Nyoka the Jungle Girl #2
☆ Be the first to review + Add to your collection — Join freeNyoka the Jungle Girl #2 (Winter 1945) is the true launch issue of Nyoka's dedicated solo series — the title picked up its numbering directly from the one-shot Jungle Girl #1 (1942), making this issue #2 the effective first installment of what became a 76-issue Fawcett run that continued until 1953. It established one of the most prominent and commercially durable female-led adventure titles of the Golden Age, placing Nyoka alongside Sheena as a rare pre-Code headliner whose stories revolved entirely around a self-reliant woman who consistently outfoxed and outfought the men around her. The series also documents the increasingly independent life of a media adaptation: starting here, the stories broke free of direct serial tie-ins and expanded into wholly original jungle adventures, showing how a licensed film property could evolve into its own distinct comic-book mythology. As one of Fawcett's top-circulating non-superhero properties — annual circulation figures in the millions by the late 1940s — the title demonstrated that female-fronted action books could sustain a mass readership without the superhero framework.
This issue is an anthology containing two stories. "Trader Tom: Not Cheep, Cheep!" follows Trader Tom as he encounters a canary he recently acquired, which he attempts to sell to other traders for one hundred dollars, leading to comedic complications. The main story, "Nyoka the Jungle Girl: Dinner Music for Cannibals (Part 1)," begins Nyoka's four-part adventure as she searches for a genuine native voodoo drummer in Africa; having escaped death in an explosion from a shipwreck in shark-infested waters, she is captured by a tribe of savage cannibals who set a trap to catch her.
When a wealthy but eccentric young man named Zoot Smoot approaches Nyoka about guiding an African expedition to find a genuine voodoo drummer for his swing band, she initially refuses—until his father, the millionaire Barnstable Smoot, kidnaps her and makes a compelling case that the adventure might straighten out his wayward son. What Nyoka doesn't know is that a mysterious figure named King High, who holds a massive gambling debt over Zoot, has taken out a life insurance policy on the boy and has darker plans for the voyage to Africa than anyone suspects. As the expedition sets sail aboard the Smoot yacht, danger lurks below deck in the form of dynamite and sabotage.
Nyoka encounters Trader Tom, who's recently acquired a canary he claims sings beautifully—and wants a hundred dollars for it. When Nyoka points out the bird's peculiar condition, Tom has a ready (if questionable) explanation for his asking price.
Nyoka agrees to guide Zoot Smoot, a jitterbug bandleader, into the jungle to find a voodoo drummer for his swing band—but the voyage turns deadly when the yacht explodes, likely sabotaged by King High, a crooked gambler bent on collecting insurance. Stranded on a remote island with Larry and a miraculously surviving Zoot, Nyoka must contend not only with the dangers of the jungle but with the sinister presence of two stowaways who may be responsible for the wreck, all while voodoo drums echo in the night.
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Nyoka herself originated on screen, not on the page: the character debuted in Republic Pictures' 15-chapter serial Jungle Girl (1941), with Frances Gifford portraying Nyoka Meredith, and was popular enough to generate the 1942 sequel Perils of Nyoka starring Kay Aldridge. Fawcett capitalized on both serials with the one-shot Jungle Girl #1 in November 1942, then transitioned the character into a backup feature in Master Comics beginning with issue #50 (May 1944). Issue #2 of the newly retitled Nyoka the Jungle Girl launched the dedicated quarterly series under executive editor Will Lieberson, with interior art primarily handled by Harry Anderson (whose work on this issue was long misattributed to Clem Weisbecker before GCD researchers identified the true hand through stylistic comparison) and Bert Whitman, who likely drew the cover and became the series' most consistent visual voice for years to come.
Trivia · 8 facts
- Published Winter 1945 by Fawcett Publications as a quarterly title; 36 pages, standard Golden Age US format, cover price 10¢.
- The series numbering starts at #2, directly continuing from the one-shot Jungle Girl #1 (November 1942) — making this the effective first issue of Nyoka's own dedicated, ongoing solo series.
- Interior credits per the Grand Comics Database: art by Bert Whitman and Harry Anderson (the Anderson pages were originally misattributed to Clem Weisbecker; attribution was corrected through stylistic analysis), with writer Chester Whitehorn contributing text features, and Howard Boughner also listed among contributors.
- The main story introduces new characters Barnstable Smoot (millionaire) and his son Zoot Smoot, as well as the villain King High — the latter previously seen in Master Comics — in a multi-part safari adventure across Africa.
- The cover (credited as possibly by Bert Whitman) depicts Nyoka in an action-girl pose, establishing the series' recurring visual template of a physically dynamic heroine rather than a passive or decorative figure.
- Nyoka was simultaneously running as a backup feature in Master Comics (from #50 onward), meaning this issue launched her solo title while she was already appearing in a second concurrent Fawcett book.
- The series ran 76 issues total through June 1953, when Fawcett ceased publication following the National Comics Publications v. Fawcett Publications lawsuit; Charlton Comics then acquired the character and continued the numbering from #14 (November 1955).
- The Fawcett issues were extensively reprinted: during the original run by L. Miller & Son in the UK, and in the modern era by Golden Age Reprints and Retro Comic Reprints (the latter collecting issues #2–7 in a single trade paperback volume).
Full credits
Reprints
Reprinted in Nyoka the Jungle Girl #24 (1951)
Key issues in Nyoka the Jungle Girl
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