Exciting Comics #39
☆ Be the first to review + Add to your collection — Join freeExciting Comics #39 holds a firm place in Golden Age history as the debut issue for Kara, Jungle Princess — one of Nedor's most distinct postwar heroines and a notable entry in the wartime-to-peacetime transition of the jungle-girl genre. The issue also continues the Black Terror's wartime adventures under one of the most striking covers Alex Schomburg produced for the Pines line, depicting Nazis deploying poisoned candy against children — a viscerally propagandistic image that encapsulates the moral clarity of Golden Age superhero storytelling at its most charged. Because Nedor characters entered the public domain, Kara's debut here has taken on renewed relevance as modern publishers and anthologists have revisited the full run. Taken together, the issue documents Nedor's deliberate strategy of pairing its marquee superhero with fresh female characters as the company sensed the shifting tastes of a postwar readership.
In "Grocery," Major Christopher "Kit" Kendall and his fiancée Jane "Jinx" Howell survive a plane crash in the Himalayas, only to discover a hidden city beneath a receding lake—home to the ancient Arohitans. After a shaman gives Jinx a mysterious powder that grants her invulnerability, she's mistaken for the long-lost ruler Kara, leading to an unexpected coronation and Kit named commander of the Arohitan army. Al Camy handles both pencils and inks for the story, while Alex Schomburg delivers the striking cover.
In the jungles of New Guinea, Major Christopher "Kit" Kendall and his fiancée Jane "Jinx" Howell find themselves thrust into an ancient mystery when a shaman’s gift of a magical powder makes Jinx invulnerable—just before their plane crashes into an avalanche. The resulting flood reveals a hidden city, the lost realm of the Arohitans, who, upon recognizing the power of her amulet, hail Jinx as their long-lost queen and name Kit their commander.
Tommy Lane watches from a cliff as Old Zack Fenton's stagecoach barrels down the road below, the boy marveling at the driver's skill even from nearly half a mile away. As the Overland Stage approaches, Tommy realizes something troubling is about to unfold on that frontier road.
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Exciting Comics was one of three long-running Golden Age anthology titles — alongside Thrilling Comics and Startling Comics — produced by Better/Nedor/Standard/Pines under editor Ned Pines, with the series running from 1940 through 1949. By mid-1945, the line had been built around the Black Terror, whose popularity had been strong enough to spin off a quarterly solo title and to anchor the anthology as its lead feature since issue #9. Alex Schomburg, a Puerto Rican-born commercial artist who drew more than 500 Golden Age covers working primarily for Pines and Timely, supplied the cover for #39; his tightly packed, action-laden compositions had defined the visual identity of the Nedor superhero books through the war years. Interior story art for the Kara feature was handled by Al Camy, who is credited as the character's creator across reference sources.
Trivia · 8 facts
- Published June 10, 1945, by Nedor Publications (Pines); 52 pages at a cover price of ten cents.
- First appearance and origin of Kara, Jungle Princess: American nurse Jane Howell crashes in the African jungle, receives a magical powder granting invulnerability, and is proclaimed the reincarnation of an ancient 2,000-year-old princess of the submerged kingdom of Arohiti.
- Kara ran as a backup feature in Exciting Comics from issue #39 through #49, with an additional story in Fighting Yank #21 — eleven installments in total before the character was retired and later replaced by Judy of the Jungle.
- Cover by Alex Schomburg — the primary cover artist for the Nedor/Pines line throughout the war — depicts Nazis distributing poison candy to children, one of his most overtly propagandistic wartime images for the series.
- Interior contributors to the issue include Al Camy (Kara artist/creator), Maurice Gutwirth, Bob Oksner, Charles Roberts, Larry Riley, Jim Davis, Robert Hughes (Richard Hughes, a house name), Tex Brown, and Gerald Devers.
- The Black Terror — Nedor's flagship superhero, whose popularity had driven Exciting Comics to a monthly schedule beginning with issue #11 — continued as the lead feature, battling Nazi adversaries in the same issue.
- Because Nedor characters entered the public domain, the complete Kara, Jungle Princess run originating in this issue has been reprinted in a modern trade paperback by Gwandanaland/Midcentury Comics.
- Patricia Highsmith — later acclaimed as the author of The Talented Mr. Ripley — wrote scripts for the Black Terror stories in the Exciting Comics series during this same period, appearing in neighboring issues of the run.
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Reprints
Reprinted in Take That, Adolf!: The Fighting Comic Books of the Second World War #[nn] (2017)
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