Review: Will Dubbeld
Here I am again, staring down the barrel of another musty independent comic from yesteryear featuring a scantily-clad woman on the cover.
I'm not sure what to blame. My own R. Crumb-esque frantic fingernail-biting over Jungle Girls stems from some deep psychological neurosis, though. Perhaps it was Jane from the old Johnny Weissmuller Tarzan pictures I watched as a youngster. Maybe it was still photography of Betty Page in a leopard print bikini. Might've been Shanna the She-Devil.
Anyway, here I am, greedily gobbling up another selection from the discount bin:
Butch Burcham's Fana the Jungle Girl no. 1.
We don't waste too much time on backstory or exposition in Fana, instead leaping almost immediately into sweaty Jungle Action. The book is divided into 2 short stories separated by some pinups of our titular heroine sitting coquettishly or stretching languidly about some jungle backdrop.
The first short is a fairly stock tale about an expedition through the jungle in search of a fabled lost temple. The expedition is led by your archetypical white-mustachioed professor accompanied by his archetypical fetching young daughter.
Without surprise, the expedition also has your archetypical dickhead Great White Hunter.
The guys dialogue is priceless and wrought with editorial cockups.
"When Nate Jackson says move! He means move!"All grammar, punctuation, and other errors are transcribed verbatim as they appear on the page.
"I'll curse they're fuckin' valley!"
"Take that! You spear-chukin' son of a bitch!"
"Go on! All of ya's"
"Yer nothin' but a pak a superstitious cowards!"
This is what we're dealing with here, folks.
I'm not sure if the writer is attempting to emulate the pidgin English found in the Underground Comix of yesteryear or if he simply could've used another pair of eyes in the editing room.
Short number two is another great example of Glorious Western Colonialism featuring (another) Caucasian expedition to 'Somewhere deep in Africa', this time to the fabled Elephants' Graveyard.
(For the unaware: an Elephants' Graveyard is a mythical location where elderly pachyderms would go to die. Consequently, the graveyard is chock full of ivory and draws Asshole White Guy characters like flies.)
Sure enough, Asshole White Guy (and gal) seek to exploit Africa's bounty and are subsequently captured by their Maasai guides, destined for human sacrifice or whatever stock punishment awaits.
As an aside, their guides look a lot less Maasai and a lot more Generic African Tribesfolk.
Not a one of them spoke Maa.
This feature made me chuckle a bit. Fana, seeing two white captives led through the jungle by natives, presumed they're destined for slavery and springs into action.
She unknowingly saves the villains of the piece and kills all the Maasai captors.
Just murders the shit right outta them, you guys.
Never fear, justice is served by the end of the story.
I really shouldn't like this book in the year of our lord 2017, but it's great. It's chock-full of those stereotypical tropes and stock characters that make it feel like a real Pulp. Everything from those black-and-white Tarzan serials I watched on Sunday mornings to the racially insensitive cartoon characters trying to boil Bugs Bunny in a cauldron almost explodes from this book.
Coupled with the iconography of all the Frank Frazetta drawings of jungle girls and sealed in DIY, this Fana book hit That primordial nail on the head.
Scratches that jungle itch.
This isn't to say the comic isn't without fault. Numerous editorial gaffes, poor coloring, and untested, rough, art are found throughout, but none of this is a deal breaker. I'd read more Fana were it to become available. Apparently the character has enjoyed some periodic resurgences in popularity throughout the years and more content has become available. If it ever crosses my path I'm sure I'll sniff around the further adventures of Fana, the Jungle Girl.
As a bit of a post-script, this book was exceedingly frustrating in its lack of indica. Other than, "All contents copyright Butch Burcham '90", and a studio address, there's fuck-all about publishing, inking, lettering, etc.
Presumably Butch did it all?
If not, my apologies to any uncredited members of the creative team.
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