Sheena Queen of the Jungle cover at by J.Scott Campbell
So many fantasy girls, so little time
Yes – it’s one of my shallow dip top tens for my Top 10 Jungle Girls & Cavewomen, all in one go.
And it’s my standard note on the visual images used here – given the copyright in such images, I only use a visual image as fair use for the purposes of comment and review for entries – a feature image to identify the character, either in general or in their most iconic version as I review it to be (or both), sourced only from published cover art as cited.
(1) SHEENA QUEEN OF THE JUNGLE (1938)
The archetypal and definitive jungle girl in comics, dating all the way back to her debut in 1938, preceding Wonder Woman as female character with her own title.
She also contributes my iconic feature image for jungle girls in general – from J. Scott Campbell’s cover art of the debut issue of her relaunched comic title by Dynamite Entertainment – as the cheetah-clad blonde that has become the definitive jungle girl.
Promotional art by Frank Cho for Shanna the She-Devil vol. 2 #1 (April 2005)
(2) SHANNA SHE-DEVIL (1972)
Or Shanna the She-Devil (reminiscent of Red Sonja’s She-Devil with a Sword), similar to Sheena but published by Marvel Comics in 1972 and bouncing back and forth between being a jungle girl in Africa to being a cavewoman in the Savage Land, Marvel’s weird subterranean prehistoric jungle lost world within Antarctica with dinosaurs.
As for my iconic feature image – it’s her comic’s cover art by Frank Cho, king of jungle girl art.
Cover art by Frank Cho for the Jungle Girl Omnibus Volume 11 (Dynamite Entertainment May 2012)
(3) JUNGLE GIRL – JANA SKY-BORN (2007)
Similar to Sheena and Shanna She-Devil in appearance but gets bonus points for a comic with the actual title Jungle Girl – and of course cover art by Frank Cho.
Cavewoman pinup art by Budd Root
(4) CAVEWOMAN – MERIEM COOPER (1993)
By contrast, the titular (heh) cavewoman of the comic of that title by Budd Root for Basement Comics is a brunette – and essentially something of a vehicle for Root to demonstrate his pinup art skills. Not that I’m complaining.
She is transported in time to prehistoric Earth, although at least her statuesque Playboy centrefold appearance is actually explained as the body-enhancing effect of (and to survive) the time travel (as well as superhuman physical ability). Look – I’m already a fan of fictional time travel but that just sells it more!
Her iconic feature image is of course art by Root for the comic.
League of Legends game promotional art
(5) NIDALEE – LEAGUE OF LEGENDS (2009)
The resident jungle girl of League of Legends. Yes – that’s a video game rather than a comic (although I understand the franchise does publish comics) but she has too high a profile not to rank in my Top 10 Jungle Girls. She also has her own entry in my Top 10 Girls of League of Legends.
And now to rattle off the rest of my Top Ten Jungle Girls in comics – to be honest, although there are a surprisingly prolific number of jungle girls in comics (enough for a few top tens), they all blur into each other so I just scraped together those that most stood out or caught my eye.
(6) FEMFORCE – TARA FREEMONT (1985)
The brunette jungle girl of the superheroine Femforce team. Apart from the ability to communicate with animals, she could also change her size as a superpower.
(7) FANA THE JUNGLE GIRL (1989)
Brunette jungle girl by F. Newton Burcham
(8) DAHLUA STRONG (1999)
Wife of Alan Moore’s superhero Tom Strong, she at the least has the advantage over other Jungle Girls of actually being native to Africa
(9) JUNGLE FANTASY – LANI MILLS & KITT VALTANE (2003)
Two jungle girls for the price of one – and a duo of a blonde and brunette to boot! (Where are the redhead jungle girls?!)
Although that title is unfortunately reminiscent of something else with more…adult content. Oh well – I suppose it could have been worse
(10) PRYMAL: THE JUNGLE WARRIOR (2014)
A platinum blonde jungle girl, aptly enough in the Amazon