The bonkers evolution of Kaanga

The original Kaanga character is the mascot of the late Jungle Comics magazine by Fiction House, a Ki-Gor expy who has a special distinction in American comics history as one of its most Leeroy Jenkins-like heroes. 

Being one of the most successful Tarzan boys before Akim’s international expansion, in Italy he was called Gin-Bart and in Brazil he’s called Kionga. To avoid a greater amount of confusion, Kaanga’s name is pronounced Ke-Anga. 

He is one of only two constant characters along with his wife Ann Mason. Or even his Mexican equivalent being one of just three as with the addition of Toro/Junior in the unofficial Mexican film adaptation El Rey de Los Gorilas. 

His Mexican counterpart Kim/Simio first appeared in El Rey De Los Gorilas and, like his more impactful competitors Tibor and Akim, is sometimes erroneously named just Kim. Ann Mason’s Mexican counterpart is Eva, Kim/Simio’s wife who’s also from the Mexican film. 

The modern version of Kaanga (aka Keanga due to his name’s pronunciation being both strange and pretty inconsistent) is a mix of both previous characters. Being the son of a partly black man and a ginger woman of Swedish descent, he is green eyed but has dark blonde hair. As his father was named Oliver Kane and his mother was named Mai Kristofferson, his birth name is likely Hugo Kane.

Ann Mason is going to be renamed Eva Marianne Smith for the independent manga. Her canon jobs are going to be villain kicking forager and housewife. Their adopted son is Rusty Kane, aka Kaanga Junior (or simply Junior), an orphan also from Newark who was found by her as a baby.