Jungo replaced Zaro as Holyoke’s Sparkling Stars‘ jungle hero with Issue #13. By #18 they would send him to live with dinosaurs in a secret valley, calling him “Jungo the Beast-Man”. What makes that interesting is that this is long before the dinosaurs of Frank Frazetta’s Thun’da, Bob Powell’s Cave Girl or Marvel’s Ka Zar.
By #21 a further name change, Jungol, adding an l. His real name is Phil Gant, Johnny Weissmuller-like star of Jungo Pictures, come to the jungle to live the life he had portrayed on film. With #20 he shared the limelight with Fangs the Wolf-Boy, alternating until the comic was cancelled. The writer of the script is not known.
Jungo
1. “Ex Soft Movie Star” (Sparkling Stars Comics #13, May 1946)
2. “Jungo’s Jungle Facts: Lion” (Sparkling Stars Comics #13, May 1946)
3. “Phil Gant, Famous Movie Star” (Sparkling Stars Comics #14, June 1946)
4. “Jungo’s Jungle Facts: Rhinoceros” (Sparkling Stars Comics #14, June 1946)
5. “Survives the Dangers of Jungle Life” (Sparkling Stars Comics #15, July 1946)
6. “Star of Jungo Pictures” (Sparkling Stars Comics #17, August 1946)
Jungo the Beast-Man
7. “This Time Jungo Makes History — Prehistory!” (Sparkling Stars Comics #18, September 1946)
8. “Easy there, Bronto” (Sparkling Stars Comics #19, November 1946)
9. “Somewhere in the Unexplored Wilderness” (Sparkling Stars Comics #21, January 1947)
Jungol
10. “Trapped in a Prehistoric Valley” (Sparkling Stars Comics #23, May 1947)
11. “Remember the Popular Movie Star” (Sparkling Stars Comics #25, July 1947)
12. “Phil Gant Was the Star” (Sparkling Stars Comics #27, September 1947)
13. “Help Jungol!” (Sparkling Stars Comics #29, November 1947)
14. “Out of the Brooding Fastnesses” (Sparkling Stars Comics #31, January 1948)
These comics are available free at Digital Comic Museum.
