Congorilla

Congorilla is a male comic superhero who features in DC Comics.

Biography

Origin

William Glenmorgan

Congo Bill and Janu the Jungle Boy were on the trail of jungle raiders when bill caught jungle sickness, and was confined to his cot to recover. A doctor treated him and Jungle Joe arrived, claiming the jungle police sent him to stop the raiders, and asking for Janu's help while Bill recovered. Bill was up and around again, but jealous of how Janu looked up to Joe, and insulted when Joie said he was staying lead on the case. Joe told Janu that the jungle sickness left Bill with a weak heart, and they needed to get him out of the jungle and away from their case. Using apples to attract baboons they placed bill in peril, and Jungle Joe had to save him. Bill was worried he was washed up, and walked off, but a rhino attack clued him into the fact that his bullets had been replaced by blanks, and Joe was trying to make him look the fool. In truth Joe was leader of the raiders, and wanted Bill gone so he could lead Janu into the raider's camp and shoot him. Bill came to the rescue and made short work of Joe. (Action Comics v1 #226) Bill and Janu were assigned to help Mr. Hadley complete a census of a big game reserve, but their helicopter had not yet arrived and Bill suggested they go on foot, knowing the helicopter would spook some of the animals. Hadley's men were in a pool to see who could come closest to the total census number, but brash Weems got 100-to-1 odds claiming he knew the exact number, 987. Unknown to his co-workers Weems used a helicopter and a telephoto camera to survey the reserve himself. Bill Janu and Hadley began their survey, but Weems, out of sight, shot a lion and a rhino that had wandered onto the reserve, unwilling to lose the bet. They caught onto what he was up to when he shot a black leopard coming out of a cave Bill was exploring that he hadn't noticed. Bill could not stand to see him win the bet after slaughtering animals, so he took two ostrich eggs and put them in the sun, hatching them and bringing the animal total to 989. (Action Comics v1 #227)

Years ago, Congo Bill and animal trainer Sam Westly took an intelligent gorilla from the jungle and brough him to America, where he became the Hollywood star Kongorilla. With public interest in Kongorilla waning Bill, Janu and Sam returned him to Africa. Soon after they released him a lion attacked Bill and Janu, but was shot as he was charging, and they spotted Kongorilla fleeing with a rifle. Janu though Kongorilla had human intelligence, but bill thought it impossible. Chief Wabanga, a trusted ally, assured Bill he'd seen Konorilla make a sign proclaiming himself lord of the jungle, and Sam revealed that he'd heard a witch doctor made the ape so smart. Bill followed Kongorilla and he appeared to carve a statue, but the villagers, who'd proclaimed Kongorilla their ruler, said they were spying, and would be put to death if Kongorilla so chose. Bill exposed Kongorilla as a sham perpetrated by Sam to garner interest in Kongorilla's unreleased movies. He'd shot the lion and put the gun in Kongorilla's hands, the sight Wabanga saw was a projection from one of Kongorilla's movies, and he did not carve a statue, he just pawed off sugar that was covering the sculpture Sam had created. (Action Comics v1 #228) Congo Bill lost a spear-throwing contest to native Kawanga, and he told Janu the game was rigged, so he'd play tricks on Kawanga's tribe to get back at him. He went to chief Hakola and bet him an ivory tusk he could get a fierce lion to eat from his hand, and won the bet. He took the tusk and told Hakola he'd fooled him by laying a honey trail to draw the lion in and jamming his mouth full of molasses so he couldn't bite. He then bet two of Hakola's tusks he could dive to the bottom of a pit of quicksand, and after winning revealed he'd dug a pit 5 feet deep and filled it with quicksand, covering the nearby 20 foot deep pool with sticks so Hakola wouldn't see the switch. He won three more trunks by laying down in front of cape buffalo and surviving. He'd put cages of herons around him, and knew the buffalo wouldn't risk hurting their natural allies. Janu chided Bill for being so mean-spirited, but when Hakola prepared for war with the Maldaya tribe Bill bet he would loose. Hakola thought it was another trick and called off the attack, so Bill revealed to Janu that he'd arranged for Kawanga to 'trick' him and fixed the bets with the chief for the sole purpose of avoiding a tribal skirmish, but he said he was keeping the tusks he'd won. (Action Comics v1 #229)

Jim Wilson was to inherit the Jungle Journel from his deceased uncle, but if he couldn't have an issue of the newspaper out in a tight time frame it would go to his cousin Dirk. Congo Bill offered to write for him, and have his chimpanzee friends deliver the Journal, while Janu went out to take news photos for the issue. Janu was being stalked by Dirk, who wanted to ruin his cousin's chances of keeping the paper. Janu took pictures of a fire ceremony, but Dirk electrified a fence that stood between him and the chimp that was to deliver the photos to Congo Bill. Janu enlisted a giraffe to grab the photos in his mouth and reach over the fence to give them to the chimp. Dirk chased Janu when he finished his last set of photos, and although Janu was briefly caught he kept the photos safe in a crocodile's mouth. With the issue ready to deliver Dirk tried to block Bill, Jim and Janu with fire, but Bill had elephants launch the papers to one village, while wildebeests delivered to the other. Dirk and his men confronted Bill with guns, but backed down when they realized local villagers had Bill's back. (Action Comics v1 #230) Congo Bill and Janu came upon raiders robbing a caravan of jewels, but when Janu leapt into action a raider blinded him by throwing sand in his face. Bill recovered the jewels by tripping up the raiders with a jungle vine, but they managed to escape, and one of the caravan merchants berated Janu for being useless, telling Bill he should find a grown-up to partner with instead of a child. Bill saw Janu's feelings were hurt, and tried to convince him of his usefulness by purposely falling into quicksand and being treed by a big cat. Janu failed to save him both times, and felt even more dejected. The raiders caught Bill in an animal trap, and after Janu freed him he used his supersonic whistle to summon the elephant Bombo, who tracked down and disabled the raiders. Janu felt vindicated when Bill congratulated his quick thinking. (Action Comics v1 #231)

Post-Flashpoint

Following the Flashpoint, a new version of reality was created with a different history of events.

Notes

• Congorilla was created by Whitney Ellsworth and George Papp where he made his first appearance in More Fun Comics v1 #56 (June, 1940).

Appearances

• More Fun Comics v1: (1940)
• Action Comics v1:

External Links

• DC Database Entry
• Wikipedia Entry

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