Jungle Doctor Spreads the Word

For decades, Christian publishing, both in Australia and overseas, has led an often overlooked, parallel existence alongside its secular publishing counterpart.

Yet to dismiss Christian publishing as nothing more than printing Bibles and prayer books overlooks the sheer volume and diversity of publications designed to spread the ‘Christian message’, which often enjoy print-runs and sales figures that would be the envy of many mainstream publishers.

The explosive growth of evangelical Christian groups in recent years, especially in the United States, has seen such ‘Christian’ books as The Purpose Driven Life and the science-fiction series, Left Behind , become ‘crossover’ hits with mainstream audiences.

Almost since the medium’s beginnings in the 1930s and 40s, comic books have been used to promote Christianity and deliver Christian teachings worldwide.

Although millions of readers have enjoyed his work, it’s probably safe to say that few comic book collectors in this country have heard of Graham Wade , an Australian artist widely recognised as one of the pioneers of Christian comic books.

Born in 1931, Wade's early days were in Junee, New South Wales, where comics were an integral part of his reading.

“Then, after our family moved to suburban Sydney, I made a weekly pilgrimage to the local toy/model shop in Ashfield to buy what my pocket money could manage of comics,” he says.

“I used to read the predictable US staples like Superman, as well as English magazines like The Champion , with illustrated stories like ‘Rockfist Rogan’.”

Like many kids who grew up reading comics in wartime Australia, Graham tried creating some of his own, including ‘The Phant - The Phantom Ant’!

“He was the ‘enemy of the underworld, ally of the Allies, axer of the Axis’,” according to Graham. “Needless to say, the derivations are obvious!”

He received some early encouragement from none other than Syd Miller , the acclaimed Australian cartoonist who co-created the Chesty Bond advertising character, as well as many classic comic book characters during the 1940s, including Molo the Mighty and Red Gregory.

Miller awarded Graham the first prize (£1 in war saving certificates) for the readers’ comic strip competition in Miller’s new kids’ magazine, Monster Comic, in 1945.

“Miller said that, while mine was the best drawn strip, my pen technique was on the scratchy side and the lettering was not careful enough.”

Although his parents sent him to Sunday school, Graham says he did not come from a ‘religious’ family, but that they weren’t, by the same token, ‘anti-religious’.

It was while attending Sydney Technical High School in Paddington during the 1940s that Graham underwent a personal religious awakening.

“Scripture was taught at Sydney ‘Tech’,” explains Graham, “and when the minister one day asked those who wanted to find and follow Jesus, to talk to him afterwards.”

“I went to see him and he explained how God simply asks us to trust Jesus, his cross and resurrection for forgiveness and peace,” he recalls.

“I thank God for that moment and its consequences.”

After completing his matriculation (5th year) at high school, Graham secured a junior position with Fullarton Artists, an advertising art studio in Pitt Street, Sydney, in 1949.

That same year marked his first involvement with a Christian organisation as an artist and designer.

“I offered my services to the Church Missionary Society and designed their 150th anniversary exhibition, as well as providing supporting comic book material for kids.”

Graham’s next assignment would mark the beginning of a long and fruitful association with Dr. Paul White, which would have a profound impact on his career as a comic artist.

Born in 1910, Paul White was an Australian missionary who worked as a physician in the African nation of Tanganyika (now known as Tanzania). White’s lifelong fascination with Africa is attributed to his father’s experiences as a veteran of the Boer War in South Africa.

He returned to Australia with his wife Ruth, partly for health reasons, in the 1940s. While working as a part-time doctor and promoter of missionary work, Paul wrote a book about his African experiences, Alias Jungle Doctor: An Autobiography, which was published by George M. Dash (Sydney) in 1941.

“I was asked to turn some of these stories [from White’s book] into comic strips for a monthly children’s mission publication,” says Graham.

The first of these strips, Jungle Doctor Meets a Lion, appeared around 1950. Around this time, White had begun writing a new series of Jungle Doctor ‘fable’ books , which were geared towards younger readers.

“These books were based on his experiences working on the bush plains of central Tanzania, relating the dramas of providing medicine in a primitive colonial hospital,” explains Graham.

“After a time, [White] started to tell novel-like stories in the same setting, which were true to life, but fictionalised.”

“Paul’s dispenser, Dan Mboga, helped him to understand, and communicate with the people he was there to help, and also how to share God’s love with them in a way that made sense.”

“Dan, who Paul calls ‘Daudi’ (David) in his books, always told animal tales. The surrounding countryside was alive with them and the people built an elaborate mythology around them.”

“These creatures and settings made for great Gospel stories,” according to Graham. “Paul transferred that to our [Australian] idiom and most subjects switched over painlessly, but there were some exceptions.”

“In Africa, rabbits were thought to be extremely wise, but to our view, they are both dumb and damaging - so, no rabbits in the Jungle Doctor stories!”

While the earliest books in the Jungle Doctor series began appearing in the late 1940s and early 1950s, with illustrations by other artists, Graham’s earliest known work on the series appears to be the 1953 adventure, Jungle Doctor Looks for Trouble.

“Paul’s books were ‘under the radar’ as far as Australian publishing was concerned,” Graham claims.

“But they were translated into scores of languages and printed in amazing numbers around the world - mainly in Germany, Britain, the USA and many third-world countries.”

Graham’s association with the Jungle Doctor books was to continue for several decades, but took a new twist in the 1970s, when the author’s new company, Paul White Productions (established in 1971), commissioned Graham to adapt several Jungle Doctor ‘fables’ into comic book format.

Twelve separate Jungle Doctor comic books were produced, commencing in 1975. Initially printed in Australia, with colour covers and black & white interior pages, two issues were drawn by David Whittam (Out on a Limb, Monkey in the Bog) and one issue drawn by Harry Rogers (Little Leopards Become Big Leopards), with the rest illustrated by Graham Wade.

“Emu Books were, to my recollection, the first publishers, followed by Bookhouse, an imprint of ANZEA Publishing, which, in turn, was the Scripture Union’s publishing division for Australia, New Zealand and Asia.

In 1981, a Hong Kong group called New Life Litho (a missionary printing press company) prepared colour overlays for the interior art on the Jungle Doctor comic books, and reprinted the entire series in full colour.

Back in 2001, Ruth White (of Paul White Productions) estimated that combined Australian sales of the colour comic book editions had totaled 520,000 copies - but added that worldwide sales of the comics could have exceeded 1 million copies.

Yet the Jungle Doctor books and comic magazines represent just one aspect of Graham’s contribution to Christian comics publishing in Australia.

After joining Fullarton Artists in 1949, Graham had made such rapid progress that he was effectively running the studio.

“Then, one day, Paul Fullarton, while drunk, hit me! I left the company and freelanced for a while - but within a year of leaving, Fullarton’s main client, AWA, told him to get me back or they would leave.”

“I was offered a partnership, but I would only accept the situation as a company restructure with half ownership, which was arranged.”

Once Paul Fullarton retired, Graham took complete control of the company and, by 1964, began to take the business in a new direction.

“I decided to change the company into a not-for-profit entity, which became known as Pilgrim International.”

Between 1964-2005, Pilgrim International worked for both secular and Christian clients, with surplus profits being redirected to further Christian work.

“We’ve prepared exhibitions and advertising for QANTAS, annual reports for the Reserve Bank of Australia and other organisations, as well as films for the Papua New Guinea government.”

Referring to the company’s Christian work, Graham says that Pilgrim International helped “establish World Vision as Australia’s biggest charity, as well as produced films and print materials for the Bible Society and Christian missions.”

While Pilgrim International no longer operates as a Christian media company, it provides an annual $10,000 Pilgrim Prize for the best Christian media, as well as grants to promote Christian media work.

Graham remains actively involved in Christian comics, and was responsible for bringing the COMIX35 Christian Comics Training Course to Sydney in 1998 and 2006.

Organised by American cartoonist Nate Butler, COMIX35 is an American-based ‘comic ministry’, designed to give participants the skills they need to produce a comic book with a Christian message.

“COMIX35 brought together professionals, students and wannabes to learn and discuss how to make Christian comics appropriate for our culture,” explains Graham.

(The COMIX35 seminar staged in Sydney during 2006 has since produced a compilation of new Christian comic strips, Pulp Crucifiction, featuring work by leading Australian cartoonists.)

While their subject matter may differ from mainstream comics, Graham maintains that Christian comics still pose similar creative challenges for writers and artists.

“As the concepts [of Christianity] are well known, how do you make them fresh?” he says. “These problems are the norm of creativity - how to make it striking in its design and in the words.”

“Dreaming, doodling and digging deeper - these are the normal creative tools [of artists]. But when you seek the spirit of God’s inspiration, you have the secret weapon of access to the source of Creativity itself - POW!”

While he believes that the hey-day of comics is now in the past, Graham maintains that comic books are an effective communication tool and should remain part of any Christian media strategy.

“Comics are portable, accessible and inexpensive - they are style chameleons which can be designed to appeal to specific groups.”

“Comics can serve any purpose, especially in the Christian context - as reinforcement for those who believe and a challenge to those who do not.”

“While they’ve been primarily used as an entertainment medium,” says Graham, “I do not doubt that comics can change people’s minds.”

An abridged version of this interview appeared in the May 2007 edition of Collectormania magazine.