Jungle Girl Omnibus, Volume 1

Jungle Girl

by Doug Murray

Taking you all the way from the genesis of the original series to the stunning conclusion of the first season to the exciting opening of the 2nd season of stories and more... Jungle Girl delivers action, excitement, twists, thrills, and the finest illustrations of dinosaurs and the female form found in comics today! Cho and Murray take the action underground and underwater as more clues regarding Jana, the undisputed Queen of the Jungle, finds out more about her mysterious past, and the mysterious island she calls home! Clocking in at over 230 pages, this omnibus collects issues #0-5 from the original Jungle Girl series, and issues #1-5 from Season Two. And let''s not forget all the amazing Frank Cho and Adrian Batista covers!

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Fantasy, Fiction, Graphic Novels Comics, Comic Book, Adventure

250 pages, ebook

First published June 12, 2012

Reviews

[Matt · Rating 3 out of 5]

My journey through the world of comics continues...

After reading Red Sonja Vol.1 & 2 and then Sonja & Tarzan I figured the next logical step would be to check out this one:



Jungle Girl, whose real name is Jana, and who – unsurprisingly – is on a rampage in the thick jungle. She’s just like Tarzan, but very different. Jana’s jungle reminds me of Arthut Conan Doyle’s Lost World, or the Jurassic Park movies paired with Jules Verne’s sea monsters, and other sujets like that. There are all kinds of dinos (running, swimming, flying about) and mammoths, some kind of saber-toothed tiger, carnivorous giant worms, monster squids and some nasty creatures for which there are not even proper names. And the Jungle Girl is fighting them all — with her oversized knife (Crocodile Dundee style), her spear and sometimes with her bare hands and teeth. The only scarce resource seems to be leopards, from whose leather and fur the heroine’s extremely scanty clothing is tailored. At least, this gives us the opportunity to follow her request and take a closer look at her anatomy, and I don’t nessesarily mean her sprawling bosom and protruding posterior.

Look at this:



I’m not an orthopaedic specialist, but I have my own share of back troubles from time to time and I what I see here doesn’t look good. The young lady obviously suffers from severe hyperlordosis (pictured above) paired with a pronounced scoliosis (below). She should have herself examined soon, otherwise she will certainly have a hard time killing her dinos in a few years. For now she’s doing fine though, and her 24/7 job of rescuing people is keeping her very busy.

The two stories in this volume are pretty vanilla and predictable, but many of the drawings are quite good. Especially those with the different monsters. The creators took great effort to make those creatures look scary and let their imagination run free:


[click for larger image]

To be honest, I didn’t like the main character all that much. Compared to Red Sonja, her repertoire of words, facial expressions and gestures remains quite limited. Deeper thoughts and self-reflection can’t be recognized at all in the Jungle Girl and the humor is also restrained — and you can’t blame it all on her blond hair.

Well, it’s pulp after all — jungle pulp — but not of the damsel in distress variety. In here the damsel is the main cause for distress in others and I won’t complain too much.



This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

[Michael · Rating 3 out of 5]

Jungle Girl Jana lebt in einem Dschungel, in dem alles ins Riesenhafte wächst: Muskeln, Brüste, Schlangen, Dinos…äh, Dinos? --- Ja, Dinos also, Würmer, Egel, Käfer und natürlich auch (der Klassiker:) Kraken.
Den Gegenpol zu dieser Gigantomanie stellt Janas Garderobe dar, ein Mikrobikini mit ständing pittoresk zurseite wehendem Lendenschurz, alles zusammen komfortabel im Quadratzentimeterbereich zu messen. Und wie jede junge gutaussehende Frau zieht sich Jana gelegentlich um, auch wenn die Zeit oder die Dinos gerade drängen, denn wer das Abenteuer nicht scheut, dessen Berufsbekleidung nimmt schon einmal Schaden, reißt ein oder ist voller --- Wurmschleim? Richtig gehört: „The other outfit had worm slime all over it“.

Wie Tarzan, der ältere Bruder von Jana, ist unsere Heldin damit beschäftigt, das Leben argloser Städter zu retten, 24 Stunden am Tag, 7 Tage die Woche, denn die Gefahr lauert im Dschungel überall.
Und regelmäßig kommt es wie weiland im Bermudadreieck zu Abstürzen; in Season One ist es ein kleines zweimotoriges Passagierflugzeug, in Season Two dann schon ein Space Shuttle. Diese Unglücksfälle lösen regelmäßig großartige Abenteuer aus, die im schönsten Stile der Pulps erzählt werden. Und wenn die erste Story noch ganz wie ein Tarzanabenteuer daher kommt, legen Frank Cho und Doug Murray in der zweiten noch mächtig zu. Jule Vernes Nautilus und Lovecrafts grauenhafte Reptilwesen sorgen für ordentlich Druck auf dem Kessel.

Empfehlung: Dem kritischen Erwachsenen-Ich zehn Euro für einen anspruchsvollen Kinofilm in die Hand drücken und in dessen Abwesenheit diese großartig gezeichneten Pulp-Adventures in Ruhe genießen und als „guilty pleasures“ verbuchen.

[AndrewP · Rating 3 out of 5]

The version of this I read was the complete omnibus edition, featuring all 3 seasons and running to 340 pages. All the familiar tropes that you would expect here: girl brought up in the jungle, runs around in a hide bikini etc. In this case the jungle here is a lost World/island that is still inhabited by dinosaurs and various tribes of hostile natives.

The first and second seasons were very good, decent story and great artwork. There were a couple of frames I had to look at twice to figure out what they were supposed to be, but there was no lazy artwork. (where a single illustration is repeated several times, cropped differently with different dialog). However, season 3 fell far short for me. The story went off the rails and what is the point of having Jana the jungle girl dressed in a black wetsuit the whole time?

If your a fan of 'good girl art' like Sheena or Red Sonja then you will probably like this. Seasons 1 and 2 were worth 4 to 4.5 stars, but the poor season 3 brought my overall rating down to 3.

[Greg (adds 2 TBR list daily) Hersom · Rating 3 out of 5]

The artwork is off the hook. Frank Cho has to draw the sexist women in comics. I've also been a sucker for jungle adventures since I saw my first Johnny Weissmuller Tarzan at age 4. The story starts off really strong and love the Edgar Rice Burrough's influence but it just got a little over the top for me.

[Steven Clark · Rating 3 out of 5]

I just finished Shanna the She Devil, so this was the inevitable next step. I'm also reading Gore Vidal and Bernard Cornwell, so there.
As it is, this is a bit deceptive. Frank Cho does the story, but not the artwork save the covers. The art is done by Adriano Batista and, in the last issues, by Jack Jadson. Batista is very good. I was less satisfied with Jadson. It is a very handsome art of jungles, dinosaurs, and more monsters than you can shake a stick at, as well as cavemen. It delivers there. My major complaint is Cho doesn't tell a very good story. I feel the ending was confusing and I felt a lot of elements (drugs, a submarine, a lost father, weird alien stuff) was thrown in without a coherent plot. The ending really made no sense. Compare the writing with the Aria series in Image, written by Brian Holguin. Very thoughtful and good characters. I did enjoy Jana's relationship with Togg, her caveman sidekick. He's engaging, and really gets shafted at the end. Also, why does Jana wear a wetsuit in the last couple of issues? I didn't see the logic, and do you know how HOT those things would be in a jungle? Ah, well, cheesecake. And Togg using a Lewis gun is good, but that's a WWI weapon. What is the time frame here? I did enjoy a bonus of Batista's sketches, which were interesting, and, yes, the Cho covers. But it is a good, visual read, and I thought it satisfying. Okay, back to novels.

[Cale · Rating 3 out of 5]

First off, this is the Cheesecake Factory of comics - every three or four pages minimum, Jungle Girl is featured in some action position in a bikini of fur or leather. It's embarrassing to read. But if you can get past the sheer prodigious amount of glorified female anatomy on display, there's actually a decent story. Not so much Volume one, which is the trope 'airplane crashes in world with extinct animals' plus a female Tarzan, with the additional 'persons in the party aren't who they seem, and will endanger the party as a whole for their personal goals,' but the deaths were actually unexpected in their order. The second volume (also collected in the Omnibus) is much better, with Jungle Girl being kidnapped by an octopus and underwater creatures and a monkey boy repairing a submarine and some Lovecraftian concepts. And then, for pandering, tentacles.... Jungle Girl (Jana) and her 'Monkey Boy' friend get some decent development, even if all the other characters are one-dimensional. The action is good, and the story is different. But again, you'll only ever find that out if you're willing to wade through the mountain of cheesecake the story is buried underneath.

[Francesco · Rating 3 out of 5]

Prendi una tarzanide che cambia bikini ogni 20 pagine (seriamente, questa ha cambi disseminati per tutta la foresta), aggiungici una troupe televisiva (il cameramen voleva girare video porno ma l'hanno reindirizzato sui documentari naturalistici). Amalgamare il tutto con un tocco di LOST e un L'Isola Misteriosa (quanto basta, giusto per insaporire).
Mescolare il tutto e legare con un disegno davvero bello che fa dimenticare la trama piatta e troppo ricca di fanservice.

Poteva essere meglio, ma anche molto peggio.

[Rose · Rating 3 out of 5]

Got this in Dynamite Comics Humble Bundle.

I kind of liked this comic. Lots of action, interesting turns of plot, and intrigue. However, also a bit of noticeable Tarzan-esque cliches and jungle adventure cliches and tons of bloody cheesecake. I'm not saying it's a BAD comic, in that it managed to be quite entertaining and not very annoying at that, but it also didn't really rise above it.

[Andrew · Rating 3 out of 5]

I got this as part of a Humble Bundle, back in 2014. It's basically 250 pages of cheesecake, dinosaurs, and monsters. It's a lot of fun, if you're into that kind of thing, but it's not much more than that. I liked it. It's fairly innocent, for what it is. The Frank Cho covers are nice. The interior artwork is pretty good too, sometimes very good.

[Jen N · Rating 4 out of 5]

I would have liked it more if it had less rump shots. Yeah. I get it. She's curvy. But it took away from an otherwise great story.

[Colin Parfitt · Rating 3 out of 5]

The artwork is gorgeous.

But the plot - a team of idiots crash land in the jungle and are rescued by a female Tarzan starts off preposterous and gets sillier and sillier.

And the ending is bizarre.

[Adrian Bloxham · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great big pile of enjoyable nonsense

[Dannan Tavona · Rating 1 out of 5]

Same story

This is an obvious money grab. The artwork and story were good, but to market the *same* exact work as that marketed under Frank Cho is reprehensible. If both men worked on it, market it as a joint work. Selling the two exact copies while only changing the byline is a cheat. I don't know if this was a decision by Dynomite, but I feel ripped off. I bought both books assuming I was getting a separate story. Do not get both books. I felt great after reading the first book. But to find out I spent another $13 dollars for the exact same story leaves me feeling ripped off. Compare my review on the Frank Cho version.

[wbforeman · Rating 3 out of 5]

Surprisingly, really good the art was mostly consistent/solid. If you like stories in the vein of Conan the Barbarian and Red Sonja, you’ll like this. Lots of monster fights, there’s a lot of pinup shots of jungle girl, but I’m not too surprised and I didn’t find it gratuitous like some other books I’ve read. So if you want a throwback to Tarzan or Conan, you will like this and its a lot of fun. Be warned this omnibus ends on a cliffhanger so if you’re looking for a complete story be warned

[Ralph Carlson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great art. Interesting story.

[Eugenio Santillan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Always awesome

I am a big fan of Jingle Girl,and this is one of my favorite books,I thank my wife for getting me this fire-book tablet.

[Mark · Rating 3 out of 5]

DPL hoopla

[Fiona · Rating 3 out of 5]

A couple of interesting plot points, but overall just a bit gross.

[Dan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great story and art

Was a fun time. The art was really good compared to most of the stuff out there. Nhad a really good time reading it.

[José Gonzalez · Rating 4 out of 5]

dun, fast and sexy. Just turn your brain off for a minute.

[Eric Mesa · Rating 1 out of 5]

The most important thing you need to know about this title is that it is pure, unadulterated pulp. It is cheesy in a throw-back sort of way and it celebrates that. I’ve been getting a lot of pulp and neo-pulp from Dynamite for some time now. For the time being, they seem to be the undisputed masters of the revival in pulp comics. Jungle Girl is an older pulp than the one that gave us Batman, The Shadow, and detective stories. Jana, the eponymous jungle girl, traces a direct line back to Tarzan, which, if Wikipedia is being accurate today, came out in 1912. It also mixes in a bit of The Land Time Forgot which, like Tarzan, was written by Edgar Rice Burroughs. So the story is almost one giant tribute to Burroughs’ legacy.

I have not read the source material so I’m unsure of how much Cho is also making tribute in the format of the story, but there is not so much a plot as a constant propulsion of our protagonists from one scene to the next. In one sense it’s nice not to have a McGuffin. Too often they are too transparently simply a means to start the plot and, as the linked TV Tropes page defines it, could be replaced by almost anything else. Still, the only driving force of this story is to constantly run away from trouble. They literally stumble around from one dino attack to another and then to the territory of rivals. The antagonist of the second series is seemingly found just as randomly.
Jungle Girl Omnibus - Issues 1 Page 1 cheesecake
Jungle Girl Omnibus – Issues 1 Page 1 cheesecake

While there’s no real plot to speak of, there is a topic to discuss that falls within the framework of this site: the character of Jana. From the very first panel in which we see Jana within this omnibus and, more egregiously the first two pages of the first issue, her portrayal is pure cheesecake. I’m of the opinion that there is nothing inherently wrong with cheesecake (or beefcake, the male counterpart). The reason cheesecake gets so much negative attention these days is that is is both omnipresent occurs out of proportion to the amount of beefcake. Despite the constant cheesecake shots, Jana is always in control of the situation. She is tough as nails and easily dispatches any male antagonists she comes up against. Jana even maintains the moral high ground in a late-story cat-fight with another female. Jana pulls her punches and tries to reason with the woman rather than be dragged into a petty fight. Although the fight is ostensibly picked over jealousy at Jana’s abilities and looks, it’s really because the woman is frustrated that her nefarious plans have gone awry.
Jungle Girl Omnibus - Issues 1 Page 2 cheesecake
Jungle Girl Omnibus – Issues 1 Page 2 cheesecake

Does Jana never being the damsel in distress make up for all the cheesecake? I’m not sure that’s the right question to ask, although I’m sure at least one person would surely be thinking it. After all, in the Superhero comics world, many of the women are subjected to cheesecake poses and they’re all powerful women in their own rights. At the same time, this book is a Tarzan book, meaning it’s in the jungle guy/girl genre and Togg could probably be considered beefcake in many of his shots.

While each person is certainly within their rights to seek out or avoid books based on their portrayal of women, I have to say that this book surprised me. I thought it was going to be more exploitative. While I didn’t enjoy the story for lack of plot, I did appreciate the fact that Jana was written so powerfully and that surpassed my expectations with respect to the costuming. It serves as a reminder that books can’t always be judged by their covers.

What do you think about the issue? I’d love to discuss anywhere you discover this writeup.

[Robin · Rating 4 out of 5]

This omnibus volume collects the first two Jungle Girl comic miniseries (or "seasons," as they're labeled in the book). I enjoyed it a great deal, but potential readers should be warned that this series pushes style over substance. The artwork is gorgeous and the characters fun, but there doesn't seem to be much of an overarching plot. The eponymous Jungle Girl Jana and her companions instead plunge from one dangerous scrape to the next, with only the flimsiest overall mission guiding their course. Superficiality aside, I had a lot of fun with this book, and I'll definitely stay on the lookout for future installments.

[J. · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is the most tiresome thing I've read in a while. It manages to perfectly channel all of the really annoying part of the pulps with none of the fun. Every issue is the same: fight monster/walk around/splash page when a new monster rears its head. There is no character development, never even an inkling of danger because Jungle Girl can beat anyone, anywhere, nonsensical plotting, and the least-fun lost world I've ever encountered. The art is good, but come on! that outfit is ridiculous. Overall: BoRiNg! I had to MAKE myself finish the last few issues.

[Wesley Asbell · Rating 4 out of 5]

The storyline was a little wonky here and there and the comic never seems to take itself to seriously. I guess that's also kind of the point. No one reads a Frank Cho comic solely for the plot. All of his spectacular good girl art more than makes up for any shortcomings.

[Jason · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really respect Cho's talent as an artist, but he needs to stick to drawing! The dialogue was awful and the plot lost track of itself several times throughout. I'd only give it a star but the art was pretty good.

[Travis · Rating 4 out of 5]

In a lost valley, a gorgeous amazon in a thong fights dinosaurs.

The art is beautiful and the plot is paper thin, but entertaining.

Not pretending to be anything more than a fun, pulpy adventure by a guy that likes drawing naked chicks and dinos.

[TJ Shelby · Rating 4 out of 5]

A female Tarzan. Fun stories and great art.

[Ryan Musick · Rating 4 out of 5]

boobs and butts man.

[Danny · Rating 1 out of 5]

I'm sorry, I don't think I could say anything really positive about this one other than it's just for drooling over some beautiful Frank Cho covers.

[Nicholas Driscoll · Rating 2 out of 5]

Really trashy, plus really stupid story. I actually regret reading through this one, despite some cool dinosaur art.