Jungle Comics #3 - pt. 4

Because I'm a glutton for punishment, we're going to do a fourth look at this issue for its final feature, Fletcher Hanks' Fantomah, Mystery Woman of the Jungle.

The makers of this ancient city loved spires, which is interesting because spires didn't appear in architecture until the 12th century. So how "ancient" are we to consider this?












Can we credit Fletcher with combating racism in comics by refusing to color black characters in comic books any differently than whites? Two other possibilities are a) he was just lazy, b) careless, or c) this is one of those racist lost cities in Africa populated by whites, because blacks couldn't be believed to have created civilizations themselves.

It looks like the archers are enjoying a much better rate of fire than the tommy guns by that last panel -- and that is perfectly appropriate to 2nd ed. Hideouts & Hoodlums, where rate of fire is based off of level/Hit Dice more than weapon choice.

It scarcely is necessary to mention Fantomah is using a Fly spell here.

Okay, assuming the green death plague was a real thing, what are these two big game hunters doing with a sample of it in a syringe? Random trophy selection?

If the green death will kill a man in a few hours, is it really a good idea to be that close to the infected mandrill?

I'm not aware of any culture that holds the mandrill sacred.

This is definitely the first time I've seen a diseased mandrill used to infiltrate a guarded city. Players take note!

Fantomah, still working behind the scenes, casts Cure Disease (for the first time in comics?).

A spell that mysteriously returns things to their places is...Telekinesis? Some kind of Put Things Back Where They Were spell?

Fantomah used Polymorph Other twice on the two men, showing that it doesn't have to be a real species one is polymorphed into -- unless I stat these guys as some kind of asparagus men.

(Scans courtesy of Comic Book Plus.)

Jungle Comics #2 - pt. 4

I don't think it's right to move on from Jungle Comics without addressing its last and weirdest feature, Fletcher Hanks' Fantomah. While Tabu had already passed into other hands, and the splash page of this story (not shared here) looks like it's by a different artist, Fletcher was still allowed to work his wonky magic on the rest of this story. It interestingly bookends the Tabu story of this same issue, by both being about elephant graveyards. Note the difference between R.L. Golden's technically more proficient drawing of an elephant's graveyard, but with much less ivory, and Hanks' drawing below where the graveyard is awash in a sea of ivory.

Here we also get a sense that Fantomah is some sort of angel for animals, delivering them peacefully to their afterlife. She takes no direct action against the evil humans, but observes the cosmic justice. Well, she might have helped goad them towards cosmic justice, by sealing them in the graveyard...

Perhaps the most bizarre part -- in a strip overflowing with bizarreness -- is the curious incident of the death cries of the dogs. The narration describes the dogs are running away from the arch, the direction that Fantomah wants them to go, so it seems unlikely that she did it. Is it just coincidence? Do they meet a jungle predator off-panel? Is the noise just illusory, made by Fantomah to spook the men?

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Game notes: $1 million in ivory is going to create transportation issues, no matter how loosely the Editor enforces encumbrance rules (which are pretty lax in Hideouts & Hoodlums to start with!).

Fantomah's sudden appearance in panel 6 might stem from ending an Invisibility spell on herself. Her ability to transform

from flesh to skeleton and back is likely just a Phantasmal Image spell. Blocking off the arch is a much more impressive spell, though -- Wall of Stone (unless she used the lesser spell Stone Shape to make the walls swell and bulge inwardly?).

(Scans courtesy of Digital Comic Museum.)