Posted in: Comics, Heritage Sponsored, Vintage Paper | Tagged: golden age, Jack Kamen, maurice whitman

Jack Kamen, Maurice Whitman Cover Fiction House's Kaanga, at Auction

The tough-to-get Kaanga Comics series features some spectacular art and covers from the likes of Maurice Whitman and Jack Kamen.

Published Sun, 01 Oct 2023 11:48:11 -0500

by Mark Seifert

Last updated Tue, 31 Oct 2023 16:51:11 -0500

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The comic book character Kaanga was created by artist Alex Blum and an unknown writer for his debut in Jungle Comics #1 in January 1940 and was based on the classic "boy raised by apes" archetype, similar to Tarzan. Jungle Comics started as a comic book companion to Fiction House's Jungle Stories pulp title, and Kaanga had a corresponding character in Ki-Gor from Jungle Stories. But while Ki-Gor has been largely forgotten, Kaanga is remembered due to the collectibility of Jungle Comics and his own spin-off title, Kaanga Comics. Today's Heritage Auctions' Sunday & Monday Comic Books Select Auction #122250 has twelve issues of Kaanga Comics, featuring spectacular art and covers from the likes of Maurice Whitman and Jack Kamen.

After nine years of headlining Jungle Stories, Kaanga received his own comic book series from Fiction House, which ran from 1949 to 1954. The Kaanga Comics series issues #1-20 is collectible today in part because of the covers of Maurice Whitman. An underappreciated artist of the era, Whitman worked for several major studios during his career, including Funnies, Inc., Chesler Studio, and Iger Studio. He created comic book art for several publishers, including Charlton, DC Comics, and Fiction House. Whitman is perhaps best known for his beautiful Good Girl art comic book covers, which are considered to be representative of the late Fiction House era. He was also known for his attention to detail and ability to create dynamic compositions. EC Comics legend Jack Kamen also contributed one or two covers here in his earlier days.

The Kaanga Comics series started out as "remixed" reprints (often re-dialoged, sometimes with some art rearranged or replaced) from Jungle Comics, featuring stand-out art from the likes of Tom Cataldo and Ruben Moreira. With issue #4, Fiction House began mixing in new stories from the Iger Studio, and noted the inclusion of new stories on the cover. After a few months of all new material, the series would revert to occasional all-reprint issues and would become mostly reprints by the end. While the reprint material was solid, it's clear that Whitman's covers carried the title as far as it went.

Collectors have recently noticed that the Kaanga Comics run is much tougher to complete than one might think. While the copies on offer in the Sunday & Monday Comic Books Select Auction #122250 are raw, over half the series has single-digit universal CGC Census numbers, with several under five entries on the Census. A tough series with some uniformly great covers, Heritage Auctions has twelve issues of Kaanga Comics, up for sale today. And for potential bidders who are new to Heritage Auctions, don't forget to check out their FAQ on the bidding process and related matters before getting started.