Ka-Zar (David Rand)

David Rand is a fictional superhero appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. The first character to bear the Ka-Zar name, he was created by writer Bob Byrd, and first appeared in the pulp magazine Ka-Zar #1 (October 1936). The story was continued in two further issues published in January and June 1937, and then the character was set aside.[1]

This article is about the Golden Age iteration of Ka-Zar. For the Silver Age version, see Ka-Zar (comics).
Ka-Zar
David Rand, the original Ka-Zar, alongside his lion Zar in the cover of Ka-Zar #1 (October 1936).
Art by J. W. Scott.
Publication information
PublisherMarvel Comics
First appearanceKa-Zar #1 (October 1936)
Created byBob Byrd
In-story information
Alter egoDavid Rand
AbilitiesPeak physical strength, speed, agility, and reflexes,
Ability to communicate with some animals

This story was serialised in comic form in Marvel Comics #1 (October 1939) and Marvel Mystery Comics #2–5 (December 1939 to March 1940).[2] Ka-Zar later appeared in The Human Torch #5 (September 1941). The Ka-Zar character continued with new stories until Marvel Mystery Comics #27 (January 1942).

Publication history

American John Rand's plane crashes in the Congo jungle with his wife Constance and very young son David on board. After some time lost in the jungle, Constance dies of a jungle malady. Zar, the lion who witnessed everything, keeps an eye on them. Two weeks later, when his son becomes sick, John decides to march out of the jungle, but a storm causes a large tree to fall on him. He recovers physically but mentally lives in a delusional world, believing that the jungle is his home. The boy recovers and grows up and at eight is a husky lad.

David Rand continues to grow and meets the jungle animals, keeping his distance from the natives he met. The natives work for a greedy and vicious fat man named Paul de Kraft, who is after emeralds. David, now a strong young man, has been away from camp and returns to see his father dying, their hut in flames and de Kraft present there for everything. Zar the lion saves David from de Kraft. His father dies and David now thinks of himself as Ka-Zar, brother of Zar. The rest of the story is about how he tracks down de Kraft and, with Zar's help, finally kills him. Like in the Tarzan stories, the creatures of the jungle all have names. Ka-Zar has a rudimentary education and talks accordingly.

In 1941, as America's superheroes were gearing up for World War II, Ka-Zar and his lion returned from America to his native Africa to spend some time fighting Italian and German troops.[3]

Fictional character biography

Born in South Africa in 1918, three-year-old David Rand accompanied his British parents John and Constance on a flight to Cairo to visit his grandfather. Unfortunately, their plane crashed in the jungles of Congo. Constance died in the crash and John was driven mad. Living in the jungle with his father, isolated from the local tribes, David grew under the jungle's hardships into an unusually powerful youth and developed strong empathy with wildlife, notably rescuing Zar the Lion from quicksand. When a criminal named Paul de Kraft discovered emeralds in Congo, John died opposing him only for Zar to scare Paul de Kraft off. With the support of Zar, David became the jungle's leading warrior within a few years challenging different animals like Bardak the Ape and N'Jaga the Leopard. Considered to be "god-like" by the natives, David Rand ended up named Ka-Zar (native for "Brother of Zar"). When Paul de Kraft returned to seize the emerald deposits, Ka-Zar killed him, thus avenging his father.

With the help of the local animals, Ka-Zar established himself as the guardian of the jungle which involved meting out harsh retribution to any intruder seeking to exploit his resources-but he frequently aided more benign explorers, such as when he protected Prof. Rice and his daughter Mara from the criminal pilot "Red" Skelton, rescued Rita Grey from the Wabi tribe, and helped two Scotland Yard detectives capture murderer London Jack.

Ka-Zar's friends are an elephant named Trajah and a lion named Zar.[4] When Zar was captured by the vicious Rajah Sarput and a big game hunter named Bradley, Ka-Zar stowed away on a ship when Zar was shipped to the United States. Though he managed to free Zar, Ka-Zar ended up arrested when he tried to free the zoo animals. Fortunately, Ruth Wilson (another woman whom Ka-Zar had rescued during an African expedition), vouched for him. Ka-Zar and Zar were granted passage back to Africa on a British ship. Surviving attacks by entrenched Nazi forces, Ka-Zar and Zar confronted Sarput who was ultimately slain by their ally Trajah. Soon after, Ka-Zar learned he had inherited his father's Transval diamond mines. After preventing his inheritance's theft by John Rand's law partner Alec Wright, Ka-Zar donated the wealth to war relief in England.

While on an expedition to the mysterious Black River Region, Ka-Zar encountered giants and subterranean lizard people. Ka-Zar managed to befriend a giant named Bogat. Ka-Zar later waged a series of campaigns against the Axis forces in Ethiopia, Somaliland, and anywhere else in Africa where the Axis forces were camped, killing them with their own weapons with help from the French and British forces. Following one such encounter, Ka-Zar was restored to health by an aged witch doctor, who gave him a brew used centuries before to grant his tribe superhuman strength. Ka-Zar's exploits earned him such fame that he was invited to attend a meeting of superhuman champions in the mid-1940s. Last time anyone heard from Ka-Zar, he protected his region's wildlife when Africa was threatened by monstrous tidal waves from Atlantean warfare. The rest of Ka-Zar's life after that was left unchronicled.

In the 1960s, Marvel Comics reintroduced a Ka-Zar character (named Lord Kevin Plunder) into their universe of superhero characters, who still appears in their comics today occasionally.

Reception

Robert Michael Bobb Cotter in the 2008 book The Great Monster Magazines points out that writer Bob Byrd "did little to distinguish his hero from the other [pulp magazine] noble savages, including beginning his name with the letter 'K', which for some reason had become the accepted letter to start an imitation Tarzan's name."[5]

Notes
  1. Markstein, Don. "Ka-Zar". Don Markstein's Toonopedia. Retrieved 15 April 2020.
  2. Mitchell, Kurt; Thomas, Roy (2019). American Comic Book Chronicles: 1940-1944. TwoMorrows Publishing. p. 43. ISBN 978-1605490892.
  3. Mitchell, Kurt; Thomas, Roy (2019). American Comic Book Chronicles: 1940-1944. TwoMorrows Publishing. p. 67. ISBN 978-1605490892.
  4. Nevins, Jess (2013). Encyclopedia of Golden Age Superheroes. High Rock Press. p. 145. ISBN 978-1-61318-023-5.
  5. Cotter, Robert Michael Bobb (2008). The Great Monster Magazines: A Critical Study of the Black and White Publications of the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s. McFarland & Co. p. 162. ISBN 978-0786433896.

References
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