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Jo-Jo the Congo King

Jo-Jo the Congo King
From Jenny Everywhere Wiki

In one universe, Jo-Jo the Congo King, also known as the Congo King or simply “Congo King”, was a white jungle-hero living in Congo, and a friend of Gwenna, the Queen of the Bonangi. (COMIC: Jo-Jo Congo King) He looked very similar, and shared the title of “the Congo King”, with another reality's jungle-hero Kaza; (COMIC: Fear in the Jungle) in yet another dimension, Kaza was the husband of Gwenna. (COMIC: The Serpent Sorceress, etc.)

His great strength was notorious, and it was thanks to his protection that Gwenna's rival Ungulla was reluctant to attack the Bonangi until he allied with a white outlaw who had designs on the gold artefacts crafted and held by the Bonangi — something Jo-Jo had tried to warn Gwenna would happen eventually, in vain. The outlaw had armoured Ungulla's elephant with steel, creating “the Iron Beast”, a juggernaut impervious to the spears and other weapons of the Bonangi warriors.

Realising that the battle could not be won there and then, Jo-Jo chose to make a show of fleeing, seemingly out of cowardice. He then rallied the remaining Bonangi warriors and raced ahead of the victorious Ungulla's convoy back home, ambushing them by felled several trees in the Beast's way, cutting off its route. Jo-Jo then swung onto the back of the Beast on a vine and used a flaming torch to smoke the outlaw out of the tank-like compartment he'd built on the Beast's back. While the outlaw was thrown to the ground and soon crushed by the panicking Beast, Ungulla was taken prisoner; Jo-Jo and Gwenna decided that, while he would be punished for his crimes, the rest of his tribe would not be held responsible for their leader's craven behaviour. (COMIC: Jo-Jo Congo King)

Behind the scenes

Jo-Jo the Congo King was the title character of the 1940s-1950s Fox Feature Syndicate comic-book Jo-Jo Congo King, and one of many “jungle hero” characters trying to capitalise on the success of Tarzan. He debuted in a story simply entitled Jo-Jo Congo King in Issue #7A of Jo-Jo comic book, whose numbering carried on from three prior Fox issues of “Jo-Jo Comics” with no relationship to the jungle character, who was named Jo-Jo to facilitate the transition by keeping the name of the book the same on paper.

The other half of his moniker seems to have been cribbed from a nigh-identical Tarzan clone known simply as “the Congo King” who appeared in three issues of Green Publishing's Atomic Comics in 1946, and who is also in the public domain.

Kaza originated as a renamed version of Jo-Jo, with his 1954 debut story being a modified reprint of a 1949 Jo-Jo story. A rebooted Kaza would later become a major character in the Jenny Everywhere-adjacent webcomic Kaza's Mate, Gwenna, paired up with a rebooted version of Gwenna, who appeared in the original Jo-Jo Congo King story.

External links