April 1966: The Jumping Jack Jungle Boy

The 80-page giant Flash 160 offered a lot of running around in reprints — the then-current Flash, the original Flash, Kid Flash, Johnny Quick and even an “Antelope Boy.”

In Adventure Comics 123 (Dec. 1947), DC’s perennial runner-up Johnny Quick tackled one of those ever-present mirror-image foes, but a Tarzan touch made Antelope Boy a more interesting opponent for the formulaic super-speedster.

“Deep in the heart of the African jungle, tribesmen are amazed by the strange man-beast who runs with the antelopes, his two legs as fleet as their four,” the opening narration explains. “Even the bounding hare is no match for the fleet youth!”

Of course, criminals take advantage of the confused young jungle hero and recruit him (a situation that both Blackhawk and Batman also ran into later). The Fagin-like felons teach the teen English and name him “Feets.” 

Feets’ fleet criminal feats attract the attention of newsreel photographer Johnny Chambers, who recites his mathematical magic and ultimately sorts matters out.

After he punches out the criminal gang, the superhero learns that despite his lack of any prior education, Feets plans to attend college.

“But you have no money!” Johnny objects.

“No need money!” Feets replies. “Fifty-seven college men see Feets run at Arena. Got 57 offers to be on their college track teams.”

Meanwhile, the nation’s most popular jungle boy had just finished his run as Tarzan’s son in Tarzan and the Huntress, released in April 1947. 

“Johnny Sheffield, who as a 7-year-old had made his debut as Boy in the 1939 classic Tarzan Finds a Son was now a solidly built 15-year-old approaching six feet in height,” noted David Fury in his book Kings of the Jungle. “He had simply outgrown the role of Boy.”

But Sheffield didn’t trade in his loincloth. Beginning in 1948, he would star in another dozen Monogram films as Bomba the Jungle Boy, a character featured in a series of American boys’ adventure books from 1926 to 1938.