This post is brought to you by Strange Adventures by G. W. Thomas. Enjoy a fast-paced adventure filled with action and horror? Then this is the book for you with four Weird Westerns featuring Deputy Sheriff Brett Hope. “Heller” has Hope running from an ancient terror but falling amongst bad men. “Laacoon” has Hope doing the pursuing of some dark secret that is slowly killing an entire family. “Silence” features a town full of vampires, where the undead make no noise. And “Weep the Dust” sees the deputy find a job as sheriff, at last, only to have Bargainville invaded by strange zombie-like dead men. The rest of the book will take you to far places like the Alps, Labrador and the interior desert and rain forests of British Columbia. Check out the companion volume Strange Detectives too.
Street & Smith’s Shadow Comics was one of the most successful comics of the 1940s, running to 101 issues. It had The Shadow as the headliner but it also used other S&S characters such as Doc Savage (after his comic failed), the Avenger, the Whisperer, Nick Carter, Danny Garrett and others. Shadow Comics had Pulp action heroes, clever magicians, daring detectives, brave aviators, handsome football players, and even superheroes like Iron Munro. What they didn’t have was Tarzan. So they needed to create a jungle lord since all the comics had their own lord or lady of the jungle by 1940.
Street & Smith’s jungle lord was Beebo, and to make him different they paired him up with the Wonder Horse, Fleet. And to make it even more unusual, Beebo lived on Jungle Isle, a secluded tropical island that somehow managed to supply the necessary animals and humans to give Beebo and Fleet a hard time. A comic strip about a kid sitting around eating bananas wasn’t going to do. The Street & Smith characters were about action!
Beebo made his first appearance in Shadow Comics #21 (December 1942) and showed up for a year, thirteen episodes, ending with Shadow Comics #33 (December 1943). The comic was written by Ed Gruskin and drawn by August Froelich and Jack Binder. (Froelich also drew “Simba, King of Beasts” for Jungle Comics. Jack Binder was the older brother to Earl and Otto Binder who wrote Pulp SF as Eando Binder. By 1942, Jack had his own “shop” that produced comics. ) The consistent and good artwork makes this strip readable today.
The odd pairing of jungle boy with a horse seems funny until you see how Gruskin made it work. We know Tarzan had several animal companions including Tantor the Elephant. Beebo and Fleet go from adventure to adventure facing pirates to dinosaurs together. Gruskin wisely knew that the young age of Beebo and the animal companion would be a natural for younger readers. He also knew that the island setting allowed him to do encounters of a nautical nature, closer to Jules Verne and The Swiss Family Robinson which the jungle would not. Giant octopus, boat loads of cannibal islanders, etc. Tarzan would have to leave his jungle home for such fare. Gruskin later has one strip lead into the next until the finale. This was risky in a venue that usually offered whole stories because their was no guarantee the kiddies would have a dime every month. (Bruce Elliott wrote the final two segments for some unknown reason. Elliott was a magician and SF writer.)
“The First Adventure” (Shadow Comics #21, December 1942) is Beebo’s origin story. His parents’ ship is sinking so they send their baby to a desert island on the back of Fleet, the horse. Beebo is raised by the animals including Cheeto the ape and an elephant. He becomes a champion rider and acrobat but Punjab the ape is jealous. Beebo must duel with the ape, killing him by knocking him into the ocean to drown. (This is a Golden Age comic and killing is not forbidden.) The animals can talk to the human boy, making the series more Mowgli-like than Tarzan, who can understand animals but doesn’t have conversations except with the apes. Beebo’s attire is a leopard skin that is right out of the Tarzan newspaper strip.
“The Man-Boy Meets His Own” (Shadow Comics #22, January 1943) has Beebo swim out to his parents’ wrecked ship, encountering a shark on the way. He learns about guns, which is good because a boatload of cannibals are on the way. He and his animal friends defeat the cannibals.
“Battle For the Jungle Throne” (Shadow Comics #23, February 1943) has Beebo battle a lion and a python. He defeats them both by having them fight each other.
“Hurricane Over Jungle Isle” (Shadow Comics #24, March 1943) has Wapun the snake and Rambo the goat take on Beebo. The animal fights are cool but the strip could have become “Beebo beats a —- this month”. Fortunately, Gruskin has other plans.
“Wave of Destruction” (Shadow Comics #25, April 1943) Jack Binder takes over pencils and inks. The island is flooded by a giant wave. Beebo must save many animals but has a fight with Scrawk the vulture. The stories are getting longer, stretching from one episode to the next.
“Pre-Historic Invader” (Shadow Comics #26, May 1943) finishes the fight with the vulture before a dinosaur shows up! It is a brontosaurus. Not sure why it is mean. Unlike the other animals, it doesn’t talk.
“The Cannibals Return” (Shadow Comics #27, June 1943) finishes the fight with the dinosaur but the cannibals are back.
“Threat From Afar” Part 1 (Shadow Comics #28, July 1943) has one final Froelich pencils. After a fire, we learn that Beebo’s uncle in San Francisco is hiring a crew to search for the lost family. he is doing this to prove that they are dead and the family fortune belongs to him after twelve years. The court wants proof.
“The Evil That Lurks in the Hearts of Men” Part 2 (Shadow Comics #29, August 1943) has the uncle, James Botel, and the will’s executor, Lamont Cranston (finally, the Shadow is part of the story!) show up at the island. Beebo is busy with a rhino.
“Knife in the Back” Part 3 (Shadow Comics #30, September 1943) has Botel’s thug, Jake, try to kill Cranston so that Botel can claim Beebo’s inheritance. Beebo and his animal friends save Lamont.
“Fleet in Revenge” Part 4 (Shadow Comics #31, October 1943) Beebo goes out to the newly arrived ship to face off with Botel. The Shadow shows up to help. There is an explosion and the boat goes under. Beebo fights his uncle with a knife, in a rather nasty struggle. Again, Golden Age rules.
“Death Under the Sea” Part 5 (Shadow Comics #32, November 1943) begins with the two heroes and Fleet escaping the sinking ship only to face off with a giant octopus.
“The Final Adventure” (Shadow Comics #33, December 1943) has Cranston sail away on a raft. Beebo has made his decision. He would rather live on his island with his animal friends. In the manner of comics everywhere, the final panel promises new and greater adventures that simply never happen. Beebo and Fleet never appeared again in any comic including Shadow Comics. The magazine went on for sixty-eight more issues but no jungle lords need apply. The thirteen episodes must have proven less popular than other strips.
Conclusion
1940 saw an explosion of comic book titles. Superman in 1938’s Action Comics, had proven that comics could be more than just newspaper strip reprints. The new companies filled their anthology comics with every version of the newspaper’s most popular characters including Mandrake the Magician, Flash Gordon and, of course, Tarzan. Beebo had plenty of competition from Sheena of the Jungle, Kaanga, Wambi the Jungle Boy, Zudo, Jungleman, Jungol and many others. Most were pale versions of Tarzan or Mowgli but I would offer that Beebo, despite his stupid name, was something a little more original, or at least, varied. Sure he had cannibals and animal fights galore, not really new, but at least exciting and well-drawn. There were certainly worse jungle lords in comics and fiction (many of whom ran for a longer if not better.)
Discover these RAGE m a c h i n e SF books
Leave a Reply