Comic Review: Savage! Jungle Princess #1 / Writer: John A. Short / Art: Gabrielle Noble / Publisher: Kult Creations / Release Date: Out Now
It’s WWII. A U-boat manned – if that’s the word – entirely by cute Nazi frauleins with bare midriffs turns up at a secret island on a hunt for the philosopher’s stone, and sinks the MI5 transport tracking it. There’s only one survivor, freckle-faced, long-limbed secretary Friday Robinson. After a close encounter with a T-Rex (oh, didn’t I mention there were dinosaurs on the island?) she teams up with Arabella Adelaide Savage, the Jungle Princess of the title, a shipwrecked New Yorker who wears micro-bikinis made from rotting safari outfits, and they set about foiling the Nazi plot. But not before showering together naked; first things first.
With its blend of scantily clad girls and Indiana Jones-style storylines, this has “guilty pleasure” written all over it. The comic is certainly lovely to look at thanks to Gabrielle Noble’s gracefully curvy full-colour artwork, which sits somewhere between Milo Manara and Bryan Talbot. She clearly delights in depicting the female form in various stages of undress, and, believe you me, her enthusiasm’s infectious. The Countess Karla von Klaus, with her black lace bra, swastika eye-patch and cheekbones to die for, makes for an especially fetching and fashion-forward baddie. What dulls the impact somewhat is John A. Short’s scripting, which in this instance is too lightweight to allow for much, if any, suspension of disbelief. Hopefully he’ll dig deeper for #2. But Savage! Jungle Princess is easily good enough to leave you curious about this duo’s other work, including the intriguing-sounding Spliffy: the Stoner Chick!
