Congo Bill
Congo Bill (also called Congorilla) is the title of a series of comics that the American publishing house DC published intermittently since 1940, and one in 1948 by Columbia Pictures produced, based on these Comics movie serial .
Publications on Congo Bill
The series was developed by the author Whintey Ellsworth and the illustrator George Papp , who also designed the first editions of Congo Bill . In addition to Rice-Burroughs Tarzan, the series was modeled on Alex Raymond's Jungle Jim newspaper strip.
The first Congo Bill adventure appeared in June 1940 as a " backup story" - a comic story housed in the back of a longer comic book - in the 46th issue of the More Fun Comics series ; shortly afterwards - in June 1941 - the series was relocated as a feature in the extremely successful comic series Action Comics , in which Congo-Bill -Stories appeared from issue # 37 to # 248 (January 1959) . In September 1943, the title character of Congo Bill even adorned the cover of issue # 52 of Action Comics - together with Superman, the hero of the "Top" series of the series . Then the feature was renamed Congorilla and published under this title in Action Comics until April 1961 . After issue # 262 (February 1960), Congo Bill / Congorilla was finally completely removed from the action comics in order to be able to use the space that the feature had previously occupied within the booklet to be able to use the much more popular back-up series Supergirl - which was about the adventures of Superman's teenage cousin - to dedicate more pages.
Instead, Congorilla was continued in the Adventure Comics series , where the series appeared in every second issue up to issue # 283 from April 1961 - alternating with the underwater series Aquaman . Thereafter, both series were replaced as features in favor of the obscure sci-fi series Tales of the Bizarro World . In parallel to the Congo Bill stories in Action Comics , a seven-part standalone Congo Bill series was also published between September 1954 and September 1955 .
In the mid-1960s, some old Congorilla stories were reprinted in different series as a back-up story. Otherwise, the material remained unused as a separate series for almost thirty years - instead, Congo Bill and his gorilla were only used as occasional guest stars in series such as Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen , Justice League or Forgotten Heroes .
In 1992, DC released a four-part mini-series on Congorilla . This was followed in 1999 by Vertigo , an imprint owned by DC-Verlag, which published comics that are tailored to a decidedly adult audience, finally with a four-part Congo Bill miniseries that depict the character in its original form - without the Congorilla connection - revived.
action
Congo Bill is about the adventures of the American Bill in the Congolese jungle. He is supported by his youthful sidekick , Janu the Jungle Boy, a figure modeled after the childlike jungle heroes Rudyard Kipling ( Mowgli , Kim ) .
In a story contained in Action Comics # 228 from May 1957, the series finally experienced a deep break: In said story, Bill meets a large, gold-skinned, shrewd gorilla , with whom he 20 issues later in one of Robert Bernstein (author) and Howard Sherman (Artist) created a story through a magical ring that his friend Chief Kawolo gave him shortly before his death to establish a spiritual connection. From now on Bill is able to transfer his consciousness with the help of the magic ring (in which a gorilla image is engraved) for the duration of one hour into the body of the "golden-skinned monkey" - who also wears a magic ring - while his consciousness is temporarily in his body wanders. After a few hours the ghosts of the two change places again and each one returns to his own body. While the spirit of the monkey is in Bill's body - who acts accordingly by screeching like a monkey and pounding his fists on his chest - it is guarded by Janu to prevent the body from being harmed.
filming
Congo Bill was released in 1949 by Columbia Pictures as a fifteen-part film series. The first part of this series premiered on October 28, 1949. It starred Don McGuire and Cleo Moore . In 1957, at the instigation of producer Sam Katzman, the serial was re-released to capitalize on Moore's fame, who had since become one of the most popular actresses in the States.