The Jungle Heroine

The character archetype of the jungle girl has made many appearances in comic publications through the years. The bulk comes from the 1940s to 1957, where at least 10 serializations feature a jungle girl as the lead character. This exhibit will examine the origins of the archetype in fiction and how it translated into the comic medium. It will be further examining the character type evolution over the 15-year span and the reasons for the changes or lack of. This continues to the effects the comic code had on the genre and the legacy it has in modern times.

The first forest-dwelling character to come out of fiction is from W. H. Hudson’s novel Green Mansion. The character Rima, already has some of the qualities familiar with the archetype incomes with her ability to communicate with animals. She is described as:

Small, not above four feet six or seven inches in height, in figure slim, with delicately shaped little hands and feet.  Her feet were bare, and her only garment was a slight chemise-shaped dress reaching below her knees, of a whitish-grey colour, with a faint lustre as of a silky material. Her hair was very wonderful; it was loose and abundant, and seemed wavy or curly, falling in a cloud on her shoulders and arms.  Dark it appeared, but the precise tint was indeterminable, as was that of her skin, which looked neither brown nor white. (Hudson 68)

Using this description as the baseline to examine the jungle heroines of the 1940s and beyond, it can be determined if artists are using this as a reference, or the creation is something completely new.   

From there, it can be further examined to see if the archetype goes under and change throughout the years and whether that is due to the change in narrative or merely what is being consumed.   

Works Cited 

Hudson, W. H. Green Mansion. E. P. Dutton, 1903.