Short Lived Comic Series #26 - George of the Jungle (Gold Key)

George, George, George of the Jungle, Strong as He Can Be!

(Tarzan Yell!!!)  Watch Out for That Tree!

Although I've never seen a George of the Jungle cartoon in my life, I've heard that song and known that one line from the song ever since I was a child.  A comedic version of Tarzan was not really a character that interested me, so I never went about looking for the cartoon or anything based on it.  In fact, the whole reason I ultimately sought out the two Gold Key comics based on the cartoon has absolutely nothing to do with the title character; rather, it has everything to do with one of the back-up stories in the comics based on another cartoon created by the same production company.  That was the character of Tom Slick.

Honestly, I'd never heard of Tom Slick until the end of 2021, when I purchased a copy of Retro Fan magazine (because it had an article about Dark Shadows actress, Lara Parker - and if it involves anything Dark Shadows, I buy it!).  After reading the article about Ms. Parker and her years as the tormented witch, Angelique, from the 1960's Gothic soap opera, I flipped through the magazine. While glossing over the article about George of the Jungle, written by one of my favorite comic book creators Scott Shaw! (and yes, the exclamation point goes there!), detailing the character's history from its creation through the comic books and eventual movie starring Brendan Fraser, I noticed a little blurb on the bottom corner of page 30 that featured the cover of Tom Swift and his Motor Cycle.  That book, first published back in 1910, seemed out of place in an article about a Tarzan knock-off, so I read what it said under the picture:

Long before "Young Adult" was a book genre, boy inventor Tom Swift was piquing the imaginations of juvenile readers ... He inspired Ward Productions' Tom Slick, shown here racing his Thunderbolt Grease Slapper in a 1967 animation drawing by Lew Keller.  (Retro Fan, No. 17, November 2021, p. 30)

Well, needless to say, my curiosity was now piqued.  As a longtime collector of children's books, I have a near complete set of original Tom Swift books, as well as complete sets of the Tom Swift, Jr. series, the Tom Swift series published by Simon & Schuster in the 1980s, and all of the Tom Swift series that have been published since.  Thus, if there was a character out there who was inspired by Tom Swift, I wanted to know more about it.  The Retro Fan article gave some details about the character, who was basically an after-thought creation by Jay Ward and his production company after ABC picked up his pitch for cartoons of George of the Jungle and Super Chicken.  ABC wanted a third character to fill the time slot being given, and Ward, a self-proclaimed fan of Tom Swift in his youth, came up with Tom Slick!

 

The more I read of the article, the more I learned.  Tom Slick was named after Tom Swift, and the article stated that "[t]he too-subtle-for-kids gag was if Tom Swift was still around, 'he wouldn't be a backyard inventor, he'd be a racecar genius,' definitely not Victor Appleton's 'Tom Swift, Jr.'" (Retro Fan, No. 17, November 2021, p. 33).  At this point, I was hooked.  I went online and discovered some of the cartoons on YouTube and watched them. Then I set about finding those two George of the Jungle comic books published by Gold Key comics back in 1969 (a very important year for me!).  I ultimately tracked them down via eBay (since I could not find either issue any any of my local comic stores, nor at any of the comic book conventions I attended) and set about reading the adventures of Tom Slick.

The first issue (February 1969) features book-end stories starring the title character, with the inside front and back covers also featuring one-page stories of George. In between the two book-end tales are a six-page story of Super-Chicken and a five-page story of Tom Slick.  The second issue (October 1969) follows the same format, but it drops the inside front and back cover stories.  The one bad thing about Gold Key comics (and a number of similar publishers back in the day) is that the issues, in most cases, do not identify the writers and artists on the stories.  Some online sources indicate that Paul Fung, Jr. may have provided the art for the second issue, but there is no confirmation for this.

The first Tom Slick story, "Monster Rally," is based on the second episode of the television series, "Tom Slick and the Monster Rally."  Watching that episode online in comparison with the comic adaptation shows that the comic pretty much nailed it word-for-word (with a few variances to account for the limited page count).  Tom has entered a race in the "gloom-shrouded Transylvanian Alps at Monte Karloff" against some frightening competitors - Lobo Fangosi (driving his Four-Claw Ferrari Road Ripper); Reggie Frankenstarn (driving the La Monsa Special); and Count Lou Gossie (driving his Red Corpuscle Bloodmobile).  While the guys and ghouls of Monte Karloff have no love for Tom, he does have the support of his girlfriend, Marigold, and his elderly mechanic, Gertie Growler.  The three monsters have cars with unique features - claws, coffins, and creepy bats - Tom manages to stay slow and steady (reminiscent of the tortoise in his race with the hare!) and win the race.

The second Tom Slick story, "Blimps Away!" is based on one of the final episodes of the television show, "The Badyear Blimp."  Instead of a car race, this time Tom is competing in a blimp race.  He has converted his Thunderbolt Grease Slapper into a hot air blimp and is set to win the race. But the dastardly Baron Otto Matic is determined to cheat and beat Tom.  First, he throws a melon with a bomb in it - only to throw the wrong melon, having the one with bomb blow up in his face (literally!).  Next, he tries moving the pylon the blimps are following, but falls into a hole in the street.  He tries shooting a cannonball, but hits the wrong blimp; and he fires himself into the sky on a rocket that leaves too early to hit Tom's blimp!  Once again, Tom wins the race (and during the whole race, Gertie is trying to shoot an apple place on Marigold's head, but continually misses and hits the villains trying to stop Tom!).

In reading the comics (and watching the cartoons on YouTube), I did not really see much of a connection to Tom Swift, other than the similarity in name.  Tom Slick does not come across as a super-genius inventor, and he doesn't solve any mysteries; however, he does manage to convert his Thunderbolt Grease Slapper into whatever is needed for the particular race (such as changing it from a car to a blimp in the second story above).  I supposed that could be considered a similarity, although that's stretching it, in my opinion.  Other than the reference in the article in Retro Fan magazine, I am not able to find anything that connects Tom Slick with Tom Swift.  I suppose we will just have to take Shaw's word for the fact that Jay Ward was a fan of Swift and based his character on him.

The George of the Jungle stories, which were obviously the main feature of these two issues, were not really my cup of tea.  In them, George has to help a doctor figure out what is ailing Shep, George's "bow-wow" (but is actually an elephant); he inadvertently saves a sultan's 300-pound pearl; he has to outwit a real estate mongul from taking all of his land; and he must escape the clutches of a hunter intent on getting the head of an "ape-man" for his trophy wall.  George is a dim-witted clutz who normally escape danger through his own clumsiness.  I suppose if I were a young child, I might find them amusing, but as an adult, I thought they were rather trite.  And I did not even bother reading the Super Chicken stories - not a concept that appeals to me at all.

RATING:  5 quickly-knitted bat-mittens out of 10 for introducing me to a cartoon character of years past of whom I had never heard and who has a (very) loose connection to a children's series icon!