Congo Bill
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| Congo Bill | |
 Congo Bill from Action Comics #52, art by Fred Ray |
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| Publication information | |
|---|---|
| Publisher | DC Comics/Vertigo |
| First appearance | More Fun Comics #56, (June 1940) |
| Created by | Whitney Ellsworth (writer) George Papp (artist) |
| In story information | |
| Team affiliations | Forgotten Heroes |
| Notable aliases | Congorilla |
| Abilities | Able to transfer consciousness into a golden gorilla. |
Congo Bill was a long running DC Comics adventure comic strip, first published in More Fun Comics #56 (June 1940), created by Whitney Ellsworth and George Papp. The strip ran in various DC Comics titles until Action Comics #248 (January 1959), when Congo Bill was transformed into Congorilla, which ran until April 1961. Congorilla was created by Robert Bernstein and Howard Sherman.
Contents |
[edit] Congo Bill
The Congo Bill strip was a standard jungle adventure strip, reminiscent of Alex Raymond's Jungle Jim newspaper strip. The strip was a moderate success and switched from More Fun to Action Comics with issue #37, where it stayed until issue #248 when it was transformed into Congorilla.
[edit] Congorilla
In Action Comics #228, Congo Bill meets a strange golden gorilla, much more intelligent than normal gorillas. Twenty issues later, Bill's friend, the witch doctor Chief Kawolo, tells him that he can control the gorilla by way of a mysterious ring, which allows him to change minds with the gorilla. Shortly after Kawolo tells Congo Bill this, he dies. Bill is later trapped in a cave and uses the ring to switch minds with the gorilla. Bill decides to use new power to fight crime in the jungle. He is assisted by Janu, a young boy raised in the jungle.
The Congorilla series ran in Action Comics until issue 262, after which it was transferred to Adventure Comics, where it ran until issue 283. Since the demise of its own series, Congorilla has mainly been seen as a guest star in other titles, including as part of the Forgotten Heroes. The character finally received a mini-series of his own in 1994, where Congo Bill is betrayed by his (now corrupt) ward Janus, who usurps the Congorilla identity and Bill is forced to fight his adopted son to the death. In 1999, DC Comics once again brought Congo Bill back for another four-issue limited series under the company's mature readership Vertigo imprint.
In March 2008, it was announced that Congorilla will return as a member of a spin-off faction of the Justice League.[1]
Congorilla may have been named after the 1932 motion picture film of the same name by noted explorers Martin and Osa Johnson.
[edit] Appearances in other media
[edit] Film serial
Congo Bill was filmed as a 15 chapter movie serial by Columbia Pictures in 1948. The series starred Don McGuire and Cleo Moore and was produced by Sam Katzman. The series was reissued in 1957 when Moore had become a famous film star.[2]
[edit] Notes
[edit] References
- Congo Bill and Congorilla at Don Markstein's Toonopedia
- DC Comics: Sixty Years of the World's Favorite Comic Book Heroes by Les Daniels (1995)
- Congo Bill at the Comic Book DB
- Congorilla at the Comic Book DB
