As a boy, I was unaware that DC Comics’ Congo Bill had a long-running “Jungle Jim” type feature before he ever met Congorilla, and had I known, I’d have been mystified.
What, after all, would be the point of paying any attention to the adventures of some guy in a pith helmet if he could NOT trade minds with a huge golden gorilla?
Debuting in More Fun Comics 56 (June 1940), the jungle adventurer even had his title, which ran seven issues (Sept. 1954 to Sept. 1955).
“On Oct. 28, 1949, Columbia Pictures (Blackhawk, Bruce Gentry) released the first of a 15-chapter serial with him as the title character,” noted comics historian Don Markstein.
In Action Comics 178 (March 1953), Bill helps a giant ape called Congorilla avoid capture after it saves his life from a lion. Then in Congo Bill 1 (Aug.-Sept. 1954), Bill encounters a large golden gorilla named Bogadu who’s a pal of Janu the Jungle Boy. Then, in Action Comics 228 (May 1957), Congo Bill and Janu meet a highly intelligent ape that had been a Hollywood star. This one’s name is Kongorilla (with a K, mind you).
With superheroes emerging as the coming thing, these elements finally all came together in Action Comics 248 (Jan. 1959).
Having rescued a witch doctor, Congo Bill is rewarded with a magic ring that enables him to switch minds with yet another Congorilla, this one a huge golden ape.
“When danger threatened, Bill would put himself in a cage, get Janu to tie him up or in some other way render himself incapable of harming himself, then enter the body of the beast,” Markstein explained.
Considering the popularity of ape covers at DC, it seems kind of odd that Congorilla didn’t get his title in the 1960s. But, given the fact that the sales-boosting gorilla covers were rationed out between editors at DC, that might have upset the editorial balance of power.
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