Before creating his most popular character, the swashbuckling spaceman Flash Gordon, cartoonist Alex Raymond took readers to the deepest, darkest jungles of the Malay Peninsula. It is there that Jungle Jim Bradley took on poachers, pirates and deadly dames with the help of his trusty servant, Kolu. Jungle Jim wasn't just stuck to the rain forests of Asia. At least one story in this book is set in a British controlled Afghanistan.
For some reason, I really thought Jungle Jim took place in Africa. With Kolu being black and some of the pirates in the very first story also being black, I would have lost money if you bet me that this series took place in South East Asia. Adding to the confusion is that the series of live-action films that starred Johnny Weissmuller (Tarzan) as Jungle Jim were all set in Africa. Heck, I would be willing to bet money that I've seen at least 1 Jungle Jim flick and mistakenly thought it was a Tarzan feature.
Alex Raymond's artwork is so distinctive. There's a Roman influence on the way the male characters appear. Strong noses. Thin eyes and even thinner hairlines. And chiseled physiques. As for the women, I get the strong sense that Dorothy Lamour was the inspiration to at least one of the female characters in this book.
The Official Jungle Jim by Alex Raymond Collection was Pioneer's only graphic novel sized collection of strips. The action stops in the middle of a story with nothing like a 'To be Continued' or any other claim to finding out more in the pages of another volume. This also happened with the Official Prince Valiant Collection Pioneer published at around the same time as this. Pioneer did release 17 comic book sized issues of strips, along with 1 annual. From what I can tell, this trade paperback collects at least the first 3 issues of the floppies series that ran from 1988-89. But as to whether that multi-year series managed to collect the entire story is another unknown to me.
That all being said, if I was to run across a nice collection of Alex Raymond Jungle Jim strips (for a nice price, mind you), I would definitely add it to my collection. The artwork was amazing. The stories were pretty good, despite being a tad dated and bearing norms and action that by 2020's standards are archaic. On at least 2 occasions, Jim slaps a female for getting too emotional. I see these books as historic documents of the 1930s time period full of artistic genius and flawed ideals of masculinity and Anglo-American Imperialism. But above all, I enjoy these books as they take me to corners of the world I've never visited; let alone knew existed.
Worth Consuming!
Rating: 8 out of 10 stars.
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