Black Manta

Black Manta

Monday, July 22, 2013

Jungle Fever


Rima
is the essence of nineteenth century romanticism and the twentieth century ecological movement.
Green Mansions
explores love somewhere between reality and imagination


1st true appearance is in W.H. Hudson's 1904 novel 
a Romance of the Tropical Forest (Green Mansions)
Rima comes from a lost white tribe in the Venezuelan mountains. 
An exotic beauty with ash blonde hair,
can communicate with animals and is an expert in wilderness survival. 
She has an affinity to animals
and can communicate with them through an understanding of sounds and calls. 
She's been called  Rima the bird girl; 
however her main companions in the comics is a rare white Jaguar and a Bear.




































Rima went from novel to movie to her own 7 issue run from DC comics.
Joe Kubert: covers
Nestor Redondo: interior art












Rima appeared in three episodes of the Super Friends

Fire / River of Doom / Return to Atlantis


 re-imagined in a 2010 mini series Next Wave





W.H. Hudson was also the founder of 
the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds.
Therefore a memorial to him and a testaments to the character he created
Rima has her own statue in London's Hyde Park



..... and I just thought Rima was a sexy female knockoff of Tarzan.
Who knew this character would become the member of the Super Friends with
so much unknown cultural importance?


24 comments:

  1. I thought she looked like the girl from Super Friends! Take that fading memory! I can still recall things. Vaguely. :) I honestly had no idea she had her own book or comic, though. Or that she'd been immortalized on a statue! That's beautiful. And a great testament to her creator and the strength of his convictions. I'm going to have to keep my eye out for these now. I think they'll fit right in on the Conan and Tarzan row. Thanks OA1. And it's great to see you again!

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    1. I thought her little story was good as well. I started out just giving the unsung Super Friends their due; then stumbled across the Green Mansions reference of her origin and was like damn...this chick has social and comic book relevance. Cool right?

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    2. Very cool. I'd really like the comic books but they're probably kind of hard to find.

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  2. wow, i have absolutely no recollection of this character. or of that Superfriends episode but i'm pretty sure those were the same natives that went after Indiana Jones in Raiders of the Lost Ark :) speaking of movies Jungle Fever was a damn good one.

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    1. lol...No one can stop Indy. Yeah man Rima wasn't around much but she left her mark on the genre. I've always wanted to see more Rima. Hell, I like all the jungle girls, barbarian girls, I like the girls period.

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    2. Speaking of Indy, he's in that movie 42, about Jackie Robinson that just got released on dvd. Now, I know not everyone loves baseball like I do, but it's a tremendous movie even if you're not nuts for America's Favorite Pastime. Superb acting, directing, costumes, lighting, casting. I'm actually going to buy it. Everyone should see this movie at least once. They did an excellent job recording a very important moment in history. One that most people outside of sports probably don't think about much.

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    3. 42 is an amazing example of historic movie making. I'm buying it as well Random. And everyone should see the film. Good stuff people.

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  3. I recall this series from the 70s [pause, must not give age away] and found the art very moody, almost surreal. There was a cartoon series on kids tv at the time called Jana Of The Jungle and I often got them mixed up.

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    1. I did too Karl (age is exposed) and I liked Jana. She was probably a jungle girl knockoff. She had the white jaguar and all. I never read the series but I am going to check for it because of this post.

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  4. I know I definitely learned something today. While I knew about the Super-friends, her own comic, and all, did not know she's existed since the early 1900's. Wow. That's some staying power for a female character who's not as intertwined with popular culture, as say WW, Storm, or the Invisible Woman.

    I probably need to check out those First Wave books, since I remember them coming out but not being interested enough to read em. Shit, the JG Jones art alone should've done that, and all present in one title with the pulp characters(Batman included) of yesteryear.

    Good stuff as always Tiger/Omega:)

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    1. Yeah, I couldn't get with em either. The Rima re-design was good though. Only problem is I hear she can't speak. She can only make animal noises (that can't be all bad though). The Super Friends version still stands supreme.

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    2. It's a good redesign. But there's something about the original artwork that feels much more otherworldly and beautiful, and just aesthetically pleasing to me. I don't know if it's a deliberate pulp design, or if that was just the style dujour then, but it feels right.
      Wait. They took away her words? A dude wrote that, right? *sigh*

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    3. Style Dujour, my girl and her nine dollar phrases :) And it does feel right, I'm with you the original is the winner.

      You know a dude wrote that (lol) did he get to creative or is he just tripping?

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    4. I'm sure it was a little of both. I don't want to get all feminist flag waving. I'm down with the hot chicks scantily clad and all. I mean, it's a jungle. It's warm. They're hot. And if she'd had no language from the start I never would have thought twice about it. But to take someone who could speak and then have her start making animal noises...it just makes me shake my head a little.

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  5. Wow what an awesome character - and definitely (Aquaman's Others notwithstanding) one that would fill a great hole in the DC line! I never saw much of the Super Friends - I played soccer on Saturday mornings - so this post is almost all news to me as to her history. Great stuff OA - Cheers!

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    1. Dan, glad you stopped by. Man I remember quitting football one year to stay home and watch cartoons. I'm attached to this genre and I don't want to leave.

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  6. i just posted a link to an article about the upcoming BT appearance on Arrow on my current posting.

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    1. Nice! I see they're doing Brother Blood too. Shout out Titans Fans!

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    2. Yeah, Arrow is full of other heroes villains. But if this miraculously sets up a Task Force X, Suicide Squad movie my prayers have been answered.

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  7. I'm the same OA - infact most of my cartoons on DVD are old school. Transformers, G.i. Joe, Galaxy Rangers... good times!

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  8. i got a JUNGLE FEVER kinda posting of my own today :)

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  10. I was 100% ignorant to this! -Even with her being on Super-Friends... I had no idea. I will most definitely be looking for those comics, past or present, now!!!

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    1. I've been looking for em as well. I really want this series in my collection. I also think Rima should make some type of return to DC comics. She's that interesting as a character.

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