Repta the Jungle Girl is from “The Beautiful Beast” in The House of Mystery #185 (March-April 1970). The fact that she appeared in a horror comic let’s you know this isn’t going to end well. And there will be no sequel. (That last one isn’t always true. Swamp Thing first appeared in House of Secrets #92 (July 1971). Even Frank Belknap Long’s “The Living Ghost” got more episodes. As did the Ghoul of the North. But as a rule…)
What makes this comic so noteworthy is the artist selected to draw it: Al Williamson. Williamson was selected special for this one. He never did any other piece for The House of Mystery, though he did one for The Witching Hour (“The Haunted House in Space”) a year later. (That piece drew on Williamson’s experience drawing Flash Gordon.) Williamson was known for his work at EC Comics and Warren. Also his association with Roy G. Krenkel and Frank Frazetta and the others of the Fleagle Gang. And mostly his wonderfully realistic but fantastic style. Who better to draw a piece with an Edgar Rice Burroughs type setting? The artwork doesn’t appear in the traditional six to eight stacked panels but in pages of three. This makes every other half page feel like a splash page. The artwork was so spectacular Joe Orlando “got complaints from the production department”(Les Daniels: “Haunted Houses Fear as an Art Form”. DC Comics: Sixty Years of the World’s Favorite Comic Book Heroes, 1996).
Well, I don’t care if Al didn’t work out with DC. This story was a masterpiece among gems (Mike Kaluta, Alex Nino, Tom Sutton, Jess Jodloman and Berni Wrightson all did work for The House of Mystery around this time.) For Burroughs fans, it is a Pellucidarian lovefest, a jungle buffet of delights.
The writer was Joe Gill. Gill was the powerhouse writer at Charlton Comics but in 1969 Dick Giordano hired Joe to write stuff occasionally. This strip would be part of that arrangement. So the writer was a guest almost as much as the artist.
The cover for this issue was done by Neal Adams but lacks Burroughsian elements (which is too bad since Neal did all those great Tarzan covers). It does include the kids from this series of covers. They aren’t in the story, not any part of the issue.
The hero of our tale is no hero at all. Joe Carver is a man without scruples, an escaped convict. He is in the swamp seeking wealth and escape. What he finds is a dinosaur that captures him and takes him to a temple dedicated to evil.
The ruler of this strange domain is Repta the Jungle Girl. Like a latter-day Rulah, she is a brunette in leopard print.
Repta takes Joe back to her place. Joe sees she is wearing a necklace of uncut rubies. He tries to grab them but Repta knocks him down. She sees he is filled with greed. What she doesn’t see is that he is also sneaky. He grabs her and wrestles her until her ape-like guards show up.
Repta is quick to offer judgment. Joe is to be released in the jungle with only a spear for a weapon. Repta will hunt him down and take her revenge. (The frame below is cribbed shamelessly from Tarzan and La of Opar by Frazetta.)
Joe isn’t so easily cowed. Instead of running, he makes his way back toward the temple. He will take what he wants from Repta.
He sneaks up on the two apemen who abandoned him, killing them with his spear.
Joe sneaks up on Repta as she dances beside a ceremonial fire. When Joe attacks her, she changes into a gigantic snake. The man struggles with the serpent, killing it with his spear. He takes the rubies and leaves.
Finally in possession of the necklace, Joe runs to get out of the jungle. Repta’s spirit haunts him as he flees.
Joe doesn’t get away. Another gigantic snake grabs him and crushes him to death. It turns into Repta, who cradles his dead body.
Not a very Edgar Rice Burroughs story, is it? ERB had villains but they were never the central character. This is a typical guy-got-et scenario set in a Burroughsian jungle of dinosaurs and snakes. Repta the jungle girl is a were-snake, which usually doesn’t work out well. She could control dinosaurs and apemen but she is a La of Opar, not a Rulah. Like the Sword & Sorcery tales that appeared in many horror comics (including DC), the setting is subordinated by the need to tell a horror story. Joe Gill and Al Williamson have fun with it all the same.