THE COMPLETE ADVENTURES OF THE JUNGLE QUEEN

The character of Sheena, Queen of the Jungle, made her debut in comics in 1938. A vine-swinging female rendition of Tarzan, the Ape Man, the character appeared in multiple forms of media including four novellas beginning in 1951, a short-lived TV series in 1955, a big-screen movie starring Tanya Roberts in 1984, and recently a revived TV series in 2000. But few knew that in 1951, Sheena managed to get her own pulp magazine. It lasted all of one issue, now a collector item for those who love the character. Each rendition from comic book, big-screen movie, TV series and pulps were authored by different people and are therefore different renditions of the character.  

When the novellas were printed in 1951, the prose of each story clearly suggested different writers for each – but under the publishing house pseudonym. The first three were published in that one pulp magazine, and then a fourth story in a issue of JUNGLE STORIES in 1954. 

 

In 2008, Altus Press published a 200-page paperback reprinting those four stories, including a brief history of the character and the novellas. (Each of the stories is about 50 pages.) 

The first story in the collection, "The Slave Brand of Sleman Bin Al"i, has Sheena intervening to save her adopted tribe, the Abamas, from both the machinations of Arab slavers and Portuguese exploiters. In the middle of the action, we find her love interest, Rick, trying to save both himself and her. 

 

In the second story, "Sargasso of Lost Safari", Sheena is forced to deal with sinister hunters and rebellious spirit men. A prince of the Abama people seeks her out to stop a cabal of shamans who are trying to overthrow the hereditary tribal rule. At the same time, two white hunters, Ferdinand Lavic and Countess Narcissa, are trying to discover the lost valley of the elephants. 

In the third story, "Killer's Kraal," we learn how Sheena fits into the tribal scheme of things in Africa: She's regarded as the Mateyenda, or Queen Mother. While her love interest Rick Thorne is busy helping the Abama people transport a shipment of ivory to the coast, a pretender to the throne of the ancient warrior king Yama Galagi rises to power. He tries to use Sheena as a pawn in his attempt to seize control of the other tribes, but the jungle queen thwarts him too.

The final story, "Sword of Gimshai," is the weakest of the collection but if you read the book chronologically, by this time you want to be a completist and read the last one. Sheena intervenes to save a safari from enemy tribes once again. It is the third story in the book that is the best – great plot, great prose.

 

If you love SHEENA, QUEEN OF THE JUNGLE, I recommend you grab a copy of the book. A more adult approach versus the comic book rendition and, if you are like me, you envision the Irish McCalla rendition of the 1955-56 TV series.