GOLDEN AGE CLASSICS PRINCESS PANTHA HC VOLUME 1 Princess Pantha was a circus-performing wild animal handler, who went to Africa, in search of the legendary giant gorilla M’Gana for her act! She disappeared shortly after setting out – so Gilt-edge Gates, the owner of The National Circus hired Dane Hunter, a famous explorer to find her. After discovering her safari had been wiped out by an unknown hostile native tribe and she’d saved herself by using her ability to make an extra-loud gorilla call, which the natives mistook for the approach of M’Gana and fled. Princess Pantha had survived in the jungle for two months now, utilizing her animal skills, knowledge of jiu-jitsu and a few primitive weapons. Together Pantha and Dane remained in the jungle and continued there quest to capture the legendary giant gorilla M’Gana! Comic book stories from the 1940s and 1950s depicted some ethnic and racial prejudices that were once common place in American culture. One story “The Land of the Black Python” has been cited as an example of racial insensitivity, a white Princess Pantha taught black Africans to overcome racial prejudice in a near-classic example of “blame-the-victim” mentality! Such depictions were wrong then and are wrong today. While not representing the publisher's view of today's society, these stories are printed as they were originally created, because to do otherwise would be the same as claiming these prejudices never existed. By Alex Schomburg, Art Saaf and Ralph Mayo.
