Rima, also known as Rima the Jungle Girl, is the fictional heroine of W. H. Hudson's 1904 novel '' Green Mansions: A Romance of the Tropical Forest''. In it, Rima, a primitive girl of the shrinking rain forest of South America, meets Abel, a political fugitive. A film adaptation of '' Green Mansions'' was made in 1959 starring

Audrey Hepburn Audrey Hepburn (born Audrey Kathleen Ruston; 4 May 1929 – 20 January 1993) was a British actress and humanitarian. Recognised as both a film and fashion icon, she was ranked by the American Film Institute as the third-greatest female screen ...

. In 1974, the character was adapted into the

comic book A comic book, also called comicbook, comic magazine or (in the United Kingdom and Ireland) simply comic, is a publication that consists of comics art in the form of sequential juxtaposed panel (comics), panels that represent individual scenes. ...

''Rima the Jungle Girl'', published by

DC Comics DC Comics, Inc. (doing business as DC) is an American comic book publisher and the flagship unit of DC Entertainment, a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Discovery. DC Comics is one of the largest and oldest American comic book companies, with their f ...

. Though ''Rima the Jungle Girl'' ceased publication in 1975, the comic book version of Rima appeared in several episodes of Hanna-Barbera's popular

Saturday morning cartoon "Saturday-morning cartoon" is a colloquial term for the original animated series programming that was typically scheduled on Saturday and Sunday mornings in the United States on the "Big Three" television networks. The genre's popularity had a ...

series, '' The All-New Super Friends Hour'', between 1977 and 1980. Charcoal and chalk drawing of Audrey Hepburn

Novel

Like her literary cousins

Tarzan Tarzan (John Clayton II, Viscount Greystoke) is a fictional character, an archetypal feral child raised in the African jungle by the Mangani great apes; he later experiences civilization, only to reject it and return to the wild as a heroic adv ...

and

Mowgli Mowgli () is a fictional character and the protagonist of Rudyard Kipling, Rudyard Kipling's ''The Jungle Book'' stories. He is a feral child, feral boy from the Pench National Park, Pench area in Seoni, Madhya Pradesh, India, who originally ap ...

, Rima sprang from an Edwardian adventure novel; in her case, '' Green Mansions: A Romance of the Tropical Forest'', by W. H. Hudson, published in 1904. Hudson was an Argentine-British naturalist who wrote many classic books about the ecology of South America. Hudson based Rima on a South American legend about a lost tribe of white people who lived in the mountains. The book has a religious tone and Rima's speech is poetic. It is a romantic adventure set in the South American jungle in which a political fugitive named Abel meets Rima, a girl living in the forest. The girl speaks in a bird-like language. Its theme is the loss of wilderness and the return-to-nature dream, and how unpleasant it would be for a savage to meet modern man (the reverse case is not considered).

Movie

Actor and director Mel Ferrer adapted '' Green Mansions'' into a 1959 film for MGM Studios, with Audrey Hepburn as Rima. The adaptation deviated far from the novel.

Comic books

Rima starred in a seven-issue

series,

' ''Rima the Jungle Girl'' (May 1974 – May 1975), adapted by DC writer-editor

Robert Kanigher Robert "Bob" Kanigher (; June 18, 1915 – May 7, 2002)Social Security Death Index, social security #116-07-5117. was an American comic book writer and editor whose career spanned five decades. He was involved with the Wonder Woman franchise for ...

with artwork by penciler-

inker The inker (sometimes credited as the finisher or embellisher) is one of the two line artists in traditional comic book production. The penciller creates a drawing, the inker outlines, interprets, finalizes, retraces this drawing by using a penc ...

Nestor Redondo Nestor P. Redondo (May 4, 1928 – December 30, 1995)Nestor P. Redondo
at the

and covers by Joe Kubert. A variation of the character debuted in a six-issue DC Comics limited series '' First Wave'' (May 2010-March 2011), written by Eisner Award–winning writer Brian Azzarello. Rima is here portrayed as a South American native with piercings and tattoos; she does not speak, but instead communicates in bird-like whistles. Although the DC character is a fully grown and powerful woman with ash blonde hair, the novel's Rima was 17, small (4′ 6″), demure, and dark-haired. Natives avoided her forest, calling her "the Daughter of the Didi" (an evil spirit). Rima's only defense was a reputation for magic earned through the display of strange talents such as talking to birds, befriending animals, and plucking poison darts from the air. Although in the original book Rima was burned alive by Indian savages, in the comics she escaped the fire to have further adventures.

Comic book titles

These

titles feature the Rima character:

''Classics Illustrated'' #90: ''Green Mansions''

Classics Illustrated published a short adaptation from the novel, with direct quotes. In this adaptation Rima is blond. It was published by Gilberton Company in December 1951, adapted by George Lipscomb, with cover and interior art by Alex Blum.

''Rima the Jungle Girl''

From 1974-1975, Rima starred in a self-titled series which ran for seven issues. This version of the character guest starred in the DC Comics Saturday morning cartoon '' The All-New Super Friends Hour''.

''The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen''

Rima is mentioned, but not seen, in America's Best Comics' '' The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen'' vol. 2, #3 (2003), by writer

Alan Moore Alan Moore (born 18 November 1953) is an English author known primarily for his work in comic books including ''Watchmen'', '' V for Vendetta'', ''The Ballad of Halo Jones'', ''Swamp Thing'', ''Batman:'' ''The Killing Joke'', and ''From Hell ...

and artists Kevin O'Neill and Ben Dimagmaliw: "...it is near here that the world-famous 'bird girl' Riolama or Rima was discovered..."

''First Wave''

Rima is re-imagined in DC's 2010 title '' First Wave''.

Cartoons

Rima the Jungle Girl appeared in three episodes of

Hanna-Barbera Hanna-Barbera Cartoons, Inc. ( ) was an American animation studio and production company which was active from 1957 to 2001. It was founded on July 7, 1957, by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera following the decision of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer t ...

's '' The All-New Super Friends Hour'' during the 1977–78 season, alongside such mainstays as

Aquaman Aquaman is a superhero appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. Created by Paul Norris and Mort Weisinger, the character debuted in ''More Fun Comics'' #73 (November 1941). The character is a pastiche of Namor. Initially a b ...

Batman Batman is a superhero appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. The character was created by artist Bob Kane and writer Bill Finger, and debuted in the 27th issue of the comic book '' Detective Comics'' on March 30, 1939 ...

, and

Wonder Woman Wonder Woman is a superhero created by the American psychologist and writer William Moulton Marston (pen name: Charles Moulton), and artist Harry G. Peter. Marston's wife, Elizabeth, and their life partner, Olive Byrne, are credited as being ...

. She first appears in "Fire" (October 1, 1977).

Robin Robin may refer to: Animals * Australasian robins, red-breasted songbirds of the family Petroicidae * Many members of the subfamily Saxicolinae (Old World chats), including: **European robin (''Erithacus rubecula'') **Bush-robin **Forest rob ...

, and Rima the Jungle Girl contend with a spreading forest fire, and have to search for a pair of escaped prisoners who have stolen a forestry truck filled with dynamite. Rima's main contribution is to call upon a nearby bear to push down some trees for an emergency bridge across a wide gap. Her next appearance is in "River of Doom" (November 4, 1977):

and Rima the Jungle Girl search for archaeologists who have accidentally stumbled onto a burial ground of angry natives. The archaeologists are captured and sentenced to death on the River of Doom. The superheroes find the would-be victims by using indigenous animals to scout them out at Rima's command. They later rescue the scientists. Rima's main contribution is summoning

crocodile Crocodiles (family Crocodylidae) or true crocodiles are large semiaquatic reptiles that live throughout the tropics in Africa, Asia, the Americas and Australia. The term crocodile is sometimes used even more loosely to include all extant ...

s to attack their pursuers' canoes. Finally, she is featured in "Return of Atlantis", from October 25, 1980. Aquaman is captured by Queen Ocina when the lost city of

Atlantis Atlantis ( grc, Ἀτλαντὶς νῆσος, , island of Atlas) is a fictional island mentioned in an allegory on the hubris of nations in Plato's works ''Timaeus'' and ''Critias'', wherein it represents the antagonist naval power that bes ...

rises from the sea. Ocina plans to conquer the world with her female warriors, but Wonder Woman and Rima gather the Amazons of

Paradise Island Paradise Island is an island in The Bahamas formerly known as Hog Island. The island, with an area of (2.8 km2/1.1 sq mi), is located just off the shore of the city of Nassau, which is itself located on the northern edge of the island of ...

to stop her. Note: In breach of both DC Comics' and the ''Super Friends'' TV show's continuities, this "Atlantis" is not the kingdom over which

reigns.

Other appearances

Rima was mentioned in

Ray Bradbury Ray Douglas Bradbury (; August 22, 1920June 5, 2012) was an American author and screenwriter. One of the most celebrated 20th-century American writers, he worked in a variety of modes, including fantasy, science fiction, horror, mystery fictio ...

's 1950 short story, " The Veldt". Rima was also mentioned in "Watcher in the Shadows" by Geoffrey Household (1960; reissued 2010) and also in "Vane Pursuit" by Charlotte MacLeod (1989). Dornford Yates mentioned her in Chapter I of his 1931 comic-detective novel ''Adele and Co.'', in connection with the Hudson Memorial.

Statue

The Hudson Memorial in London's Hyde Park, created in 1925, has a

bas-relief Relief is a sculptural method in which the sculpted pieces are bonded to a solid background of the same material. The term '' relief'' is from the Latin verb ''relevo'', to raise. To create a sculpture in relief is to give the impression that th ...

of Rima the Bird Girl as part of The Hudson Memorial Bird Sanctuary, sculpted by Jacob Epstein.http://londonist.com/2013/09/the-day-peter-pan-was-tarred-and-feathered.php Image of statue with history of praise and criticism

References

External links

* *
Fantastic Victoriana: R
by Jess Nevins
Full Text of the Novel: ''Green Mansions''
{{Superfriends series DC Comics female superheroes Female characters in film Female characters in literature Fictional activists Jungle girls Jungle superheroes Literary characters introduced in 1904 Orphan characters in literature