About This
Series:
This was a
one-shot comic from 1965, given as a promotional item from Mutual of
Omaha. It's based on TV's nature program, "Mutual of Omaha's Wild
Kingdom". I'm truly surprised no attempt at a regular series was
made, because "Wild Kingdom" translates very well to a comic book
format. They had a never-ending source of material from which to
draw stories, and it would have been great non-fiction for all
ages. Heck, even if the adventures were fiction, the information
on animals would have been fact.
The publisher is not mentioned on or in the comic,
but it's known to be Western Publishing. The artwork was in a
style that
definitely matched what the Dell and Gold Key publishers were putting
out at the time. Dell gradually phased into Gold Key, which
gradually phased into Whitman. Whitman, of course, was a
subsidiary of Western Publishing. This basic style of comic art
was around for over three decades!
Issues:
#1: 1965.
Although
not actually numbered, I call it #1. The first story
has Marlin Perkins and Jim Fowler catching a hippo. The second
story has the two catching a polar bear. The inside front and
back cover has many animal facts with illustrations. The back
cover features an article about the TV show. This is a great item
of memorabilia for fans of the TV series. A must-have.