Rulah, Jungle Goddess


Rulah, Jungle Goddess is a fictional character, a jungle girl, in comic books published by Fox Feature Syndicate. She first appeared in Zoot Comics #7. The artist generally credited with creating Rulah is Matt Baker, although Jack Kamen and Graham Ingels were also associated with her.
Rulah was created as part of a boom in jungle girl comics in the late 1940s, headed by Fiction House's Sheena, Queen of the Jungle.

Character background

Rulah's real name was given variously as either Jane Dodge or Joan Grayson. In the latter version, Rulah is a young aviator on a solo flight over Africa when her plane loses control and crashes. She replaces her clothes with a bikini made from the skin of a dead giraffe. Soon afterwards, Rulah saves a local tribe from an evil woman; the grateful tribespeople declare her queen. Rulah decides to remain in the jungle as its protector. Rulah is often accompanied by her pet panther Saber. Her boyfriend, Tim Pointer, is introduced in issue #20.
According to Jess Nevins' Encyclopedia of Golden Age Superheroes, "She tackles ordinary enemies, like wild animals, wicked natives, and wicked whites, and extraordinary enemies, like the Harpies from Hades, the Panther Queen, the Thirsty Tyrant of Tii, the Jungle Napoleon, the Ice Vikings of Valhalla, and the Ape Women of Antilla."

Publication history

Rulah appeared in each issue of Zoot Comics after issue #7. By issue #17, Zoot was retitled Rulah, Jungle Goddess. Rulah also appeared in All Top Comics, alongside Dagar, the Desert Hawk, and the Blue Beetle. Rulah's last appearance in her own title was issue #27 ; the comic became a romance title and was renamed I Loved. All Top was canceled in July 1949.
After the demise of Fox Feature Syndicate, some of Rulah's adventures were reprinted without permission by Star Comics, and I. W. Publications, under the Super Comics and Skywald Comics lines.
The last original story featuring Rulah is "Clash of Gods", written by Enrico Teodorani and drawn by Antonio Conversano, published in 2004 by AC Comics in Femforce # 129.
In 2011, the character was ranked 79th in Comics Buyer's Guides "100 Sexiest Women in Comics" list.