Part 2: Jumbo #11 – Jumbo #20
We left off as Sheena had just made the jump from black and white to colour — a stylistic transition mirrored by her change in lifestyle, as the queen had left her throne behind in favour of a nomadic lifestyle with Bob Reynolds.
Issue 11 opens with an explorer named Barker and his daughter Inez meeting up with Sheena and Bob seemingly by sheer coincidence. The father/daughter pair are looking for a black panther to shoot because it will make them money… or something. Sheena, ever vigilant protector of the jungle, confirms that there are many wild black cats around and she would be happy to help them find one to thrill-kill.
Back at camp, Bob takes a liking to Inez, and the two spend the night talking by the campfire while Sheena seethes with jealousy. Luckily, the awkwardness is interrupted by an attack by Wibi warriors. The giant men incapacitate and kidnap the group (sans Bob), taking them across the river and into their dungeon. Bob awakens later with new sidekick Chim the chimp by his side, and they set out to save Inez — and Sheena too, of course. His girlfriend. Who he is committed to. Sheena. Right.
Meanwhile, Barker, Inez, and Sheena are brought before the Wibi chieftain. Turns out it’s a white dude running the show. He’s got a few white women with him, as well as an army of Africans and a pit full of lions. He makes a deal, stating that the group can leave if Sheena survives in the arena with his lionesses. The scene then abruptly cuts from the throne room to said arena, with the narrative box stating, “In a little while, Sheena is thrown into an arena with a growling lioness.” Despite the lionesses looking as though they come from a rather small gene pool, the action sequence that follows with Sheena beating up on the handicap cats is superb, with the vantage changing from wide shots to close ups as the lioness leaps about.
Bob and Chim show up halfway through the fight, sprinting along the Wibi arena’s outer wall. Chim leaps down to help Sheena and together they defeat the beast. Unfortunately, even though they only turned their backs on Bob for like a second, he is captured. The chieftain then goes back on his word and states he’d rather marry Sheena than let her go. Luckily, a herd of rhinoceroses who are tired of the Wibi’s shit interrupt the scene and storm the city.
The rhinoceroses break a hole through the arena wall, and Sheena and Bob make their way into the palace to search for Inez and Barker. Though lacking in detail, the hallway and staircase scenes on page 8 are grand, creating a great sense of scale and vertigo as they pair fight their way through the palace guards and rampaging rhinoceros.
The rhinoceroses, for what it’s worth, are far better realized than the cats. Much like the lost city from issue 9, the Wibi city is a generic construction of brick and iron gates, with little in the way of décor or carvings. The chieftain’s necklace resembles that of ancient Egyptian royalty, however, and his crown is basically the crown of the lower kingdom worn backwards, so there was some effort in crafting his design.
The group escape the city and “evade the pursuing giants for days,” which is a hilarious detail to add as a footnote, suggesting Sheena, Bob, Inez, and Barker had to literally run from rhinoceroses for forty-eight hours without rest (wish we had gotten a few frames of that chase).
The final page of this issue is crammed with the remaining story hastily stuffed into a ten-frame layout. The concerns of jealousy are left unaddressed for now as Bob states he will take Inez and Barker back to the coast while Sheena stays behind to rebuild the village. She waves to the group as they walk out towards the beautiful African landscape, while the adjacent narrative pane abruptly interjects that Sheena will be kidnapped by slave traders in the next issue of Jumbo.
Jumbo issue 12 is notable for several reasons, with the most prominent being that we get an actual map of Africa, pinpointing where this nonsense is supposed to take place. The second point of note is that we see architecture semi-reminiscent of actual Islamic tradition — kinda.
The strip begins with Sheena directing her new followers in rebuilding the village. She then decides to wash off all the sweat (from not doing work) by bathing fully clothed with her pal, Chim. Unfortunately for her, if it’s one thing that drives Muslim bad guys crazy, it’s hot women bathing fully clothed, and she is then apprehended (a bit too easily) by Abu Creed.
Meanwhile, Bob returns to find Sheena missing and immediately sets out to rescue her. Sheena, meanwhile, has been brought to Pasha Kamur as a gift. The Sheikh’s wife is named Karen, and (not surprisingly) she takes issue with her husband being given a new wife (typical Karen).
Surprisingly, Karen ends up being pretty solid, helping Sheena escape with Bob. The couple return to find that their village is abandoned and agree to a sort of Adam and Eve pact, making this land their own little slice of paradise. Whether intentional or not, the issue appears to be a dig at religious beliefs throughout Africa. More so, however, it’s a strip that really focuses on Sheena and Bob being outcasts capable of surviving on their own. They cannot live under the barbaric Pasha Kamur, nor can they be part of a local tribe. Instead, the American and Caucasian African agree to live alone and start their own, new vision for Africa.
Also, Bob is blonde for some reason. It was probably just a printing error, but it really leans into the whole Arian thing they have going on. Hilarious.
Issue 13, or as it should be titled, Destroy All Jungles, is the first story of Sheena and Bob’s small business venture: escorting white people around Africa to do whatever the hell they want. A group of friendly elephant hunters request an escort, and after wrangling up some local help to do most of the heavy lifting, the group sets off.
The story is action-packed, with headhunters (Zulus, apparently), elephants, lions, and snakes at every turn. The final few pages are spectacular, with an all-out battle royale between every living thing in the vicinity. More interesting, however, is the turn in tone when Sheena manages to align herself with the elephants after agreeing to help the hunters earlier on. It’s not quite character development insofar as Sheena realizes the cruelty of trophy hunting. Rather, she is upset that the group she is escorting are more interested in looting an elephant graveyard than killing live ones, which she (correctly) predicts will cause the animals to freak out.
The environmental detail in this issue is superb, with the elephant graveyard located in a large cavern, brightly lit but nevertheless grim in tone. The animal forms too, especially the elephants, are highly detailed and incredibly realistic.
However, the strongest piece of art is the opening pane with Sheena standing contrapposto on a twisting and knotted tree branch as she looks out the landscape ahead. This is pure ‘jungle girl’, and one of the definitive frames of the character in this early part of the series. Sheena and Bob continue peddling their unique brand of soft imperialism in Jumbo issue 14, with Bob interrupting a “heated argument” between two Pygmies. The two gladly accept Bob as a negotiator, as it gives them a “break in their monotonous lives…”
The Pygmies are completely incompetent at everything, so it’s up to Bob and Sheena to plan and engineer a bridge for the tribe. The tribe prepares a vine for Sheena to swing across the valley, only to have it break and send Sheena plummeting. We’re spared the no doubt furious tirade of profanity Bob spews at the Pygmies for securing such a shitty vine and are instead given vantage of Sheena’s fall into the water below.
Page 3 is a dizzying display of action. The third panel is perfectly framed to dramatize the depth of the chasm prior to Sheena swinging across. Each frame sports a detailed backdrop as well, and this carries over into the more tightly packed fourth page where Sheena wrestles a crocodile underwater. Bob manages to toss Sheena a rope, pulling her to safety as she narrowly escapes the massive reptile’s bite.
As it turns out, the vine was severed by an arrow shot from the warring Pagona tribe. Now trapped on the side of the canyon with their enemies, Sheena and Bob must stand and fight with their backs to a cliff. Bob is knocked unconscious, while Sheena is captured and bound. Luckily, Chim sees the whole event from the safety of the canopy above and begins working on a plan to save his friends.
Cut to Sheena and Bob tied to poles in a dirt arena, as per series norm. A gate opens to reveal a Tiglon – half lion, half tiger. Hungry, angry, and probably sterile, the beast closes in on the helpless pair. Luckily, before it can pounce, an army of apes invade (via the curiously low perimeter fence) and storm the Pagona arena, slaughtering everyone inside save for the white people.
Goda the gorilla squeezes the unfortunately named (and bred) cat to death before turning to work on Sheena and Bob’s restraints. The top three frames of page 8 are beautifully arranged, building suspense as Sheena and Bob are freed from their bindings while an enemy archer lurks nearby. The middle circular frame is a portrait of the archer, bow in hand, hidden within the shade of a nearby hut. The following panel frames Sheena through the doorway of the hut, like a crosshair, as viewed from the vantage of the archer. Chim leaps back onto Sheena’s shoulder just as the warrior fires, taking the shot for her. Sheena chases the warrior as he flees the village, though he falls into the folds of a massive carnivorous plant before she can reach him, and she decides that’s about as good a punishment as she could have hoped for, listening to him writhe in pain while being digested alive.
Issue 14 represents the series hitting its stride, both artistically and narratively, packing as much action into ten pages as possible. The environments are a sight to behold, even with the silly details like the giant carnivorous plants just sitting in the open. The strip incorporated every trope it could, from lost cities to tribal warfare and unknown monsters, establishing Africa as a sort of fantastical, mythical wild west.
Issue 15 takes a decidedly political turn, criticizing a different sort of foreign interference than Islam or greedy prospectors. Here, Christianity’s influence in the continent is held to account – sort of.
Illustrated by Bob Powell, Jumbo #15 tells the story of an insane monk who has set up a cult in the middle of nowhere, holding the local population hostage. The strip opens with Sheena and Bob being apprehended by the Padre’s guards, but are then released and invited to stay as his guests. As they explore the village, Sheena and Bob discern that something isn’t quite right with the Padre, the first clue being when he executes a man for allegedly stealing bread, with a brutal silhouette depicting a spear being thrust through the offender’s heart. Sheena and Bob watch on in disgust, while the Padre wears a look of satisfaction. Bob figures there must be more to the story and sets out to spy on their host but is discovered while peering through his window.
Meanwhile, the chieftain of the region decides to enact revenge on the Padre and organizes a mutiny. Their plan commences the following morning, with some subjects staying loyal to the Padre while others join the rebellion. During the conflict, Sheena manages to gain higher ground, swooping in to save the Padre as he is surrounded. Bob goes to the Padre’s hut to retrieve the jewel he menacingly twirled in his hand the previous night, only to be cornered by the “dull-witted Oga”. After the fight, Bob and Sheena whisk the Padre away from danger.
When Sheena and Bob return the Padre to his monastery, the Padre (whose name is revealed to be Ivan), falls to his knees upon hearing the ringing bells. He dies on the spot, overwhelmed with guilt. The father reveals that the monastery was founded in 202 A.D. to guard the jewel Ivan held. Curiously, the father is, like Ivan, Caucasian, meaning it was founded to protect the jewel from… something (Tiglons?) Whether it was hidden here to be far away from wherever Ivan and his people hail from, or to be protected against the indigenous population, is not revealed. However, it clearly communicates not only a distrust of the indigenous people to handle such a valuable item, but to warrant Christian intervention.
Even while in the monastery, Sheena wears a shawl to cover herself – no such favours in cultural exchange are shown elsewhere in this initial run of thirty issues. The corrupt Ivan could be an allusion to Eastern influence, as Africa as a battleground for ideals is a theme Sheena, and other jungle books, would come to embrace.
When battling Oga, Bob states, “Now that I have you, my missing link, what am I going to do with you?” When the Padre threatens Bob and Sheena about leaving the village, he states they are prisoners and may meet the same fate as “the savage, Kidi” (who was skewered on page 4) if they don’t obey his orders. The design of the indigenous peoples here is rough, often hunched over or with limbs crossed obliquely, like apes. Furthermore, just the fact that Sheena – a “savage” herself – now refers to her fellow Africans as such shows the divide in culture she has succumbed to by, apparently, just hanging out with Bob. While making up notes like giant carnivorous plants is one thing, displaying the absolute incompetence and regressive nature of the indigenous peoples here shows the jungle girl genre’s more problematic vision of a constantly hostile and wild sub-human grouping.
Page 10 of issue 15 adheres to a twelve-panel format, focusing on narrative more than action. The previous pages are notable for their action sequences, however, with Sheena and Bob having pages 8 and 9 dedicated to their individual fights. Powell’s compositional skills are on full display here, even if his human modelling isn’t as refined as what we’d see later with Cave Girl. The central pane of page 10, too, is interesting, as Powell opted to try and squeeze a psychedelic and abstract depiction of the Padre’s reaction to the church bells by way of collage, while still confining it to the small panel.
Issue 16 opens with an animal fight, as per norm. This time, it’s Kuba the buffalo and Namu the lion fighting over an unconscious man. After Sheena and Bob rescue the man, he reveals himself to be a corporal sent to hunt Memba Sasa, the cruelest priestess in Africa. He then succumbs to his wounds, and since Sheena and Bob didn’t have any other plans for the day, opt to take up the bounty hunt.
While Sheena and Bob’s story quickly ventures into horror territory, we get a lighthearted B-story of Chim making friends with Numa. At the conclusion of Chim and Numa’s two-page intermission, the chimp and lion walk off into the sunset as friends, making it feel like a veritable Disney short before returning to Sheena and Bob for their impromptu witch hunt.
Issue 16 is narration heavy, despite its relatively simple and linear plot. A map outlines Sheena and Bob’s trek across Eastern Africa towards Kongo, pinpointing the location of the evil witch.
Sheena and Bob spot a string of baboons walking along a ridgeline at night, seemingly summoned by the witch, and opt to follow the parade. Shortly thereafter, they spy on Memba Sasa in her lair. The witch lives up to her reputation, as she is preparing to chop a baby in half.
Predictably, all hell breaks loose, and Sheena and Bob are pinned down by the baboons. Luckily, Chim and Numa are nearby, and Chim picks up on one of the baboon’s screams, as telegraphed by an absolutely horrifying static rendition on page 8. The lion and chimp swoop in to save the day and devore Memba Sasa. After that grotesque display, Mrs. Namu emerges from the jungle and the group grows from four to seven, with the lions bringing two cubs along with them. Sheena wonders aloud whether a family is in her and Bob’s future, to which Bob replies, “We’ll know soon enough!” — A nice palate cleanser after we nearly witnessed an infant get fileted.
Issue 17 opens with a Masai runner delivering a message to Bob from his old friend Kirk Dunton. Dunton wants Bob to help him apprehend an ape, to which Sheena and Bob gladly agree — kind of a cunty move, considering their best friend who constantly saves them is an ape.
The group opts to dig a pit to catch the gorilla and lure it in by Sheena throwing coconuts at its head. The plan works (miraculously), but the hunters are soon apprehended by an aggressive tribe and Sheena, Bob, and company are jailed. After securing the white people, the tribesmen set the captured gorilla’s cage right next to the fire. The gorilla escapes and goes into an absolute rage before confronting Sheena for a final showdown (weird he’s more upset about the coconuts than being set on fire). A spectacular acrobatic fight ensues, ending when Bob glass-jaws the ape while Sheena grips its head. They pack the animal back up into its cage and send Dunton on his way, where I’m sure the gorilla lived the rest of its life happily.
The real tragedy, of course, plays out in the final two frames when Dunton confesses his desire to see Sheena again, to which Karen responds she would like to see Bob as well. This is the first cliffhanger ending we’ve had in several issues, signifying a move back towards an overarching narrative as opposed to individual, and relatively inconsequential, adventures.
Jumbo #18 opens with Pasha Kamur’s wife, Karen, moving to warn Kirk and Sybil Dunton that Sheena is being hunted by her husband’s mercenary, Mamoud (well, actually, the strip opens up with a snapshot of Sheena and Bob killing a Jaguar before abruptly switching back to the Duntons, but that’s neither here nor there). The brother and sister heed Karen’s warning and leave to warn Sheena. Unfortunately, as Kirk is escorting Karen back to the palace, he is apprehended and thrown in a dungeon.
Sybil decides to continue the safari alone after her brother doesn’t show up the next morning. Sybil’s party arrives in time to warn Sheena, but then quickly shifts to ogling Bob like Chim ogles a banana, leaving Sheena seething with rage as she listens to them recount their days of whatever-the-fuck kids did for fun back in the 1930s.
Things go from bad to worse when Sheena spies Bob and Sybil making out, prompting the jungle queen to shed a tear. Walking aimlessly in the jungle (and apparently with her headphones in), she doesn’t notice a jaguar preparing to pounce on her. She fights the creature off, but is ultimately saved by Mamoud, who then ties her up and begins the long trip back to Pasha. Page 5 is heartbreaking as it is hilarious, with the narration reading, “Her spirit crushed, Sheena neither hears nor feels the insults hurled at her by the cruel Mamoud.”
Finally, after taking a break from playing tonsil hockey with Sybil, Bob notices his girlfriend is gone. They follow the slave traders’ tracks back to town, but instead of barging into the palace to rescue her like last time, Bob decides to dress up as a “negro slave.”
Moving on.
While he doesn’t go full blackface, he somehow quickly ends up in Pasha’s slave quarters (instead of, you know, getting sold to another slaver – a very real possibility he failed to foresee in this plan) with a bunch of his old African “friends”. Together, they opt to rescue Sheena, while Sybil waits until nightfall to swim across the palace moat and deliver a metal file to Bob to aid in his escape.
Crocodile attacks in the moat aside, there are a ton of holes in this plan.
Luckily, everything works out, and Kirk and Karen manage to escape just as Pasha puts the moves on Sheena, earning him a good wallop from the pair. Karen too jumps in, pointing a gun out towards the viewer, Miss Fury style, at the top of page 9. She kills her husband, and then the rest of the prisoners break free and begin battling the slavers.
Sheena runs to embrace her dickhead boyfriend, and he acts as though he had no idea that kissing another woman in front of her would be upsetting. Sybil apologizes for causing her distress with their “innocent kiss” (see page 4, frame 4 — that’s a full on smooth, bitch) and then states that she and her brother are going back to England. Good riddance.
The art is this issue is interesting, as the muscle definition and builds are incredibly powerful. Facial consistency is a bit more sporadic, but the number of distinct characters and locals is impressive, especially in the city. The backgrounds also work well, mostly being simple interior rooms with archway doors, but the smart use of colour builds the palace into a great set piece.
Jumbo 19 opens with a sign bracketed by two skull-capped posts, with the strip’s setup narration written on the board. We get a map on the first page as well, outlining the horrible ruler Ikwaba’s territory. Sheena and Bob make an appearance on page 2, wherein they hear the drums of Ikwaba shortly before being ambushed by his “Leopard Men”. As the warlord “has it in for whites”, the pair are carried back to Ikwaba’s fortress for him to decide their fate. Bob manages to write a note and send it out with Chim, making for an interesting interlude as Chim rushes across the dangerous jungle while his human companions are held captive.
What’s most notable about the setup of this strip is that Ikwaba has seemingly not heard of the great jungle queen, but Sheena and Bob have heard of him. Furthermore, she is treated as white and not indigenous – a point worth noting in the broader definition of the ‘jungle girl’.
Furthermore, when Sheena is subjected to Ikwaba’s gauntlet, Bob tells her to remember ‘the Harvard game’ (Strange he remembered to tell her about his football days but neglected to tell her about the make out session he promised Sybil last issue). It’s weird that Sheena would need training in tackling and running through Ikwaba’s men, seeing as she strangles wild animals with her bare hands on a regular basis. This too further establishes her as a student of the West, hinting that her rural African upbringing was inadequate in preparing her for combat, despite what we’ve witnessed over the past eighteen issues.
The story takes another curious twist upon Chim reaching help. He gives Bob’s note to two French servicemen. After reading Bob’s note they spring into action and board a plane to go and save the pair. Bob is poisoned by an arrow as he and Sheena make their daring escape, but the Frenchmen arrive just in time. An action-packed escape sequence plays out over the next two pages, with the plane protecting Bob and Sheena from the marauders with machine gun fire. Eventually, he lowers a ladder, and Sheena, holding Bob, grabs hold and they fly off to safety. Sheena, Bob, and Chim are then awarded medals of valor from the French military.
Bob Powell illustrated this issue of Sheena, and it’s one of the most exciting in this early run. The plane sequences are immaculate, both in terms of composition and landscapes. While infrastructure in Ikwaba’s village is relatively plain, the world is well developed by Powell thanks in part to the map, attention to detail and consistency for both the protagonists and antagonists, and the use of micro frames on several pages to cram as much narrative into the strip as possible without taking away real-estate from the action. There is the oddity of Bob being a floating torso in the opening panel of page 2, but aside from this and a couple of awkward colouring stamps, it’s a beautiful strip all around.
Jumbo issues eleven through twenty were a drastic expansion in format and style from the Wags Weekly serialization. No longer the ruler of a tribe, Sheena followed Bob seemingly to nowhere in particular, shelving her political position for curiosity. Though she never comes straight out and states that she feels a kinship with her Caucasian counterparts, she almost wholly adopts whatever Bob and his colleagues state, being a proxy of their wishes. She is still the strong, confident, capable, and fearless heroine from before, though in comparison to other jungle girls, like Cave Girl, she accepts that there are better ways than just those of the jungle. She does not care about the internal conflicts of her home as much as she does the soft influence from foreign powers. Whereas she herself was a cruel ruler when we first met her, nineteen issues later she decides to stand up to the wicked without question. When Bob kisses Sybil, Sheena is sad, but she very quickly forgives him and moves on. She is not only eye candy, but a loyal and steadfast support for her boyfriend, being more a fantasy proxy than a character of her own. If Bob is a caveat for the reader, Sheena had developed into a lapdog over these ten issues; Brave, but without much thought of her own – a strange regression for someone who was royalty not long ago.
You can download Sheena: Jumbo Comics Archive Pt.1, here.