Nyoka

Nyoka's appearances in the Master Comics title must have been well received, for soon Fawcett Publications gave the heroine her own comic book. The art in the Fawcett run is superior art, especially in the early issues. The stories are excellent with much action and many thrills. While the Fawcett issues hail from the Golden Age of Comics and are prior to the Comics Code Authority censorship which began in the mid-1950's, there really are not that many bondage covers here. While there is a fair amount of bondage within the stories and Nyoka faces death door multiple times in many issues, this lovely girl is not the traditional Golden Age helpless female. Nyoka shows an unreal amount of resourcefulness and finds ways to get herself out of some of the worst jams one can imagine.

Apparently the Nyoka comic book was popular, as Republic Pictures made two separate cliffhanger serials based upon the jungle heroine. The first one, Jungle Girl, was produced in 1941 and stars Frances Gifford as Nyoka. It is an excellent serial in it's own right, well above average by the way, but it cannot begin compare to the sequel. Nyoka was created to capitalize on the success of Tarzan, the studio partnered with writer Edgar Rice Burroughs, using only the title of one of his books: Jungle Girl. The 1942 Republic cliffhanger serial called The Perils of Nyoka is a masterpiece! This writer has over 100 cliffhanger serials in his personal collection and considers The Perils of Nyoka, aka Nyoka and the Tigermen, to be the best serial ever released! Lovely Kay Aldridge stars as Nyoka, with Lorna Gray taking the part of her rival and nemesis, Vultura. Clayton Moore of The Lone Ranger fame gets to act of Nyoka's main assistant and Charles Middleton from the Flash Gordon serials gets the part of Vultura's main ally.

Not only are the actors and actresses cast perfectly here, but the chapter cliffhanger endings are quite frankly "as good as it gets". While many serials have a few cliffhanger endings that are exceptional, this 15-part serial is lucky enough to have every single cliffhanger as well above average and the vast majority of them are exceptional! Truth be told, there are so many first-rate cliffhanger endings in this serial, that it is almost an impossible task to choose which one is the best of all. As if anything else is needed to make this serial a classic, it is loaded with catfights! There are at least four separate fights between Nyoka and Vultura in this serial. One of the differences between the two Nyoka serials is that the 1941 version looks more like sub-Saharan Africa and the 1942 version reminds one more of North Africa locations. There also is a difference in the quality of the prints. While the 1941 serial is in relatively nice shape, the 1942 version looks even better.

Actress Frances Gifford played the role of Zandra in the film Tarzan Triumphs (1943).

The 1941 cliffhanger serial gave Nyoka the name of Nyoka Meredith. However, the 1942 film changed her name to Nyoka Gordon. The Fawcett comic decided to go with the Gordon name, as it refers to her father as Dr. Gordon.