Rima
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Rima, also known as Rima the Jungle Girl, is a fictional character, a heroine of Victorian literature who was adapted as the star of short-lived comic book series Rima the Jungle Girl, published by DC Comics in 1974 and 1975.
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[edit] Publication history
Like her literary cousins Tarzan and Mowgli, Rima sprang from a Victorian adventure novel, in her case Green Mansions: A Romance of the Tropical Forest, published in 1904. The Argentine-British writer W. H. Hudson was a naturalist who wrote many classic books about the ecology of South America. Hudson based Rima on a persistent South American legend about a lost tribe of white people who lived in the mountains.[citation needed]
Rima starred in a seven-issue comic book series, DC Comics' Rima the Jungle Girl (May 1974 - May 1975), adapted by an uncredited writer and with artwork by penciler-inker Nestor Redondo and covers by Joe Kubert. DC writer-editor Robert Kanigher is the credited writer from issue #5 on.
[edit] Fictional character biography
Although the DC character is a fully-grown and powerful woman with ash blonde hair, in the novel Rima the Bird Girl was 17, small (4' 6"), demure, and dark-haired. Natives avoided her forest, calling her "the Daughter of the Didi" (an evil spirit), but Rima's only defense is a reputation for magic, earned through the display of strange talents such as talking to birds, befriending animals, and plucking poison darts from the air.
[edit] In other media
[edit] Literature
[edit] Green Mansions
Rima originated in the 1904 novel Green Mansions by W. H. Hudson .
[edit] Film
[edit] Green Mansions
Actor and director Mel Ferrer adapted Green Mansions into a 1959 film for MGM Studios, starring Audrey Hepburn as Rima. The adaptation deviated far from the novel.
[edit] Other comic books
[edit] Classics Illustrated #90: Green Mansions
Short adaptation from the novel, with direct quotes. Rima is blond.
[edit] The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen
Rima is mentioned but not seen in America's Best Comics' The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen vol. 2, #3 (2003), by writer Alan Moore and artists Kevin O'Neill and Ben Dimagmaliw: "...it is near here that the world-famous 'bird girl' Riolama or Rima was discovered..."
[edit] Television
[edit] The All-New Super Friends Hour
Rima the Jungle Girl appeared in three episodes of Hanna-Barbera's The All-New Super Friends Hour during the 1977-78 season, alongside such mainstays as Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman.
[edit] Fire
First aired: Saturday October 1, 1977; ABC (8 minutes) Batman, Robin, and Rima the Jungle Girl contend with a spreading forest fire, and have to search for a pair of escaped prisoners who have stolen a forestry truck filled with dynamite. Rima's main contribution is to call upon a nearby bear to push down some trees for an emergency bridge across a wide gap.
[edit] River Of Doom
First aired: Friday November 4, 1977; ABC (8 minutes) Wonder Woman and Rima the Jungle Girl search for archaeologists who have accidentally stumbled onto a burial ground of angry natives. The archaeologists are captured and sentenced to death on the River of Doom. The superheroines rescue the scientists while Rima summons alligators to attack their pursuers' canoes.
[edit] Return Of Atlantis
First aired: Saturday October 25, 1980; ABC (7 Minutes) Wonder Woman, Aquaman, Rima. Aquaman is captured by Queen Ocina when the lost city of Atlantis rises from the sea. Ocina plans to conquer the world with her female warriors, but Wonder Woman and Rima gather the Amazons of Paradise Island to stop her. Note: In breach of both DC Comics' and the Super Friends TV show's continuities, this "Atlantis" is not the kingdom over which Aquaman reigns.
[edit] Other
Pennsylvania Kensington Gardens, in London's Hyde Park, has a statue of Rima the Bird Girl sculpted by Jacob Epstein, erected in 1925.[1]
[edit] References
- 30th Century Comics article, by Ramon Schenk
- Grand Comics Database: Rima the Jungle Girl (DC Comics)
