Each starred the blond-haired, Tarzanesque Lo-Zar, Lord of the Jungle (renamed "Tharn the Magnificent" in 1970s reprints, presumably to avoid confusion with Marvel's modern-day Ka-Zar);[1] Jungle Boy, the teenaged son of a renowned hunter;[2] Leopard Girl, created by writer Don Rico and artist Al Hartley;[3] and Man-Oo the Mighty, the jungle-protector gorilla hero of narrated nature dramas.

[10] The company's second series of this name premiered with an issue cover-dated October 1972 and containing reprints of the same-name Atlas Comics title, with stories of white jungle adventurers.

There was little market for these types of stories at the time, and the new Jungle Action was one of a wave of low-cost series that Marvel pushed out in the 1970s in a bid to capture shelf space from competing comics publishers.

[11] Don McGregor, who was then proofreading all of Marvel's publications, noted to the editorial staff that the series' preponderance of white protagonists in African settings was culturally outdated to the point of being incongruous.

[11] Thus an actual African protagonist, the superhero the Black Panther, took over the starring feature with issue #5, a reprint of the Panther-centric story in the superhero-team comic The Avengers #62 (March 1969).

A new series began running the following issue, written by McGregor,[12] with art by pencilers Rich Buckler, Gil Kane, and Billy Graham, and which gave inkers Klaus Janson and Bob McLeod some of their first professional exposure.

The length of the story arc coupled with the series' bimonthly schedule made it difficult for readers to keep characters and subplots fresh in their memories, but Jungle Action nonetheless maintained passable if modest sales and was popular with the desirable college-student demographic.

[17] Writer Dwayne McDuffie said of the Jungle Action "Black Panther" series: This overlooked and underrated classic is arguably the most tightly written multi-part superhero epic ever.

The original conclusion to "Panther vs. the Klan" was never completed, though work had started on what would have been Jungle Action #25, and in a 2008 interview McGregor said that he still has Rich Buckler's layouts for the issue.