Angola in the Comics, Part 4 of 5: Jungle Tales (with Trader Jim)

Continuing with Fiction House's Jungle Comics we move into the very next issue, #151 (July, 1952) and a Jungle Tales feature starring one Trader Jim.

It seems Trader Jim is some white fellow travelling in Africa with a boy named Tommy. While at a trading post in Angola (or "the" trading post, according to the narrator), Jim hears there's trouble. A hunter called Big Tembu has been bragging about his exploits hunting elephants and thinks "ostriches and giraffes are for women to hunt!" He's so opinionated on this subject that he's about to crack a hunter named Moloki over the head, but Jim arrives to save Moloki and asks to hear Moloki's story.

Moloki begins talking about hunting ostriches in the Veldt which is... not in Angola. Anyway, he and his fellow hunters wear Ostrich heads upon their own so that they can approach the birds through the tall grass, then attack en masse by using bolos. Another hunter, Babongo, describes giraffe hunting and how alert and dangerous a giraffe can be. Jim concurs with both hunters and describes seeing a leopard attack an ostrich, zebra, antelope and giraffe at a water pool, but the ostrich and giraffe ganged up and killed the leopard. The assembled men decide to take a page out of the animals' playbook and gang up on Big Tembu, throwing him into a water pool to humiliate him so he'll stop bragging.
This is a pretty slight tale, but it is at least an interesting idea to get into the details of animal hunting. It's a respite from the usual big white hunter/jungle lord-type tales.

• -1 estrela for placing the Veldt in Angola
• +5 estrelas for using five animals found in Angola

TOTAL SCORE: Quatro estrelas!
Tomorrow: I wrap things up with one last Jungle Comics story!