Djungelserien #1/1967
Djungelserien #1/1967 marks the Swedish debut of 'Jim Cane' — the localized name given to Kalar, the jungle-adventure hero created by Spanish artist Tomás Marco Nadal for the French publisher Impéria beginning in 1963. By bringing this pan-European adventure strip to Swedish readers in Centerförlaget's compact pocket/library format, the issue helped widen the circulation of a distinctly continental European comics tradition — one rooted in Franco-Belgian petit-format publishing — into the Scandinavian market at a moment when the Swedish comics landscape was still largely Anglo-American in its sourcing. The launch also inaugurated a title that would run through 63 numbered issues across two publishers and five years, cementing the jungle-adventure genre as a durable fixture on Swedish newsstands alongside more familiar superhero and Western fare.
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Tomás Marco Nadal (1929–2000), a self-taught Spanish artist who had honed his craft on humor magazines and genre adventure strips in Barcelona, began producing Kalar for the French publisher Impéria in November 1963, working almost entirely as a solo artist with only occasional assistance from fellow Spaniard Rafael Méndez. Centerförlaget — Sweden's dominant comics publisher of the postwar decades, already well-versed in translating American, British, and European material — launched Djungelserien as a small-format (12×17 cm), black-and-white, 68-page pocket book, a format matching the original French petit-format aesthetic and setting the title apart from the standard Swedish serietidning of the era. Centerförlaget was acquired by Semic Press in 1969–1970, and Semic continued the title, eventually expanding it to a larger newsstand format and adding backup features before the series concluded in 1972.
Trivia · 8 facts
- First Swedish appearance of 'Jim Cane' (the Swedish title for Kalar / Le Monde de Kalar), the jungle-adventure character created by Spanish artist Tomás Marco Nadal for French publisher Impéria in November 1963.
- Published by Centerförlaget in a small pocket/library format (12×17 cm, 68 pages, black and white) — matching the French petit-format production style of the original Kalar series.
- Djungelserien ran for 63 issues total (1967–1972), with the first 29 issues (1967–1969) in the pocket format before switching to standard Swedish serietidning dimensions (17×26 cm) in 1970.
- Centerförlaget published the series through issue #12/1970; Semic Press took over the title after acquiring Centerförlaget in 1969–1970 and continued publication.
- From issue #13/1970 onward the title was renamed 'Djungelserien med Kilroy,' absorbing content from the cancelled Kilroy title; backup features later included Denis McLoughlin's 'Saber – djungelns konung' and Lyman Young's 'Spud och Tim' (Tim Tyler's Luck).
- The Jim Cane / Kalar feature continued in Sweden beyond Djungelserien, moving into a successor title called 'Djungel-Jim' published by Semic in 1972–1973 — not to be confused with Alex Raymond's unrelated Jungle Jim strip.
- Tomás Marco Nadal (1929–2000) signed his work variously as 'Tomas Marco,' 'T. Marco,' or simply 'Marco'; the original French Kalar series ran to over 200 issues between 1963 and 1983 (with reprints continuing to 1986/1989), making it one of the most prolific European jungle-adventure comics of the era.
- Only four issues of Djungelserien appeared in 1967 (the launch year), with the title expanding to a monthly-ish schedule thereafter.