Monday, May 01, 2023
Comics of the Paramount News Feature Service: In Jungle Land
In Jungle Land was one of those strips in which animals stand in for humans, mainly because they're easier to draw. A monkey was the star most often, but others jungle animals made appearannces, plus the occasional African humans, portrayed in the typical unfortunate manner. In Jungle Land was one of the mainstays of the PNF Service, with my best guess at original running dates being September 16 1927* through July 5 1928**, though there is evidence to the contrary, which we'll get to momentarily.
The strip was bylined by "Whitey" from beginning to end, both in the original run and in the many years worth of reprints. I have no idea who this might be, and there's a pretty good chance that it was a house name. That's because though the byline never changed, those who actually signed the strips certainly did.
We started out pretty reasonably for a strip bylined "Whitey", because the strips too were signed with the same moniker:
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But even then there was evidence that 'Whitey' was a pseudonym, because the signer in one instance actually managed to misspell their own name, as "Whiety".
Starting on Devcember 15 1927, a new signer appeared, someone named "Lane". Here are some samples:
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"Lane" made it almost to the believed end of the original run, last signing on June 21 1928. "Whitey" strips rounded out the run on July 5.
But that's not the end of the story. As with most PNF strips, In Jungle Land had a long life in reprints. The odd thing is that in the various reprint runs we can find examples of strips signed by "Pud" and by Larry Silverman, the only non-nickname to ever sign the strip. Here's a sample by "Pud":
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And here are some by Larry Silverman:
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So why didn't we see these folks in the original run? That would seem to mean the original run was longer than we have been able to document, or that these extra strips were just extras, thrown in for the reprint run for some reason. What seems pretty remarkable to me is that all the strips seem to be drawn in pretty well the exact same style. It really makes me wonder if "Whitey", "Lane", "Pud" and Larry Silverman are all the same person.
Oh, and if you're wondering why I keep calling the strip In Jungle Land when the strips above are plainly titled Jungletown Fables, that's because the strip was renamed pretty consistently to that in the reprint run, and my samples are all from those runs. I've also seen In Jungle Town on occasion, but that's an outlier.
Tomorrow, an Ink-Slinger Profile of the only In Jungle Land artist to sign something other than his nickname.
* Source: Norfolk Journal and Guide
** Source: Philadelphia Tribune
Labels: Obscurities
The samples shown here has a strong animation vibe from the time period, especially for Terrytoons.
