Ka-Zar
Ka-Zar was a short-lived pulp magazine series of three issues about a boy brought up by lions in the jungle, written by Bob Byrd and published by Manvis Publication, Inc., one of several publishers owned by Martin Goodman. Ka-Zar featured on all the covers and was the lead story.
The origin from Ka-Zar V01 N01
American, John Rand’s plane crashes in the Congo jungle, with his wife Constance and very young son David on board. After some time lost in the jungle, Constance dies of a jungle malady. Zar the lion who has been a witness to all has his eyes on them as two weeks later when his son becomes sick John decides to march out of the jungle but there is a storm and a large tree falls on him. He recovers physically but mentally he lives in a delusional world and now believes the jungle is his home. The boy recovers and grows up and at eight is a husky lad.
David Rand continues to grow and meets the jungle animals, and keeps his distance from the natives he meets one day who work for a greedy and vicious fat man named Paul de Kraft who is after emeralds. David now a strong young man has been away from camp and returns to see his father dying, their hut in flames and de Kraft is there. Zar the lion saves David’s life from de Kraft and his natives who escape. His father dies and David now thinks of himself as Ka-Zar, brother of Zar. The rest of the story is how he tracks down de Kraft and with Zar’s help, finally kills him. Like in the Tarzan stories, the creatures of the jungle all have names. Ka-Zar only has a rudimentary education and talks accordingly. De Kraft he nicknames “Fat-Face".
This story was serialised in comic form in Marvel Comics#1 (October 1939) and Marvel Mystery Comics # 2-5 (December 1939 to March 1940). The Ka-Zar character continued with new stories till MMC # 27 (January 1942). Ray Gill and Bob Oskner did stories and artwork. Ka-Zar also appeared in Human Torch # 5 (Fall 1941, the epic battle issue)
Contents of Ka-Zar pulps
| Story | Page |
|---|---|
| King of Fang and Claw by Bob Byrd | 6 (Start of story page) |
| Jungle War by Anatole Feldman | 82 |
| Fatal Treasure by Beech Allen | 94 |
| Pearl Magic by James Hall | 114 |
| Story | Page |
|---|---|
| Roar of the Jungle by Bob Byrd | 8 |
| Rifled Gold by Anatole Feldman | 88 |
| Law of the Legion by Beech Allen | 98 |
| Traitor Blood by Rex Evans | 107 |
| Story | Page |
|---|---|
| The Lost Empire by Bob Byrd | 8 |
| Assassin’s Blood by W M F Bayliss | 73 |
| Hades’ Reef by Norman A Daniels | 88 |
| White Devils by R A Emberg | 98 |
Reprints
Pulp reprint published Altus Press did a single volume reprint of all the Ka-Zar pulp stores as King of Fang and Claw.
See also
- Ka-Zar for Marvel comic character Kevin Plunder, from the 1960s onwards.
References
- Ka-Zar (David Rand) at Don Markstein's Toonopedia
- Ka-Zar (David Rand) at the International Catalogue of Superheroes
- Template:Comicbookdb
External links
- Ka-Zar: King of Claw and Fang by Bob Byrd at Project Gutenberg Australia
- Ka-Zar (David Rand) at the Marvel Universe
- The Holloway Pages: Pulp Heroes: "Ka-Zar" (Golden Age version)
Chat rooms • What links here • Copyright info • Contact information • Category:Root