Sheena, Queen of the Jungle is a jungle-dwelling comic book chararacter, published originally by Fiction House and later by Marvel Comics, Eclipse Comics, and Blackthorne Publishing]]. Lithe, athletic, and clad in skimpy leopard skin, she possessed the ability to communicate with the wild animals she had grown up with since becoming orphaned in the jungle.
Sheena debuted as in Joshua B. Power's British magazine Wags #1 1938). She was created by Will Eisner and S.M. "Jerry" Iger of the comic-book "packager" Eisner & Iger, whose client Editors Press Service distributed the feature to Wags.
She next appeared in every issue of Fiction House Publishing/Real Adventure Publishing Co.'s Jumbo Comics (Sept. 1938 - April 1953), as well as in her titular spin-off coimc, Sheena, Queen of the Jungle (Spring 1942 - Winter 1952). She also appeared in Fiction House's Ka'a'nga #16 (Summer 1952) and 3-D Sheena, Jungle Queen (1953) — the latter reprinted by Eclipse as Sheena 3-D (Jan. 1985) and by Blackthorne as Sheena 3-D Special (May 1985). Blackthorne also published Jerry Iger's Classic Sheena (April 1985. Fiction House, originally a pulp magazine publisher, ran prose stories of its star heroine in in the latter-day pulp Stories of Sheena, Queen of the Jungle (Spring 1951) and Jungle Stories Vol. 5, #11 (Spring 1954).
A version of Sheena, transplanted from Africa to South America, appeared in London Night Studio's Sheena, Queen of the Jungle one-shot comic book and subsequent four-issue miniseries (Feb. 1998 to Spring 1999).
Other media
In 1956, model Irish McCalla portrayed Sheena in a 26-episode television series. Ms. McCalla liked to say she was discovered by Nassour Studios while she was throwing a bamboo spear on a Malibu beach. "I couldn't act, but I could swing through the trees". [citation needed]
A 1984 Columbia Pictures film, Sheena, starred Tanya Roberts, who had previously co-starred as Kiri in MGM's 1982 movie Beastmaster. Marvel Comics published a comic-book adaptation of the Sheena movie as Marvel Comics Super Special #34 (June 1984), reprinting it as Sheena, Queen of the Jungle #1-2 (Dec. 1984 - Feb. 1985).
Sheena was revived by TV syndicator Hearst Entertainment in October 2000, portrayed by Gena Lee Nolin, formerly of The Price Is Right and Baywatch. Sheena was given a new power in this series, the ability to adopt the form of any warm-blooded animal once she gazed into its eyes. She was also depicted as more of a ferocious killer in this 35-episode Columbia/TriStar series.
Trivia
The name "Sheena" in Gaelic means "God's grace." The character also reminds one of Rima from W. H. Hudson's 1904 Green Mansions.