men, Arab slavers (see Slavery) and a "murder cult" tribe led by "cruel giantess, Zaleen, the Devil Queen", a blonde white woman who wants to conquer all of Africa. In #3, Taanda fights Chinese communists (see Cold War) and large Rats who have been infected with the Black Death (see Pandemic) by traders who believe this will enable them to return a week later and buy their goods back at a low price. In "The Ant Invasion" Taanda battles an army of soldier ants each the size of dogs (see Great and Small): they are controlled by an invading tribe using a special incense.
One of #4's tales, "The Fangs of the Swamp Beast", begins five million years ago, with a spore from space falling into the ocean (see Panspermia). This was dormant until a storm caused physical and chemical changes, and it began to evolve; over the eons it grew to became a Monster resembling a giant tentacled slug, snacking on lions that wandered into the swamps where it now lived. When it begins to attack people Taanda notifies the British authorities, who respond with bombs dropped from planes – but the monster simply dives deep; so Taanda establishes in what part of its body its heart is located, then dives into the swampy waters and stabs it. In #5 Taanda's name changes to Tarinda: "The King of the Gorillas" has giant "cave men of the past" (see Origin of Man) appearing and killing gorillas, so as to take their territory. Tarinda easily defeats their leader and tries to explain how they have been unwise; and indeed, as she feared, the surviving apes had rushed to Garth, King of the Gorillas, who dwarfs even the cave men. Tarinda manages to hurt Garth enough to make him flee, whilst the cave men move on. In "Coils of the Monster Snake" Tarinda's ward Koru kills a boa constrictor that attacked a gazelle he had befriended: unfortunately the snake was the son of Vishnac, the Serpent King, so Koru is kidnapped by a tribe that worships this enormous snake. Tarinda rescues Koru before he is sacrificed and causes a landslide that kills Vishnac and his worshippers. The "Mountains of Madness" has a gold-hungry priestess drugging her followers (see Drugs) and claiming the roaring produced by a mountain's acoustics are the voice of the Thunder God (see Gods and Demons).
Of the non-Taanda stories, #1 has a contemporary sailor thrown back in time by a cyclone to the era of the Spanish Main, where he fights pirates (see Time Travel). #2 has a modern-day woman whose locket, a family heirloom, is examined by an archaeologist; after he reads from a related scroll, the woman has a vision of the past when she was a slave girl and the archaeologist a soldier imprisoned by her master: he recognizes her as a long lost princess and the pair escape to the land where she will rule, though she observes that "To you I will ever be a slave." #3 and #5 are two parts of an uncompleted three-parter about a search for a blue gorilla in Africa. #4 is an unrelated jungle adventure.
Taanda is a Jungle Girl heroine (see Sheena, Queen of the Jungle); as suggested by her comic's title, this is that variation on the "White Saviour" trope where a Tarzan-like character spends most of their time rescuing indigenous people. The portrayal of Africans is often problematic, though on the whole not as bad as in most comics of that era (see Race in SF); the chief, who raised Taanda and whom she considers her father, was clearly responsible for instilling the moral virtues for which she is praised. Taanda herself is a strong-willed, intelligent protagonist (see Feminism), lacking the accompanying young white male that often seemed obligatory for jungle girls in comics (see Women in SF). [SP]
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