Lush and Lovely

Rima the Jungle Girl #2-5 (Marvel, June-July 1974 to December-January 1974/1975, 20 cents)
Writer: Robert Kanigher, Artist: Nestor Redondo, Cover and layouts: Joe Kubert.

This has got to be one of the most perfect, under-appreciated comic books in the history of DC. Published in the mid-'70s and based on W.H. Hudson's 1904 novel Green Mansions, which was made into a movie starring Audrey Hepburn in 1959, the comic features jungle heroine Rima, who even later appeared in the cartoon The All-New Super Friends Hour. Green Mansions was also adapted by Classics Illustrated in 1951 (#90).



The heroine and storyline have more in common with weird fiction and writing by authors such as H. Rider Haggard, at least in the initial issues, than with other jungle adventure regulars such as Tarzan.

#2: "Flight from Eden" In Venezuela, John Abel, injured by a snake bite, muses over the "beautiful apparition" of Rima. Brought into the forest by her grandfather Nuflo after her mother died, Rima is able to communicate with animals. Clothed in spiderweb, she is angered by her grandfather's eating of meat, After Abel returns to an Indian village, she welcomes him back to her grandfather's hut, indicating she wants to return to her mother's home.

Redondo's art is lithe and nimble, and some pages—4, 8, and 12-13 in particular—are breathtaking. The issue also includes a one-page Li'l Brontosaurus gag by Henry Boltinoff, as well as a five-page Space Voyagers backup story. Written by Kanigher and drawn by Alex Nino, "The Delta Brain" is science fiction comics at their finest: sense shattering, inventive, and threatening. Editorial Assistant Allan Asherman contributes a one-page text piece, "The Riddle of the Didi," which contextualizes Rima.