Sheena Queen of the Jungle and Ka'a'nga Comics covers gallery

FICTION HOUSE COMICS GALLERY -
Sheena Queen of the Jungle & Ka'a'nga Comics

Sheena, the main feature in Jumbo Comics, was the most popular character created by Fiction House publishing. Only a few years after Jumbo Comics first appeared in September 1938, Fiction House decided to give Sheena her own comic. Sheena Queen of the Jungle No. 1 first appeared in the Spring of 1942 and only three biannual issues were published before the title was suspended in the Spring of 1943, possibly because of wartime paper shortages. The title was not seen again for more than five years and in the fall of 1948, possibly around April, Sheena Queen of the Jungle No. 4 appeared (see below). This issue reprinted the cover of Jumbo Comics No. 20, but changed the background figures and used different colouration (left). The next few issues were somewhat erratic, with issue number 5 following nine months later, in the summer of 1949, probably mid-year. It took another nine months before Issue number 6 was published in the Spring of 1950, again appearing about April. Strangely, the next four issues are all identified as only "1950", which means five issues were published within a short span of nine months, possibly bimonthly. By issue number 11 Fiction House were again identifying the run with seasonal labels, this time as Spring 1951. For the rest of it's run Sheena Queen of the Jungle was a regular quarterly publication, until the title finally disappeared in the winter of 1952-53. This was about the time that other Fiction House titles were starting to face difficulty. Jumbo Comics was a quarterly publication by this time and it too would be dead only three months later. The full story of the final years of Fiction House Publishing is told on Page 5: The Decline of Fiction House.

I have included the full range of Ka'a'nga Comics covers, because Ka'a'nga is to Jungle Comics what Sheena is to Jumbo Comics. It would be remiss to present all of the Jumbo Comics covers (see link above), all of the Jungle Comics covers (see link above), all of the Sheena Queen of the Jungle covers (below), and to ignore those featuring Ka'a'nga under his own name. They are as equally exciting and well rendered as the other Fiction House jungle-inspired titles, principally because the same artists worked on both. Ka'a'nga was a late addition to the Fiction House stable, first appearing in the spring of 1949. Like the irregular publishing history of Sheena's own title, he also had a slow start, with a nine-month interval between the first and second issues. However, by issue number 3 it was a regular quarterly publication and it stayed that way for the next four-and-a-half years. The title changed occasionally throughout the series and was variously known as Ka'a'nga Comics, Ka'a'nga Jungle King and Ka'a'nga Jungle Lord. Interestingly, the series outlived both Sheena Queen of the Jungle, which lasted until the end of 1952, and Jumbo Comics, which ceased publication in March 1953. Ka'a'nga appears to have been a fairly durable hero, because his own title continued until mid-1954 and Jungle Comics, of which he was the main feature, lasted until the end of 1954, longer than most of the other Fiction House titles. Similarly, Jungle Stories, the related pulp magazine published by one of the Fiction House imprints, lasted until the spring of 1954.

The identification of the cover artists and the publication dates on this page is based entirely on the information available from The Grand Comics Database Project (GCD) website. I am indebted to that wonderful site for being so comprehensive in it's coverage.

COVERS GALLERIES INTRO

FICTION HOUSE INTRO

Use the links below to access the different sections of this page:

1. SHEENA QUEEN OF THE JUNGLE

2. KA'A'NGA JUNGLE LORD

Click on the thumbnails below to see a large size image of each cover:

1. SHEENA QUEEN OF THE JUNGLE