Zulu Character

[BreakingWind]

Growing up in the late 1940s to the late 50s, I fondly recall the adventures of a regular hero in one of the "Big 5" who's character name now escapes me. I'm pretty sure he was roughly contemporary with "Morgan the Mighty" - but maybe in separate comics.

Can anyone help refresh my memory with further details...?

He was a giant Zulu wearing a loincloth and leopardskin headband. Usually carrying a tall shield, he wore a feathered spear and was often seen clutching one of those Zulu "club" things (like a ball-cock) with a round ball on the end - (a "Knob-Kerry" I think...?)

Does anyone remember this guy...? And which comic he appeared in...? Any relevant details greatly appreciated. Especially pics, if possible, and/or where to find them, online.

Thanks

John Jay
Walton on Thames

[Phoenix]

Off the top of my head, BW, I can only think of one story that ticks some of your boxes. This is a 21-instalment historical picture story called Black Lightning, which appeared in colour on the front and rear covers of Adventure between issue 1783 (Mar. 21 1959) - 1803 (Aug. 8 1959). However, the only characters to have anything like a leopardskin headband were the dreaded Leopard Men, but they were 'recruiting' young village men who did not want to fight and then sending them into battle in the service of Zulu King Cetewayo against the English, for whom the Masai warrior Mtala was a tracker and guide. A second problem is that this was a one-off story rather than a serial about 'a regular hero'. As far as the latter are concerned, I can only think of Umtala, a Zulu who had a number of adventures with Congo King in which his strength was his principal attribute, and which were recounted in pictures on the front cover of Adventure intermittently from 1946, but although he had a feather and a leopardskin loincloth, he carried a knife and a spear, not a knobkerrie. Given your reference to a recurring hero contemporaneous with Morgyn the Mighty from The Rover, perhaps you are thinking about Strang the Terrible, one of the stalwarts of Adventure. Then again perhaps not as although he did use a big club and wore a loincloth costume, he never had feathers etc. because he was a white man, who had actually been born in Sunderland. If I think of anybody else in the fullness of time I will get back to you.

[Kashgar]

It is just possible that you are thinking of Big Bonehead who was a zulu warrior sent to be the bodyguard of a boy at an English boarding school who appeared in two series in the Dandy in 1948 and 1949.

[BreakingWind]

Thanks, Kashgar - I think you may be right...! Yes, come to think of it, the character may have been in the Dandy, after all, as you suggest - not, as I'd somehow presumed, in one of those "Big5" text-only comics.

The only thing I have problems with, though, is that name...! Did DC Comics really name one of their "Hero" characters "Big Bonehead"...? It's possible, I suppose - it just seems so unlikely, that's all. Still, things were nowhere near so PC back in those days, of course...!!!

Pssst (Maybe it was that name that cut this comic hero's "career" so short...?) - Maybe it's why I've had such a job, up to now, finding anyone else out there who remembers him...?

But, yes, the more I think about it the more I really do think you've hit on the character I was looking for. And I really seem to remember him helping an English public schoolboy out of many a scrape - protecting him from thugs, bullies, adult crooks etc, etc...
Yes - it's all adding up and beginning to ring bells...!

Thanks again, Kashgar...!!! - (not forgetting your efforts too, phoenix...!)

[Kashgar]

More than happy to help. He was called Big Bonehead because he was stupid, at least as regards the ways of 'civilised' British life. Mind you whether this was racial stereotyping or simply conforming to the ethos that we British folk considered everyone else from across the globe a daft foreigner is a moot point.

[Phoenix]

Kashgar's suggestion about a Zulu bodyguard for a schoolboy, which you feel could well be the character you are enquiring about, BW, has persuaded me to mention a story in Adventure in 1950 called John Brown's Bodyguard. The main reason I didn't mention it in my previous post is that there are two Zulus where you only mentioned one. Both these Zulus are about six feet eight inches tall, have loincloths, feathers, spears and knobkerries, and are extremely strong and resourceful. Their names are Mozam and Umjala and they have been sent by John's father, Peter, the District-Commissioner of the Nigerian province of Kontagora, to collect the schoolboy on his arrival at the port of King George's Town. They have a lot of trouble protecting John from a shady character called Jack Denny, who is trying to steal an ivory amulet inlaid with ebony which John is wearing, concealed, round his neck. Peter has insisted that John bring it with him, urging him to defend it with his life. This may not be the story you remember but I would be remiss if I didn't bring it to your attention.

[BreakingWind]

Thank you phoenix, what a fascinating wealth of information...! I do vaguely remember a comic called "Adventure," but to the best of my recollection it was not one of those I read. However, it seems to me quite possible that the two characters you mention were in some way prototypes of "Big Bonehead"- (indeed, highly likely, since I doubt that such similar Zulu warrior/British schoolboy themes would have occurred simultaneously to a great many British comic artists or story tellers in the mid 1940s.)

Yes - the more I think about it the more convinced I become that the character I've been searching for was "Big Bonehead" in the Dandy. Never a frame-strip story but in text only - each episode carried a large half-page illustration on the title page. That's why I presumed, at first, that I must have seen it in a "Big5" Hotspur, Wizard, or Rover, etc, etc...

Still, looking back now I do seem to recall that whilst I've tended to remember the Dandy as a typical frame-strip comic (like its sister, the Beano) - some of its inside pages frequently contained a text story, or two - (like "Black Bob - the `Wonder Dog" - remember...???)

[Kashgar]

And also the artist who drew the heading blocks for both these Dandy series was Jack Glass whose work was also common in the Big Five. So its not too surprising that you may have misremembered the original location of the story.