Jo-Jo Congo King (comic story)
Jo-Jo Congo King is a now-public-domain comic story which was originally printed in July 1947 in Jo-Jo Congo King #7A (which, despite appearances, was actually the first issue of the comic in that form; its numbering carried on from six issues of “Jo-Jo Comics” by the same publisher which did not feature the Congo King character at all, instead focusing on a cast of funny-animals characters).
It introduced the titular Jo-Jo the Congo King, and gave him the love interest of Gwenna. After falling into the public domain, a rebooted Gwenna would gain a new lease of life as the protagonist of the Jenny Everywhere-adjacent webcomic Kaza's Mate, Gwenna, now paired up with Kaza, a distinct jungle-hero character who originated a renamed version of Jo-Jo in a reprint of a later Jo-Jo Congo King story. Gwenna was short-lived within the pages of Jo-Jo, being replaced as early as the very next Jo-Jo story by a largely-identical character instead known as Geesha.
Plot
A white outlaw visits the jungle Jo-Jo the Congo King calls home, looking for the origin of a golden statuette he found. The corrupt tribal chief Ungulla informs him that the object originated with, and indeed depicts, his hated rival Gwenna, the Queen of the Bonangi. He is more than willing to go along with a plan to rob her village of all its gold, but fears Gwenna's friend, Jo-Jo — who at this very moment is imploring Gwenna to get rid of her prized golden kitchenware and decorations, having foreseen that they will attract evil to the village sooner or later.
This comes to pass sooner rather than later as the white outlaw initiates his plan: he brought steel plates and uses them to armour Ungulla's elephant, dubbing him “the Iron Beast”. With this living and invulnerable battering ram fronting the army of Ungulla's men, they attack the village and quickly ransack it. Jo-Jo runs rather than stay to be shot, and, gathering surviving Bonangi, stages an ambush on the way back to Ungulla's village, collapsing trees in the Iron Beast's path. Leaping onto the elephant, Jo-Jo uses a burning torch to smoke the outlaw out of the tank-like compartment he'd built into the Beast's armour. As he tries to flee, the villain is crushed by the panicking elephant.
Subsequently, the Bonangi capture Ungulla but, on Jo-Jo's advice, let the rest of his people go free. Gwenna, now seeing the truth of Jo-Jo's earlier warning, promises to heed her friend's advice in the future.
Worldbuilding
Universes
- This story takes place all in one universe.
Behind the scenes
Read online
Being in the public domain in the U.S., the comic is available for free on the Digital Comics Museum website. It can also be read here:
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