(Jungle Comics 001, 1940)
Camilla, Queen of the Lost Empire! I love a lost ancient kingdom, especially in a jungle comic as it cuts down on the constant flow of racism. This particular ancient lost kingdom was founded by Norsemen, probably some time between 900 and 1100 CE going by the random dates thrown out at various points in the series.
We encounter the Lost Empire through the eyes of explorer Jon Dale, who I will tell you now I do not like. Having made his way to an isolated society with different ways and customs, Dale immediately begins judging and decrying them like a jerk. (aside: I just noticed that the Temple of Thor in the above image has a Thor face on its onion dome and that's just great)
I suppose I must give Dale some credit for mostly objecting to the human sacrifice aspect of Lost Empire culture (and like me he must have been pretty stuck on working out just how long the rainy season might be in the Lost Empire. A human sacrifice per day for two, maybe three months per year? That's gotta be a strain on the population, although given that they have access to a fountain of youth perhaps the major purpose is to prevent overpopulation).
Queen Camilla of course cannot resist the sheer sex appeal of this pasty man in his short and knee-high socks, and when her advances are rebuffed she attempts to make Dale's love interest (his female equivalent Ruth Birch) the next sacrifice to Thor he springs into action and:
a) sabotages the sacrifice chamber so that Ruth is spared
b) I want to say that he causes Camilla's extended lifespan to catch up with her but really he just stands by and watches her die of old age
c) blows up the entire damn city in order to effect his and his companions' escapes
And after wreaking this untold destruction on the Lost Empire and its people he decides to destroy their secret of eternal life because his pedestrian understanding of the world tell him that God would want him to.
I know that I just said that Camilla died of old age, but Jungle Comics 003 features her triumphant and inexplicable return, and with the help of an old seer she successfully enlists the aid of the god Bal to restore her city and people to existence and life, respectively.
When Jon and Ruth have the unmitigated gall to come back to the ruins of the Lost Empire to pick over its shattered remains they are understandably surprised to find it and Camilla alive and un-blown-up, and while the first time Camilla attempted to kill them both was a bit out of order I can completely understand wanting to do so this second time.
Things go poorly for Camilla once again, though it's just the Spring of Eternal Youth and not the entire city that gets it this time. Jon Dale, shitty as ever, determines to come back and pillage the place after the march of time kills her off for him.
Despite the fact that this second lack of access to the waters of eternal life seemed to be causing her to age at regular rather than super-advanced speed, Camilla takes things very poorly and becomes a tyrant (a proper tyrant too! Flayed alive in the torture pit!) and then gets banished. Luckily for her, among the things that Jon thinks that God has an opinion on is the Divine Right of Kings, and he and Ruth help Camilla restore the Spring of Eternal Life and see her welcomed back to her kingdom with open arms once she promises not to have anyone else flayed.
From this point on, Camilla is a heroic figure who deals with a series of threats to the Lost Empire and her rule thereof from both internal sources and an increasingly unlikely series of other lost kingdoms.
In one of these adventures, Camilla befriends hunchbacked assassin Caredodo and he becomes her champion/companion, and then about an issue later the comic book "no uggoes on the protagonist's side" clause comes into effect and the benevolent Angel of Faith transforms him into the handsome Sir Champion. Camilla has a long tenure in Jungle Comics and eventually virtually every aspect of her will change but for now this is the status quo.
