Jungle comic books routinely featured insensitive, racist elements back in the day and all too often, for that reason alone, modern readers prefer to forget about them. Jun-Gal hasn't appeared in the Catacombs since February 2010. This untitled adventure which I've christened "White Goddess of the Tagomas" is from Blazing Comics #2 (Jul. 1944); originally released by minor golden age publisher Rural Home Publications. Like the earlier Jun-Gal story that I posted, this tale is literally rife with racist stereotypes. The native Africans are depicted in standard black-face for that era and there is a token black female character called "Mammy".
Jun-Gal received special powers from an exposed radium pit after she was abducted by the very tribesmen who slaughtered her family. Why the tribesmen never received equal powers from living in such close proximity to the radium goes conveniently unexplained. Fortunately the natives kept Mammy alive to care for the little white girl. There is no explanation as to why Joan (aka "Jun-Gal") isn't speaking pigeon English too?
There are no creator credits available for this story, but the Catacombs is grateful to Don "Zu-Gogo" Falkos for providing the scans. Note: The copyright for this issue, its contents and artwork belong to the original publisher and/or creators and is reproduced here solely for entertainment purposes.
Enjoy!
Enjoy!
1 comment:
It wasn't viewed as 'racist' or, 'insensitive' back in those days. It was just considered fun. We were a lot less sophisticated.
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