Camilla (1)

Golden Age Origin
Camilla was the queen of a lost empire in the heart of Africa. Her people were descended of Norsemen who found their way to the jungle during the Crusades. Her people worship Thor and sacrifice humans through electrocution to appease him during the Thunder Festival and every day during the rainy season. They also have unlocked the secrets of eternal life by drinking from a sulphur spring mixed with a secret powder. Each drink prolongs their life for five years. This formula allowed her people to live for over 600 years.

Golden Age History
In the 1940s, Camilla was visited by scientist Dr. Jon Dale who was accidentally dragged to the outskirts of her empire by an elephant. Dale is welcomed into her kingdom and introduce to two more of her guests Dr. Birch and his daughter Ruth. She explained to her guests about her people's customs and they are horrified by the human sacrifices.

Later, Camilla tried to convince Dr. Dale to become her king and stay with her, but Jon refused. She then decided to sacrifice Ruth to eliminate her romantic rival for Jon's affections. However, Jon sabotaged the altar by grounding the electrodes.

The next day when Ruth was to be sacrificed, it failed, causing Camilla's people to turn against her. She sent her tiger Omar on Dr. Dale, but Jon shot it. Camilla then succumbed to her old age since she did not drink any of the formula, but before she died Camilla regretting what she'd done gave Jon a ring containing the secrets to eternal life. Her empire fell into disarray upon her death and was destroyed in the chaos. Ruth, her father, and Dr. Dale escaped, with Dale pledging to destroy the ring as he felt it was unnatural to prolong one's life in such a manner.

However, in Jungle Comics #3, Camilla was seen sitting in the ruins of her lost empire, inexplicably alive in spite of seemingly dying on panel. On the advice of her court seer (who seemed to be her only surviving subject), she sacrificed herself to Bal to have her empire restored. She willingly set herself on fire and, after the ashes settled, her empire was restored and all of her subjects were brought back to life. And although Camilla was supposed to be a sacrifice, she was resurected as well.

Camilla may have gotten her empire and her people back, but she still blamed Ruth for everything that went wrong in the previous story. So, when Jon Dale and Ruth came back to explore what they thought were ruins, Camilla was all too happy to capture them. She used the sulfur spring to age Ruth by a few decades and threw Jon into a python pit. Jon was able to defeat the python, however, and restore Ruth's youth by getting her to drink from the sulfur spring. He then blew up the spring, assuming that without it, Camilla would quickly die of old age.

But while she didn't die, Camilla was quite upset by the loss of her source of eternal youth. She grew petty and tyrannical until her people rebelled and forced her out. Camilla tracked down Jon Dale and used her magic to turn him into a block of ice. She essentially blackmailed Ruth into finding another sulfur spring for her, telling her that Jon would melt and die without it. To Ruth's credit, she was able to find local guides who took her and Camilla to a spring located in a remote mountain. The pool restored Jon, which came in handy when the giant serpant that guarded the pool attacked Camilla. Jon was able to defeat the serpent. The experience humbled Camilla. She returned to the city and asked her people for forgiveness, and her people were happy to take her back. In gratitude for Jon and Ruth's actions, she dropped her vendetta agaisnt the pair. The fact that her sulfur spring was inexplicably restored to normal probably didn't hurt.

From that point on, Camilla was portrayed in a more positive light. She continued ruling the lost empire, fighting off both external emenies and the subjects who sought to usurp her throne.

In Jungle Comics #7, Camilla takes the imprisoned hunchbacked assassin Caredodo with her to The Cave of Sighs, a gateway to Hell itself. After defeating the devil and his minions, Camilla is granted a wish by the Angel of Faith. She uses her wish to transform the severly deformed Caredodo into a handsome physical specimen. She knights him with the new name Sir Champion and makes him Prime Minister of her kingdom. The two later become lovers.

In Jungle Comics #27, Camilla got lost while wandering through the jungle unescorted. As she wandered around, she saw an airplane crash into the ground. She was able to rescue its pilot, an American named Ben Austin. Together, they got captured by a local tribe and worked together to fight their way out.

After this story, Camilla become more of a Sheena clone, wandering the jungle wearing a zebra-skin dress (which later became a zebra-skin bikini). Ben Austin became a recurring potential love interest who she occasionally had to rescue. Several other potential love interests followed. Camilla remained a more generic jungle girl for the remainder of her appearances

Golden Age Appearances

 * Jungle Comics #1,3-151
 * Kaänga Comics #15
 * Jungle Comics #9 (I.W. re-print)