Jumbo Comics (Sheena)

Fiction House's Jumbo Comics debuted in 1938 and is best remembered for its cover star, Sheena, Queen of the Jungle. Sheena is widely cited as one of the first jungle-heroine characters in American comics and, notably, one of the earliest female characters to headline her own feature—predating many of the costumed heroines who would follow. A commanding figure in a leopard-print costume, she ruled the African wilds with strength, cunning, and authority, reversing the era's usual formula in which women were rescued rather than doing the rescuing.

Sheena proved popular enough to eventually anchor her own title and later leap to other media, an early demonstration of a comic-book character's reach beyond the page. Jumbo Comics itself, in keeping with Fiction House's pulp roots, offered a mix of adventure genres, but it was the jungle queen who defined its identity.

As a Fiction House publication whose copyright lapsed, Jumbo Comics is now public domain. That status lets a genuinely pioneering entry in the history of women in comics be preserved and made available to modern readers, rather than remaining a scarce collector's rarity crumbling on aging newsprint.