#voodoo comics

Vooda Jungle Princess is interesting due to her tangled history as much as her status as a memorable “jungle girl” heroine. She actually originated as Alani, the featuring character in a story called South Seas Girl that appeared in the nautically-themed Seven Seas Comics in 1946-47. Unfortunately for Alani, she was revived to feature in the horror comic book Voodoo Comics just as the changes required by the new Comics Code, shut the title down in 1954. However, some fancy footwork by publisher Robert Farrell and Ajax Comics, renamed both the comic book’s title, which took on a jungle theme, and its South Seas heroine, to Vooda. However, the Comics Code Authority were not fooled. Alani, illustrated by the wonderful Matt Baker, had been considered too sexualised anyway, so Vooda Jungle Princess only lasted three issues (#20 - #22) before being withdrawn.

The title was interesting in that it was set in the South Seas rather than the usual non-specific African country and Vooda was clad in sarong rather than animal skin shorts or tunic. The stories however depicted a South Seas virtually indistinguishable from postwar colonial Africa or India, and trod familiar themes of native peace and harmony being threatened by exploitative white criminals or foreign agents. Vooda foils all the dastardly plots, sometimes quite ingeniously, and despite the allegedly tropical paradise setting, Alani/Vooda tends to subscribe to the eye-for-an-eye ethos of jungle justice and the bad guys often did not survive their encounter with her. The Seven Seas history was retained in that Vooda’s brief series of adventures often took place at sea, and Matt Baker continued to illustrate the heroine, albeit less scantily clad. In the event Vooda was not given the chance to evolve. Even if her run had not been terminated by the moral panic concerning Golden Age comic books, the “jungle woman” genre had run its course by the late 1950s, so the title would have been unlikely to survive in any event.

The page featured is from Vooda Jungle Princess #20 (August 1955) and the story Echoes of an A- Bomb!