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Posted in: Comics, Heritage Sponsored, Vintage Paper | Tagged: l.b. cole, phantom lady
Phantom Lady and Rulah in L.B. Cole's Jungle Thrills #16, at Auction
L.B. Cole's Jungle Thrills #16 and its Phantom Lady and Rulah content brought this issue to the attention of the author of Parade of Pleasure
Jungle Thrills #16 isn't exactly a romance comic book like every other item up for auction in the 2023 October 26 – 27 Romance Comics Featuring L. B. Cole Showcase Auction #40224 at Heritage Auctions, but it certainly is a textbook example of an L.B. Cole cover during his Star Publications era. The publisher acquired a large quantity of reprint material from Curtis Publishing, Fox Feature Syndicate, and other sources. In many cases this inventory was just 2-3 years old at the time, but Cole's strategy was to rely on his own cover designs, artwork and color to make it stand out on the newsstands. And in the case of this particular issue, there was something else — the Fox reprints of Phantom Lady and Rulah in Jungle Thrills #16 (Star Publications, 1952) Condition: VG caught the attention of author Geoffrey Wagner for his book Parade of Pleasure: A Study of Popular Iconography in the USA.
Considered as sort of a UK counterpart to Fredrick Wertham's Seduction of the Innocent, Parade of Pleasure described this issue's cover and contents from a rather bizarre perspective, and speculated on what kind of effect it might be having on children who read it. "In Jungle Thrills no 16, with a cover of a buxom blonde in the grip of the perennial gorilla (animal), Rulah concludes a wild career of killing by savagely twisting her coloured opponent's leg until he screams for mercy — 'Let me go, Jungle Goddess, and I will be your slave for life.' It is rather understandable that in the district of New York where I live, the children play games in which the coloured ones act out the role of 'slaves'. This last book also features two more Wonder-Jungle heroines, Tanee and Phantom Lady, both of whom run around slapping other girls to make them talk. Tanee is actually the girlfriend of Jo-Jo, a muscular white man, and they appear in other booklets of the genre."
I think Wagner might just be making some of that speculation up out of thin air. That aside, Jungle Thrills #16 is sought out today for its L.B. Cole cover and its appearance in Parade of Pleasure. There's a copy of Jungle Thrills #16 (Star Publications, 1952) Condition: VG up for auction in the 2023 October 26 – 27 Romance Comics Featuring L. B. Cole Showcase Auction #40224 at Heritage Auctions
Jungle Thrills #16 (Star Publications, 1952) Condition: VG. L. B. Cole gorilla cover. Used in Parade of Pleasure. Contains reprinted Phantom Lady and Rulah stories. This copy has some foxing, soiling, and staining. Overstreet 2023 VG 4.0 value = $142.
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