Character
Zembla is a typically powerful jungle lord who has the ability to communicate with the beasts of the African jungle. His companions include the white lion Bwana, Petoulet the kangaroo, Satanas an irritable wildcat, Wombo the gorilla, a grouchy and inept circus illusionist named Rasmus, teenager Ye-Ye and the beautiful Queen Takuba, who might see Zembla as more than a mere friend. This cast of characters remained unchanged over the life of the series. Zembla’s adventures pit him not only against ordinary villains but also mad scientists, world conquerors, intelligent gorillas, lost civilizations, guns and drugs smugglers, poachers, etc.
Zembla's origins were revealed in a story published 1972. It turned out that Zembla is the child of Paul Marais, a French adventurer who was forced to flee into the jungle to escape the police after a tragic brawl. Injured, Paul was rescued by Ula, a native princess. Unfortunately, her father wanted his daughter to marry Thudor, so Ula and Paul had no choice but to elope. Eventually, their son, Zembla, was born. However, an enraged Thudor managed to find the two lovers and killed them both. Thudor would have also murdered the baby if a lioness whose cub he had previously killed had not leapt to his defence. The baby was then raised by the lions and became known as Zem-bla, meaning the Lion-Child in their language.
Read more about this topic: Zembla (comics)
Famous quotes containing the word character:
“You know that the beginning is the most important part of any work, especially in the case of a young and tender thing; for that is the time at which the character is being framed.”
—Plato (5th century B.C.)
“Sometimes apparent resemblances of character will bring two men together and for a certain time unite them. But their mistake gradually becomes evident, and they are astonished to find themselves not only far apart, but even repelled, in some sort, at all their points of contact.”
—Sébastien-Roch Nicolas De Chamfort (1741–1794)
“Happy will that house be in which the relations are formed from character; after the highest, and not after the lowest order; the house in which character marries, and not confusion and a miscellany of unavowable motives.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)