Here’s Day 26 now of this year’s Jack Kirby Tribute Month. Today’s prompt is Princess Zanda, from Jack’s Black Panther run.
I snuck her in as part of a previous piece for Jack Kirby Month here. When Jack returned to Marvel in the mid-’70s, the landscape there had changed quite a bit while he was away. And Jack now preferred to have his own little corner sort of away from everyone else, where he wrote and drew his own books, not having to track the continuity of what was going on with the rest of the Marvel universe.
Fan reception to these books at the time was kind of mixed. When it was announced that Jack was going to do a new run of Black Panther stories, many fans expected that he would tie in to what had been done by other creators previously. But they didn’t get that. Jack had his own take on Black Panther, seemingly more informed by the sort of stories written by H. Rider Haggard (like King Solomon’s Mines and She). Disappointing maybe to those who had prior expectations, but interesting to those who were willing to accept Jack’s new take on its own terms.
Princess Zanda was one of the new cast of characters Jack came up with for this book. She was part of a group called the Collectors, who sought out rare, arcane archeological items. Often these items would grant rare powers and abilities. And sometimes Black Panther ended up in the way of some of the Collectors in their searches. When he would get in Zanda’s way, she could be dangerous.
Here, she’s seen holding King Solomon’s Frog, an item she and the rest of the Collectors were hunting for right off in the first issue of Jack’s Black Panther run.
I don’t know whether you’ve seen the list of prompts, but if you have, you may be in for a surprise tomorrow. By all means, feel free to come by and see who’s next!
How did Jack resist titling this tale “Who Croaked?” or something that played off the amphibian’s noise making? Nice work at the look on Zenda’s face coveting the brass frog. At the moment, she is happy she has ol’ froggy in her hands. I am not sure what the piece she wears around her neck is or whether it is functional or decorative? Getting the correct angle of that must have taken some attempts. At least for me it would have, and you are a pro, so very possibly not. I am looking forward to tomorrow’s surprise. Thanks Mark.
Jack actually went with “King Solomon’s Frog” as the title of the first issue’s story. I used to have that whole Black Panther run, but regrettably, I let go of it years ago in a rare “thinning of the herd.” As best I remember, the frog didn’t make any noise. It was just sculpted to resemble a frog, but it contained machinery designed for another purpose. I won’t say more for fear of spoiling the story for those who may not have read it.
I assume you’re talking about her headpiece, not the rings around her neck? I sort of took my cues from Jack on that. The way he drew it, it looks it’s not a straight, flat piece, but something that starts to wrap/recede at the outer edges towards the back of her head. If I had to guess, most likely this was inspired by Jack having seen images of different kinds of African headdresses, and processing that through his own design sense here. I think it’s mostly a decorative thing, but intended to also be somewhat crown-like, give a sense of her importance.