Jet Jungle: The Man of Bronze?

[palitoy]

I'll be moving this to the packaging forum shortly but I thought I'd debut it here. I got an email from Scott who had this to say:

I've recently been looking over Jet Jungle and trying to find out more information about him. Every time I see his box on the site I get the odd feeling that I've seen the pose on the back before. I shrugged it off as "typical super-hero pose" and then moved on. After viewing it again yesterday, I believe that the original pose belonged to another adventurer hero, Doc Savage, albeit re-colored. I was racking my brain trying to figure out where I had seen the pose before and then it hit me, it was a 1975 Marvel Slurpee cup. So I dug up mine out of storage to make the identification. While the pose was similar, it wasn't a perfect match. The original art for the cup came from Marvel Comics' GIANT-SIZE DOC SAVAGE #1. I later remembered that there was a house ad for Marvel's DOC SAVAGE series from years earlier and that must have been the image that I was thinking about. I tracked the image down and again it is not a perfect match. The Jet Jungle picture appears to be an amalgamation of both Doc Savage images. I've attached both images for the experts to view and judge.

[Action Martin]

That's me!

[jwyblejr]

Do we know what year Jet came out? I know the picture of the box says 1974 but that really doesn't mean anything.

[Action Martin]

Don't know about Jet Jungle but the Marvel house ad is from 1972.

[palitoy]

I was just about to say, that Doc art predates the WGSH, it seems like a no brainer.

[StrangeVisitor]

Scott makes a strong case for the Doc Savage-Marvel connection, but I wonder if Race Bannon of Jonny Quest (first appearing 1964-65) would've been a greater " inspiration" for Jet. Would an advertising man in South African trying to come up with a character to sell Jungle Oats, more likely to have seen A) an issue of Marvel's Doc Savage-released about 2 years prior or B) an episode of Jonny Quest on TV-shown for about 10 years at the time. No idea if JQ had been shown in S. Africa though, just speculating.

Has anyone here seen a copy of the JJ kids fan club newsletter with the B&W comic strip? I also read of a short-lived Sunday newspaper strip in color but I don't know how reliable my info is.

[Action Martin]

Just to clarify, I didn't mean that Doc Savage was the inspiration for the character of Jet Jungle, just that the Doc Savage Marvel art was the inspiration for the Jet Jungle card art.

Race Bannon fits perfectly as the white-haired adventurer though.

[jwyblejr]

I've always viewed the guy as being a combo of Doc and Race ever since I fist saw his picture here on the Museum.

[Sideshow Spock]

I think you were right the first time with "typical super hero pose", especially when we're talking 70's Marvel heroes. Heck, Man Thing seems to be doing the same pose too, only in a more shambling way..

[samurainoir]

The Jet Jungle package artwork looks kind of "Ditko" to me.

[Action Martin]

I see a little "Ditko" in the face but those are not "Ditko" muscles.