Sheena, Queen of the Jungle

Sheena, Queen of the Jungle is the name of a jungle-dwelling fictional character, published by Fiction House Publishing, Marvel Comics, Eclipse Comics, and Blackthorne Publishing. She possessed the ability to communicate with the wild animals she had grown up with, since becoming orphaned in the jungle. She originated in the comic books, moving to pulp magazines later.

Sheena's first appearance was as a comic strip in Joshua B. Power's European magazine Wags #1 (Editors Press Service, 1938). She was a creation of the Will Eisner-S.M. Iger shop, also known as Universal Phoenix Features. They had been asked for a Tarzan knockoff, and instead drew a jungle heroine, supposedly based on Iger's girlfriend of the time. She next appeared in every issue of Real Adventure Publishing Co.'s Jumbo Comics (Sept. 1938 to April 1953), doing well enough to justify her own series, Sheena, Queen of the Jungle (Spring 1942 to Winter 1952). She also appeared in Fiction House's Ka'a'nga comic book, issue # 16 (Summer 1952) and 3-D Sheena, Jungle Queen (1953). Fiction House, originally a pulp magazine publisher, tried to revive the dying genre, using their star heroine, in Spring 1951's Stories of Sheena, Queen of the Jungle and Jungle Stories Vol. 5, #11 (Spring 1954). 3-D Sheena, Jungle Queen was later reprinted as Eclipse Comics Sheena 3-D (Jan. 1985) and Blackthorne Publishing's Sheena 3-D Special (May 1985). Blackthorne also printed Jerry Iger's Classic Sheena in April 1985.

One of the reasons for the death of the pulps was television. In 1956, model Irish McCalla portrayed Sheena in a 26-episode series. Ms. McCalla liked to say she was discovered by Nassour Studios while she was throwing a bamboo spear on a Malibu beach. "I couldn't act, but I could swing through the trees," McCalla once told The Prescott Courier. She made an impact on then-teenage Robert Crumb, who would later incorporate Amazon-like women in his underground comics in tribute.

As one may note above, there were a lot of print revivals in 1984 and 1985. This is due to the 1984 Columbia Pictures adaptation, starring Tanya Roberts, who had previously starred as Kiri in MGM's 1982 Beastmaster. Marvel Comics printed a comic version of the movie in their Marvel Comics Super Special #34 (June 1984). They reprinted it in their Sheena, Queen of the Jungle #s 1 and 2 (Dec. 1984 and Feb. 1985).

A version of Sheena, transplanted from Africa to South America, appeared in London Night Studio's Sheena, Queen of the Jungle 1-shot comic book and 4-issue miniseries from Feb 1998 to Spring 1999.

Sheena was revived by TV syndicator Hearst Entertainment in Oct. 2000. Sheena was portrayed by Gena Lee Nolin, formerly of The Price Is Right and Baywatch. Sheena was given a new power in this series, the ability to adopt the form of any warm-blooded animal once she gazed into its eyes. She was also depicted as more of a ferocious killer in this series. This Columbia/TriStar effort lasted 35 episodes.

The name "Sheena" in Gaelic means "God's grace." It was probably selected more to evoke H. Rider Haggard's 1886 She. The character also reminds one of Rima from W. H. Hudson's 1904 Green Mansions. The character's name also inspired Ike Turner when he selected Anna Mae Bullock's stage name.