Ka-Zar (David Rand)

Last updated
Ka-Zar
Ka-Zar October 1936.jpg
David Rand, the original Ka-Zar, alongside his lion Zar in the cover of Ka-Zar #1 (October 1936)
Art by J. W. Scott
Publication information
Publisher Manvis Publishing
Timely Comics (now Marvel Comics)
First appearance Ka-Zar #1 (October 1936)
Marvel Comics #1 (October 1939)
Created byBob Byrd
In-story information
Alter egoDavid Rand
AbilitiesPeak physical strength, speed, agility, and reflexes
Ability to communicate with some animals

David Rand is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics.

Contents

The first character to bear the Ka-Zar name, he was created by writer Bob Byrd, and first appeared in the pulp magazine Ka-Zar #1 (October 1936).

Publication history

The first Ka-Zar, David Rand, was a typical "jungle lord" in the Tarzan vein, also known as Ka-Zar the Great, who first appeared in the pulp magazine Ka-Zar #1 (October 1936) [1] from Manvis Publishing, one of many magazine companies owned by Martin Goodman.

The story was continued in two further issues published in January and June 1937, and then the character was set aside. [1]

Writer-artist Ben Thompson adapted the pulp story "King of Fang and Claw" by Bob Byrd for Goodman's first comic book, Marvel Comics . This story was serialised in comic form in Marvel Comics #1 (October 1939) and Marvel Mystery Comics #2–5 (December 1939 to March 1940). [2] Ray Gill and Bob Oskner did stories and artwork. Ka-Zar also appeared in Human Torch #5 (Fall 1941). Ka-Zar was featured in new stories until Marvel Mystery Comics #27 (January 1942).

In 2006, the David Rand Ka-Zar was featured in the All-New Official Handbook to the Marvel Universe A-Z.

Fictional character biography

Born in South Africa in 1918, three-year-old David Rand accompanied his British parents John and Constance on a flight to Cairo to visit his grandfather. Unfortunately, their plane crashed in the Congo jungle. Constance died in the crash and John was driven mad. Living in the jungle with his father, isolated from the local tribes, David grew under the jungle's hardships into an unusually powerful youth and developed strong empathy with wildlife, notably rescuing Zar the Lion from quicksand. When a criminal named Paul de Kraft discovered emeralds in Congo, John died opposing him only for Zar to scare Paul de Kraft off. With the support of Zar, David became the jungle's leading warrior within a few years challenging different animals like Bardak the Ape and N'Jaga the Leopard. Considered to be "god-like" by the natives, David Rand ended up named Ka-Zar (native for "Brother of Zar"). When Paul de Kraft returned to seize the emerald deposits, Ka-Zar killed him, thus avenging his father.

With the help of the local animals, Ka-Zar established himself as the guardian of the jungle which involved meting out harsh retribution to any intruder seeking to exploit his resources-but he frequently aided more benign explorers, such as when he protected Prof. Rice and his daughter Mara from the criminal pilot "Red" Skelton, rescued Rita Grey from the Wabi tribe, and helped two Scotland Yard detectives capture murderer London Jack.

Ka-Zar's friends are an elephant named Trajah and a lion named Zar. [3] When Zar was captured by the vicious Rajah Sarput and a big game hunter named Bradley, Ka-Zar stowed away on a ship when Zar was shipped to the United States. Though he managed to free Zar, Ka-Zar ended up being arrested when he tried to free the zoo animals. Fortunately, Ruth Wilson (another woman whom Ka-Zar had rescued during an African expedition), vouched for him. Ka-Zar and Zar were granted passage back to Africa on a British ship. Surviving attacks by entrenched Nazi forces, Ka-Zar and Zar confronted Sarput who was ultimately slain by their ally Trajah. Soon after, Ka-Zar learned he had inherited his father's Transvaal diamond mines. After preventing his inheritance's theft by John Rand's law partner Alec Wright, Ka-Zar donated the wealth to war relief in England.

In 1941, as America's superheroes were gearing up for World War II, Ka-Zar and his lion returned from America to his native Africa to spend some time fighting Italian and German troops. [4] While on an expedition to the mysterious Black River Region, Ka-Zar encountered giants and subterranean lizard people. Ka-Zar managed to befriend a giant named Bogat. Ka-Zar later waged a series of campaigns against the Axis forces in Ethiopia, Somaliland, and anywhere else in Africa where the Axis forces were camped, killing them with their own weapons with help from the French and British forces. Following one such encounter, Ka-Zar was restored to health by an aged witch doctor, who gave him a brew used centuries before to grant his tribe superhuman strength.

Last time anyone heard from Ka-Zar, he protected his region's wildlife when Africa was threatened by monstrous tidal waves from Atlantean warfare. The rest of Ka-Zar's life after that was left unchronicled.

In the 1960s, Marvel Comics reintroduced a Ka-Zar character (named Kevin Reginald, Lord Plunder) into their universe of superhero characters, who still appears in their comics today occasionally.

Reception

Robert Michael Bobb Cotter in the 2008 book The Great Monster Magazines points out that writer Bob Byrd "did little to distinguish his hero from the other [pulp magazine] noble savages, including beginning his name with the letter 'K', which for some reason had become the accepted letter to start an imitation Tarzan's name". [5]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Timely Comics</span> American comic book publisher

Timely Comics is the common name for the group of corporations that was the earliest comic book arm of American publisher Martin Goodman, and the entity that would evolve by the 1960s to become Marvel Comics.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ka-Zar (Kevin Plunder)</span> Fictional character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics

Kevin Plunder, also known as Ka-Zar, is a superhero appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by writer Stan Lee and artist Jack Kirby, the character first appeared in The X-Men #10. Kevin Plunder is the second character to use the codename Ka-Zar.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sheena, Queen of the Jungle</span> Comic-book heroine

Sheena, Queen of the Jungle, is a fictional American comic book jungle girl heroine, originally published primarily by Fiction House during the Golden Age of Comic Books. She was the first female comic book character with her own title, with her 1941 premiere issue preceding Wonder Woman #1. Sheena inspired a wealth of similar comic book jungle queens. She was predated in literature by Rima, the Jungle Girl, introduced in the 1904 William Henry Hudson novel Green Mansions.

<i>Marvel Mystery Comics</i> American comic book series

Marvel Mystery Comics is an American comic book series published during the 1930s–1940s period known to fans and historians as the Golden Age of Comic Books. It was the first publication of Marvel Comics' predecessor, Timely Comics, a division of Timely Publications.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Shanna the She-Devil</span> Comics character

Shanna the She-Devil is a jungle adventurer superhero appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by writer Carole Seuling and penciller George Tuska, the character first appeared in Shanna the She-Devil #1.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Miss America (Madeline Joyce)</span> Fictional superhero appearing in Marvel comics

Miss America is a superhero appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by writer Otto Binder and artist Al Gabriele, the character first appeared in Marvel Mystery Comics #49 in the Golden Age of Comic Books. Madeline Joyce is the first incarnation of Miss America. The character has also been a member of the Invaders, Liberty Legion, and All-Winners Squad at various points in her history.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cat-Man and Kitten</span> 1940–1946 comic book superhero

Cat-Man and Kitten are a pair of fictional superhero characters created by artists Irwin Hasen (Cat-Man) and Charles M. Quinlan (Kitten) with unknown writers. Cat-Man was first published in 1940 by various Frank Z. Temerson companies. Due to circumstances during World War II, an altered version of Cat-Man was published in Australia and reprinted in the 1950s. AC Comics later revived the characters in the 1980s.

Zabu is a fictional saber-toothed tiger appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Zabu is connected primarily to the Savage Land, and the X-Men, and most recently the Avengers. He is the last known living Pleistocene Smilodon big cat and is a companion and ally of Ka-Zar.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Paul Reinman</span>

Paul J. Reinman was an American comic book artist best known as one of Jack Kirby's frequent inkers during the period comics fans and historians call the Silver Age of Comic Books. This included the first issues of The Incredible Hulk and The X-Men.

Jungle Action is the name of two American comic book series published by Marvel Comics and its 1950s precursor, Atlas Comics. The Marvel version contained the first series starring the Black Panther, the first black superhero in mainstream comics, created by the writer/artist team of Stan Lee and Jack Kirby in Fantastic Four #52.

<i>Jungle Jim</i> Fictional hero of a series of jungle adventures

Jungle Jim is the fictional hero of a series of jungle adventures in various media. The series began on January 7, 1934, as an American newspaper comic strip chronicling the adventures of Asia-based hunter Jim Bradley, who was nicknamed Jungle Jim. The character also trekked through radio, film, comic book and television adaptations. Notable was a series of films and television episodes in which Johnny Weissmuller portrayed the safari-suit wearing character, after hanging up his Tarzan loincloth. The strip concluded on August 8, 1954.

<i>Savage Tales</i> Three different American comics series

Savage Tales is the title of three American comics series. Two were black-and-white comics-magazine anthologies published by Marvel Comics, and the other a color comic book anthology published by Dynamite Entertainment.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tarzanesque</span> Term used to describe Tarzan-like characters.

Tarzanesque is a term created by Frenchman Francis Lacassin used to describe characters in comic books inspired by Tarzan. A tarzanesque character resembles Tarzan in his physical resourcefulness, within a line of action that includes an adventurous life in the jungle, the gift of understanding and being understood by animals, contact with lost civilizations and courage combined with the ability to deal with nature. The creation of such characters may have been propitiated by the success that Tarzan had achieved since his appearance in literature in 1912, culminating with the release of daily comic strips in 1929, which paved the way for a genre that combined the allure of the unknown environment, the need for the archetypal characteristics of the hero and the popularity of access.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nyoka the Jungle Girl</span> Comics character

Nyoka the Jungle Girl is a fictional character created for the screen in the 1941 serial Jungle Girl, starring Frances Gifford as Nyoka Meredith. After the initial film, Nyoka appeared in comic books published by Fawcett, Charlton, and AC Comics.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jungle girl</span> Female stock character

A jungle girl is an archetype or stock character, often used in popular fiction, of a female adventurer, superhero or even a damsel in distress living in a jungle or rainforest setting. A prehistoric depiction is a cave girl.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Magazine Enterprises</span> American comic book company

Magazine Enterprises was an American comic book company lasting from 1943 to 1958, which published primarily Western, humor, crime, adventure, and children's comics, with virtually no superheroes. It was founded by Vin Sullivan, an editor at Columbia Comics and before that the editor at National Allied Publications, the future DC Comics.

The Green Mask is the name of two comic book superheroes, both published by Fox Feature Syndicate. Both are in the public domain with some of the original stories having been reprinted by AC Comics.

<i>Astonishing Tales</i> Comic book series published by Marvel Comics

Astonishing Tales is an American anthology comic book series originally published by Marvel Comics from 1970 to 1976. Its sister publication was Amazing Adventures.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tarzan in comics</span>

Tarzan, a fictional character created by Edgar Rice Burroughs, first appeared in the 1912 novel Tarzan of the Apes, and then in 23 sequels. The character proved immensely popular and quickly made the jump to other media, including comics.

<i>Ka-Zar</i> (magazine) Defunct American pulp magazine

Ka-Zar was an American pulp magazine that published three issues in 1936 and 1937, edited by Martin Goodman. The lead character was modeled after Tarzan and the lead novel and short stories in each issue were adventures set in the jungle.

References

  1. 1 2 Markstein, Don. "Ka-Zar". Don Markstein's Toonopedia. Retrieved 15 April 2020.
  2. ↑ Mitchell, Kurt; Thomas, Roy (2019). American Comic Book Chronicles: 1940-1944. TwoMorrows Publishing. p. 43. ISBN   978-1605490892.
  3. ↑ Nevins, Jess (2013). Encyclopedia of Golden Age Superheroes. High Rock Press. p. 145. ISBN   978-1-61318-023-5.
  4. ↑ Mitchell, Kurt; Thomas, Roy (2019). American Comic Book Chronicles: 1940-1944. TwoMorrows Publishing. p. 67. ISBN   978-1605490892.
  5. ↑ Cotter, Robert Michael Bobb (2008). The Great Monster Magazines: A Critical Study of the Black and White Publications of the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s. McFarland & Co. p. 162. ISBN   978-0786433896.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.