Obscure Adventures in Geek and Nerd Culture

Not many non-Indians know that Zimbo as a makeshift franchise had begun with a trio of very obvious knockoff prototypes in the end of the 1930s and their female focused, Hunterwali related spinoffs.  Named Toofani Tarzan, the first film’s plot is nearly always the same as that of its somehow more famous reboot, but with slightly less violence. Then came the more fun Tamil variant Vanaraja Karzan, which was released in June 1938. Meanwhile in 1939, both spawned another film variant called Jungle King, which is basically a hipper Toofani Tarzan in a few more western clothes.  In 1942, a female focused spinoff called the (first) Jungle Princess made its way onto some Indian screens, while the Jungle ka Jawahar and the (second) Jungle Queen films, both loose spinoff sequels to the first one, were made about eleven and fourteen years later. A fourth film in the makeshift Karzan/Mala/Bama/Pedro series, named Mala The Mighty, was released in 1948. It is a (likely lost) loose soft reb...

It’s hard for non-Japanese geeks to understand that Kenya Boy as a franchise has influenced a pair of bootleg translations, a couple of unofficial film adaptations and a trio of games, with the latter three being much better known than the franchise that inspired them.  The two bootleg translations of Kenya Boy were from what are now South Korea and Chinese Taipei, aka Taiwan. The former, in Pyojuneo Korean for the pirated picture story volumes of the Sankei Children’s library, was made in the mid 1950s when the nation’s once notorious piracy was really high, partly because Japanese pop culture had long been shadow-banned there until the 2000s. Most older netizens think this is mainly due to the very messy relationship between SK and other parts of Northeast Asia.  The latter, in Taiwanese Guoyu Mandarin for the pirated manga volumes, was instead made in the late 1960s-early 1970s. Taiwan at the time had become a polluted place where most of the world’s common junk (often mid ...

Once upon a time, manga artist Katsuji Matsumoto (1904-86) made a cliche storm-filled spiritual prototype of what would become the story of Hunterwali, a Shōjo manga named the Mysterious Clover, in 1934.  In 1935, a pair of late Raj period Indian brothers from an industrialist Parsi family, JBH and Homi Wadia, made world history with the first Bollywood action film featuring a female protagonist. That film was the first Hunterwali movie, featuring our Australian nation’s iconic Scottish-Australian Miss Badass, the Wadia brothers’ long serving collaborator Fearless Nadia.  In 1937-38, a Hindi and Urdu pair called Chabukwali was released, albeit with two different actresses, a North Indian and a Pakistani, playing the titular characters. While the 1937 Chabukwali was directed by A.M. Biswas, the 1938 Pakistani Chabukwali was directed by little known film industry veteran A.M. Khan.  Then in 1942-43, there was also the first Pistolwali movie, featuring Fearless Nadia herself...