Octopus

Octopus
The Ominous Octopus

Friday, January 11, 2013

The Further Adventures Of Nyoka

When Fawcett went out of the comics business in 1953, they stopped publishing Nyoka comics. But the series would continue afterwards in other hands.


Charlton bought the series from Fawcett. To begin with, they ran Nyoka stories in an exsisting title, ZOO FUNNIES, which previously had been a funny animal comic.

In these comics Nyoka's hair was blonde, something that had started even before Charlton got the property. Some of these covers make Nyoka look a great deal like Sheena.







 
 
 
 

 
 
 


 
 
With issue #14, the title was changed to NYOKA THE JUNGLE GIRL. But the issue numbers continued ZOO FUNNIES.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 

 
Although Charlton was not thought of as one of the best comic book publishers of the time, some of their comics had attractive art. I like the cover on this one.
 
 
 

 
 
 
 
 AC comics acquired the rights to the character from Charlton in 1987 and published a series of comics that featured original stories as well as reprints of the classic comics.
 
 After this series ended, Nyoka appeared in other AC Comics' titles.


 
 Kay Aldridge cover
 

 
Kay Aldridge cover 
 
 

 
A different Nyoka on this cover.
 
 
 

 
Frances Gifford and friends
 
 
 
 
This issue reused the cover from Charlton issue #21, recolored. Kay Aldridge in inset llustrates an article inside about the serial being available on DVD.
 
 


 
This issue reuses art from one of the Fawcett issues.







The Nyoka serials were revived after a fashion in a new adaptation by the people who brought you the modern comics. This series consists of thirty minute episodes loosely based on the original serials, with characters such as Vultura the villianess and Satan the Ape reappearing, along with a new villian, The Crimson Skull, who is said to be responsible for bringing back the other two villians.


Nicola Raye plays Nyoka in this series.









 











  Some guys are wild for her ( like the guy in the Crimson Skull costume ), but my feeling is that Frances Gifford and Kay Aldridge can't be beat. They never were in the serials, anyway.





Nyoka - Art 4 Comics:
http://www.art4comics.com/nyokacvr.htm


Nyoka - Comic Character Investigation:
http://www.comicbox.com/index.php/articles/cci-comic-character-investigation-27/


Nyoka Comics At The Internet Archive:
http://archive.org/search.php?query=Zoo%20funnies

http://archive.org/search.php?query=nyoka





Nyoka's Jungle Clubhouse ( Fan Club For Nyoka ):
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Nyokas_Jungle_Clubhouse/


THE RETURN OF NYOKA ( New Version ):
http://www.cultretro.com/free-movie-nyoka-the-jungle-girl-rides-again/

http://www.cultretro.com/nicola-rae-nyoka-fawcettinterview/


Zoo Funnies ( Charlton - Nyoka Stories  To Download ):
http://comicbookplus.com/?cid=1254


Zoo Funnies ( Covers ):
http://www.mycomicshop.com/search?TID=383311



5 comments:

  1. Actually, AC may have bought printing negatives and photostats from Charlton for the Nyoka books, but the copyrights to the stories had already fallen into the public domain by 1987, and the Nyoka trademark had lapsed from disuse.
    They may have reestablished the trademark by doing new stories (both comic and "movie serial"), but all the old stuff is PD.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I wouldn't doubt that the old comics had passed into public domain.

      Delete
  2. Benny,
    From what I recall, Charlton didn't bother copyrighting their characters and stories. At the time, a company had to actually file something to accomplish that. (The law has since changed, so now you can copyright something just by printing the copyright notice in the book.) OTOH, PAM did own the copyright to Thunderbolt. It didn't help him though, because he couldn't afford to sue DC when it published its own Peter Cannon Thunderbolt series. AC had the same problem with the Phantom Lady. There was no copyright at Charlton (or Fawcett) for DC to buy, but AC couldn't afford to defend itself when DC forced them to change Phantom Lady to Nightveil.

    The person I've heard of who DID purchase old negatives, etc. from Charlton was Roger Broughton, who also bought the remnants of ACG. He's published a few reprints, nothing new.

    Thanks,
    Darci

    ReplyDelete
  3. Thanks, Darci. What I remember about Charlton was that they published other things ( such as sheet music ) and comic books were not their main product. So they probably didn't think they were important at the time.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Awesome post! Thanks for the enlightenment.

    ReplyDelete