Featuring: Ka-Zar
Release: August 31, 1939
Cover: October 1939
10 cents
Credits: Ben Thompson
From the famous character created by: Bob Byrd
12 pages
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“From the famous character created by Bob Byrd”… I don’t think Ka-Zar was actually yet famous.
Marvel Comics #1 is the comic that started it all. We’ve been slowly reading through its 68 pages. We read the first story, the introduction of the Human Torch, right in the beginning, to coincide with the introduction of the new Human Torch. We soon after read the Sub-Mariner story to prepare for Namor’s return to the modern Marvel Universe in Fantastic Four #4. We took X-Men #1 as an excuse to read the Angel story, despite there being no real connection between that Angel and the Angel of the X-Men.
What’s left to read? The inside front cover has some gags.
There’s a Western story that introduces the Masked Raider. I don’t know if we’ll find an excuse to read it.
There’s a one-off jungle story called “Jungle Terror”.
A one-off text story about racing called “Burning Rubber”.
And this, the story of Ka-Zar.
Unlike the other tales which are (more or less) original concepts, Ka-Zar is adapted from prose stories.
He was introduced in his own magazine, Ka-Zar #1 (1936), and written by none other than Martin Goodman (under the pen name Bob Byrd), who was also the publisher, and remains the publisher of Marvel in 1965.
We’ve already met Ka-Zar when we read Human Torch #5. We saw he rode an elephant and generally worked with the animals to defend Africa from Sub-Mariner’s war upon the Earth.
The character bears at least some similarity to the Tarzan character of Edgar Rice Burroughs (down to the letters in the name). He was neither the first nor the second nor the last character to bear such a resemblance.
Marvel Comics #1 retells the origin of Ka-Zar from the original prose story.
The story is faithfully if tersely adapted from the first 9 chapters of the original story, “King of Fang and Claw”, leaving off in the middle of chapter 10. The names of the characters and animals all match, and much dialogue is even identical. Some details are omitted as a single panel and caption often stands in for several paragraphs of the prose version. The biggest loss in adaptation is the character of Zar. We see much of the story from his viewpoint in the original, and we don’t get to know him nearly as well in the comic.
The next issue will continue the adaptation where this one leaves off.
John Rand was a wealthy diamond mine owner, but his plane crashed in the Belgian Congo with his wife and son aboard. They set up a camp in the jungle while holding out hope for rescue. Young David quickly felt at home in the jungle, and started befriending the animals he showed no fear of.
John’s wife Constance died of a jungle fever, and John was soon after hit on the head, which induced a madness that the jungle was his true and only home. This suited young David just fine.
Zar was king of the jungle until he found himself in trouble with quicksand, something I had grown up believing would be a pretty serious concern in life. David rescued him, and a bond was formed.
The greedy Paul De Kraft was after emeralds and killed John Rand, leaving David alone in the jungle. Zar took David into his cave and declared the boy his brother: Ka-Zar.
In subsequent issues, Ka-Zar comes of age, becoming master of the jungle, sometimes finding conflict with the creatures who live there, and always finding conflict with any man who seeks to despoil his jungle home.
That’s enough intro to Ka-Zar for now. We should be ready to read X-Men #10…
Rating: ★★★☆☆, 53/100
I read this story in Golden Age Marvel Masterworks vol. 1. You can also find it on Kindle, albeit with questionable recoloring choices.
Characters:
- Ka-Zar/David Rand
- Chaka
- Zar
- Trajah
- John Rand
- Constance Rand
- N’Jaga
- Nono
- Quog
- Wal-Lan
- Kru
- Sha
- Paul De Kraft
- Mubangi
Story notes:
- Opening splash tells us the names of Ka-Zar’s animal friends.
- John Rand owns diamond field in Transvaal.
- Flying from Johnnesburg to Cairo with wife Constance and son David when plane crashes over Belgian Congo. In the original prose story, we learn they were flying to Cairo because Constance’s father is sick.
- Constance’s leg broken in crash.
- Zar, the lion, lord of the jungle.
- N’Jaga the leopard attacks David, but Rand shoots and wounds N’Jaga, and scares him away.
- David unafraid of jungle animals; considered them friends; learned to talk with them.
- Family built dwelling in jungle.
- Contance died of tropical fever.
- Rand taught David to read and write.
- Other animals: Chaka (ape), Trajah (elephant) Nyassa (fish), Nono (monkey), Quog (wild pig), Wal-Lah (hippo), Kru (buzzard)
- Sha the lioness is Zar’s mate.
- Ka-Zar can swing from vines just like Tarzan.
- De Kraft finds emeralds in jungle; Rand orders him to leave.
- De Kraft kills Rand; Zar saves David.
- David wishes to ride Trajah one day.
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| Tales to Astonish #66 | Reading order | X-Men #10 |
