As a boy, I was unaware that DC Comics’ Congo Bill had a long-running “Jungle Jim” type feature before he ever met Congorilla, and had I known, I’d have been mystified.
What, after all, would be the point of paying any attention to the adventures of some guy in a pith helmet if he could NOT trade minds with a huge golden gorilla?
Debuting in More Fun Comics 56 (June 1940), the jungle adventurer even had his own title, which ran seven issues (Sept. 1954 to Sept. 1955).
“On Oct. 28, 1948, Columbia Pictures (Blackhawk, Bruce Gentry) released the first of a 15-chapter serial with him as the title character,” noted comics historian Don Markstein.
In Action Comics 178 (March 1953), Bill helps a giant ape called Congorilla avoid capture after it saves his life from a lion. Then in Congo Bill 1 (Aug.-Sept. 1954), Bill encounters a large golden gorilla named Bogadu who’s a pal of Janu the Jungle Boy. Then, in Action Comics 228 (May 1957), Congo Bill and Janu meet a highly intelligent ape that had been a Hollywood star. This one’s name is Kongorilla (with a K, mind you).
With superheroes emerging as the coming thing, these elements finally all came together in Action Comics 248 (Jan. 1959).
Having rescued a witch doctor, Congo Bill is rewarded with a magic ring that enables him to switch minds with yet another Congorilla, this one a huge golden ape.
“When danger threatened, Bill would put himself in a cage, get Janu to tie him up or in some other way render himself incapable of harming himself, then enter the body of the beast,” Markstein explained.
Considering the popularity of ape covers at DC, it seems kind of odd that Congorilla didn’t get his own title in the 1960s. But, given the fact that the sales-boosting gorilla covers were apparently rationed out between editors at DC, that might have upset the editorial balance of power.
Bruce Kanin:
ReplyDeleteI always thought that the final Congorilla story should’ve been one where Bill switches minds with the golden gorilla and then “Bill” is taken to Vienna to be studied by psychiatrists while the gorilla with Bill’s mind becomes a Broadway star a la King Kong.
Paul Zuckerman:
ReplyDeleteI, like you, Dan, came in on the tail end of Bill's career after Congorilla had been introduced. I think I may have missed the goriilla's introduction in issue 248 but while some comics from that period stick out in my memory, not all do. In any case, most of my reading about Bill involved the gorilla, and, of course Janu, Bill was soon tossed out of Action though, and made few appearances after that. (Less said should be his self-titled series post-Crisis where Janu apparently betrays him. What IS it with those sidekicks these days! Sigh--)
I did discover Bill's past though in the mid-'60s when I acquired a couple of early 1950s Action Comics. And along the way I acquired one issue of the 1950s Congo Bill. Unlike the series, which had been drawn by Ed Smalle in those earlier stories and then by Howard Sherman in the later years, including Congorilla stories, the solo series was drawn by Nick Cardy and has a very different feel. ( I imagine he got the assignment because of his stint on the Tarzan strip.) According to Wikipedia, George Papp originated the character but I am not sure that I've seen any of the stories he drew. I associate Papp more with Green Arrow, which he did for almost two decades, and Superboy, of which he was the principal artist during the early Silver Age. I think Smalle is my favorite of the artists' whose work I saw, though Curt Swan did get to draw him when Bill and the gorilla show up in a Superman story.
Mark Engblom:
ReplyDeleteIn a way, Congo Bill/Congorilla was sort of a foreshadowing of the much darker Bruce Banner/Hulk dynamic three years later.
Obviously, there are important differences (such as Banner and Hulk sharing a single body), but the similarities of a normal human exchanging places with a savage beast, and all the harrowing logistics surrounding it, are certainly there to see.
I replied:
Mark Engblom Good point. A sort of a reverse-Hulk.
Don Christian:
ReplyDeleteKinda funny but, being old maybe not…. I remember Congo Bill vividly from Action Comics from the time I became a comics fan (early ‘56) and so I was there for the change over to “The Golden Ape” it I don’t remember the series ever changing titles from Congo Bill to Congorilla. I even recall “with Janu” being added but, not Bill losing his title to the monkey.
By the by, another winner bit of history …Thanks!
Johnny Williams:
ReplyDeleteDan - As a boy, I was unaware that DC Comics’ Congo Bill had a long-running “Jungle Jim” type feature before he ever met Congorilla, and had I known, I’d have been mystified.
What, after all, would be the point of paying any attention to the adventures of some guy in a pith helmet if he could NOT trade minds with a huge golden gorilla?
Me - You’d be surprised Dan, Lol. I have a feeling that had you been exposed to some of them you might have been taken by those jungle adventure stories as I’d been.
Dan - Debuting in More Fun Comics 56 (June 1940), the jungle adventurer even had his own title, which ran seven issues (Sept. 1954 to Sept. 1955).
Me - I got to see some of them early in my comics fandom and the covers alone were often of the ‘intriguing scenario’ types that almost compelled you to want to read the story and see ‘what happened’.
Dan - “On Oct. 28, 1949, Columbia Pictures (Blackhawk, Bruce Gentry) released the first of a 15-chapter serial with him as the title character,” noted comics historian Don Markstein.
Me - I’ve never seen those but am on the lookout for them.
Dan - In Action Comics 178 (March 1953), Bill helps a giant ape called Congorilla avoid capture after it saves his life from a lion. Then in Congo Bill 1 (Aug.-Sept. 1954), Bill encounters a large golden gorilla named Bogadu who’s a pal of Janu the Jungle Boy. Then, in Action Comics 228 (May 1957), Congo Bill and Janu meet a highly intelligent ape that had been a Hollywood star. This one’s name is Kongorilla (with a K, mind you).
Me - There seems to have been a pattern emerging.
Dan - With superheroes emerging as the coming thing, these elements finally all came together in Action Comics 248 (Jan. 1959).
Me - The era of the birth of the Silver Age of Comics.
Dan - Having rescued a witch doctor, Congo Bill is rewarded with a magic ring that enables him to switch minds with yet another Congorilla, this one a huge golden ape.
Me - Even as a (very young) child I had a ‘problem’ with that premise. More to come on that subject.
Dan - “When danger threatened, Bill would put himself in a cage, get Janu to tie him up or in some other way render himself incapable of harming himself, then enter the body of the beast,” Markstein explained.
Me - One thing that DC did that was very different than Marvel was to have heroes who would become physically incapacitated to go into action. I’m thinking of the Doom Patrol’s Larry Trainor and the mentioned here Congo Bill. Larry would collapse when he launched Negative Man into action, and Bill had to have his human body restrained when it was inhabited by the mind of the giant golden gorilla.
Dan - Considering the popularity of ape covers at DC, it seems kind of odd that Congorilla didn’t get his own title in the 1960s. But, given the fact that the sales-boosting gorilla covers were apparently rationed out between editors at DC, that might have upset the editorial balance of power.
Me - That’s as logical an explanation as any other.
Burns Duncan:
ReplyDeleteBy the end of 1970, my older brother had persuaded his brother-in-law not to divest his collection going back to 1957 but to give it to someone who would keep it intact and add to it: me.
His collection was filed by month of release and then by title--a system I ultimately kept. My first pass thtough the collection was reading in order the items in the shared universes of DC and Marvel.
Your post reminds me. The anthology titles like Action and Adventure had a star in the front half and other strips in the back half of each comic. I read Aquaman and Green Arrow and even Tommy Tomorrow with interest. I pushed myself to read Congo Bill and only skimmed over Tomahawk. I remember that the extended family member who gave me his collection had given me a score of tips. One of them was not to give up too early on strips that seemed not worth the time to read them. After reading 15 or 20 stories, he assured me, Congo Bill will get way more entertaining.
I replied:
My favorite anthology title was Detective, which gave me Batman, Roy Raymond AND the Martian Manhunter.