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.
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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
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.
ReplyDeleteThey may have reestablished the trademark by doing new stories (both comic and "movie serial"), but all the old stuff is PD.
I wouldn't doubt that the old comics had passed into public domain.
DeleteBenny,
ReplyDeleteFrom 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
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.
ReplyDeleteAwesome post! Thanks for the enlightenment.
ReplyDelete