Kula
DAN DRAKE
Real Name: Dan Drake
Identity/Class: Human
Occupation: Poacher, ivory hunter
Group Membership: None
Affiliations: Vole, Zarg,
Mbolo;
formerly Kula
Enemies: Shanna the She-Devil, Kula
Known Relatives: None
Aliases: Ivory Dan, Ivory Dan Drake, Ivory King
Base of Operations: Mobile in Africa, wherever
elephants were
First Appearance: Shanna the She-Devil#1 (December, 1972)
Powers/Abilities: Dan Drake was a normal human
without any superhuman abilities.
He was an expert hunter, specialized in
killing elephants in order to seize their ivory tusks.
His favorite weapon was his rifle with
telescopic sights.
Height: Unrevealed (approximately 5'10")
Weight: Unrevealed (approximately 175 lbs.)
Eyes: Unrevealed
Hair: Black
History:
(Shanna the She-Devil#1 (fb) - BTS) - Dan Drake hunted and
killed so many elephants in Africa that he gained the nickname of Ivory
King. He didn't despise killing other animals, like great felines, for
gain on the black market. He had a partner, Vole, and some indigenous
workers taken from local villages. Among the latter grooup there
were Mbolo and Kula.
(Shanna the She-Devil#1) - During one of his hunting runs,
in Dahomey, Ivory Drake set up his camp in a game reserve and found a
herd of elephants that were drinking from a river.
Drunken, Drake began to shoot randomly, alarming the wild animals. Vole
tried to stop him, but Drake smashed the Corbet Whiskey bottle on Vole's
face. The hunter was aiming at a big male elephant when Shanna the
She-Devil assaulted and beat him. Drake tried to grab a wooden club but
Biri, Shanna's black leopard, forced him to reconsider his actions.
Drake tried to scare Shanna, telling her that elephants were not the
only targets he shot, but Shanna's threats and her felines' snarls
forced Drake and his team to flee.
Shanna escorted the poachers to their
camp, ordering them to leave the reserve before sundown.
Kula and Mbolo, two
local carriers, packed the equipment on the Land Rover, but when the
She-Devil left the camp Drake told Vole that they would simply move some
miles downstream.
When Ivory Dan ordered his agents to
follow the ivory trail, Mbolo questioned his decision, afraid to upset
Shanna, and Kula, scared by the She-Devil, refused to go with them.
Drake, who considered the carriers superstitious savages little more
than slaves, didn't believe Kula, and fired him with a right fist.
While Drake and the others set the new
camp up near the elephants trail, Kula managed to reach and warn Shanna.
Drinking again, Drake told Vole that they had duped
Shanna. But the She-Devil swarmed into the new camp, surprising, kicking
and beating up Vole and Drake. She broke up the camp, scattering the
supplies. However, Ivory Dan managed to sneak behind her and knock her
out.
Zarg, another partner, arrived to the camp, and Ivory Dan ordered him to watch Shanna while Vole and he went hunting.
Dan and Vole reached the elephants,
scaring them. The massive guard bull charged Ivory Dan, but the hunter
slew him with his rifle. The kill didn't stop the herd, who charged the
poachers as an unstoppable thundering wall. The hunters spread out, ran
away, amd hid. But Dan Drake could not drop his beloved gun. The weight
of the weapon limited his movements. Reached by the pachyderms, Ivory
Dan was trampled to death.
Comments: Created by Carole Seuling, Steve Gerber, George Tuska and Vince Colletta.
Drake probably had a problem with alcohol, which likely led him to be reckless, careless and slow. Drake loved his rifle and liked to slay animals with it.Profile by Spidermay.
CLARIFICATIONS:
Dan Drake has no known connections to:
Vole has no known connections to
Zarg has no known connections to any other character with a similar name.
Kula has no known connections to:
Kula and Mbolo came from the same
geographical region when the game reserve in Dahomey was.
Carriers, they had a low-level jobs,
physical and done by hand and muscle.
They lived in villages near the game
reserve where Dan Drake hired them and took with him for his dirty job.
They both knew Shanna's reputation and believed her to be more than a
woman.
Their beliefs about Shanna became
reality when they encountered the She-Devil forcing Drake and Vole to
abandon their hunting business.
Mbolo overheard Ivory Dan ordering Vole
to move the camp, but only to follow the elephants. Mbolo questioned
Drake's decision, not willing to upset Shanna, and Kula, scared by the
She-Devil, refused to go with them. He feared to be associated to evil
men, because Shanna brought death to them. Drake considered his carriers
as savages, and didn't believe any of the superstitions about Shanna. He
cruelly hit Kula, leaving him down, in pain.
While Drake and the others set the new
camp up near the elephants trail, Kula recovered enough to walk and
managed to reach Shanna to warn her. Shanna sent Kula to the Game
Control Station to bring back the warden.
His action gave the time for the
She-Devil to reach the poachers in time, to limit their killing run.
Vole was a hunter and a poacher. He
partnered with Ivory Dan and Zarg, they both followed Drake's lead.
Vole was more cautious than Dan Drake.
When Ivory Dan and and Vole found the
herd of elephants, Vole tried to contain Drake, who was drunk and shot
randomly to scare the animals. Vole reckoned that it was dangerous,
because the pack leader would attack them, but he was struck by Drake.
Shanna beat up and scrambled both of them.
When Shanna forced Vole and Dan to get back their camp, Vole drove the Rover while Ina and Biri (Shanna's leopards) snarled behind him. Shanna told him that she could not keep them in check if they sensed danger. Vole took the warning very seriously.
At the camp, Vole was ready to leave
the reserve, but was convinced by Dan to stay.
When the poachers set the new camp up,
Vole had doubts about their safety. He was right. Shanna found them
again, kicking them and making a mess of the equipment.
Later, he was in the hunting group that
went after the elephants and ended running from them. Vole and the
others jumped into a crevice, avoiding the herd's charge. They were
arrested.
--Shanna the She-Devil#1
Note: A vole is a
small rodent, sometimes known as a field mouse.
Zarg was a poacher, partner of Ivory Dan and Vole.
Zarg was very strong, but did not speak English very well. He was so strong that he broke a tree trunk with a fist. Shanna reckoned he was stronger than she, but he was not so agile. Shanna kicked him against a pile of rocks, each of them larger than a basketball, and he scrambled them off, surviving.
Zarg reached Ivory Dan and Vole at the
second camp, with the ammunition. They had already subdued Shanna. Dan
ordered Zarg to watch Shanna, warning him that she was as quick as a
leopard.
Zarg didn't care, as he was
self-confident about his strength and physical superiority; he did not
watch her, and Shanna was able to free herself from the bonds. In the
ensuing struggle, he never succeeded in laying a hand on the heroine.
Instead, he was hit several times and finally knocked out, but not
without effort by Shanna.
--Shanna the She-Devil#1
Shanna the She-Devil#1, p4, pan3 (main image)
Shanna the She-Devil#1, p21, pan1 (head shot)
Shanna the She-Devil#1, p5, pan4 (Kula)
Shanna the She-Devil#1, p4, pan5 (Vole)
Shanna the She-Devil#1, p18, pan5 (Zarg)
Appearances:
Shanna the She-Devil#1 (December, 1972) - Carole Seuling and Steve
Gerber (writers), George Tuska (pencils), Vince Colletta (inks), Roy
Thomas (editor)
First Posted: 09/16/2026
Last Updated: 04/21/2024
Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.
Non-Marvel
Copyright info
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