Real
Name: John Rand JOHN RAND
Real
Name: John Rand
Identity/Class: Human (World War I era)
Occupation: Jungle dweller;
former diamond mine owner, adventurer
Group Membership: None
Affiliations: Winston
Enemies: Bouala, Paul De Kraft, Mubangi, N'jaga, Zar
Known Relatives: Constance "Connie" Dean Rand (wife, deceased), David Rand (Ka-Zar, son), Mr. Dean (father-in-law)
Aliases: None
Base of Operations: Belgian Congo;
formerly Johannesburg, South Africa
First Appearance: (Text only) Ka-Zar: King of
Fang and Claw (October 1936);
(visual depiction) Marvel Comics#1/7
(October 1939)
Powers/Abilities: Before his jungle life John Rand was already a capable adventurer in excellent physical condition with muscles of "whipcord and steel." He was an experienced pilot, knew first aid and wilderness survival techniques including being able to build his own shelter and make weapons such as arrows, bows and spears out of local material, capable with knives and expert shot with both rifle and pistol.
While living in the jungle his survival
skills only grew, and he became even stronger and fitter, able to travel
through the jungle without making any noise and to swing from lianas
between trees. He became an expert archer and skilled with a spear.
Height: Unrevealed
Weight: Unrevealed
Eyes: Unrevealed
Hair: Blond
History:
(Ka-Zar:
King of Fang and Claw (fb)) - Possessed of an adventurous
spirit, young American John Rand roamed the world in search of
adventure and fortune. He learned many skills during his adventures,
not least of which was how to pilot an airplane, and had a number of
close calls where he had to rely on his ingenuity and resourcefulness
to survive, imbuing him with a well-earned sense of self-confidence.
His skin was bronzed from prolonged exposure to the African sun and he
had muscles of "whipcord and steel." During a two-week interlude
between fortune seeking expeditions he wooed and won Constance Dean, a
gentle English girl attending a fashionable French finishing school,
spiriting her away from under the nose of the school's stern
headmistress to elope together. He gave her a wedding ring engraved on
the inside with the inscription "From John Rand to Constance Dean."
Shortly after their marriage...
(All-New Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A-Z#6) - in 1917...
(Ka-Zar: King of Fang and Claw (fb)) - John stumbled upon a rich diamond field in the Transvaal, South Africa.
(Marvel Comics#17/7 (fb) - BTS) - John's attorney in England, Alec Wright, drafted the ownership paperwork for what proved to be a very rich diamond mine. John was also friends with a gentleman named Winston.
(Ka-Zar: King of Fang and Claw (fb)) - They split their time between London, Cairo (where Connie's father resided at least part of the time) and their main residence just outside of Johannesburg, South Africa. John used his newfound wealth to satisfy all his desires, including purchasing and maintaining his own private plane. Around a year after the couple became wealthy their son David was born...
(All-New Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A-Z#6) - in 1918.
(Ka-Zar: King of Fang
and Claw (fb)) - When David was three,...
(All-New Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A-Z#6) - in 1921,...
(Ka-Zar: King of Fang and Claw (fb)) - Connie received a telegram informing her that her father was seriously ill in the Sheppard's Hotel in Cairo. John immediately suggested that he should fly Connie, David and himself to Mr. Dean's bedside, unconcerned that this would require them to traverse thousands of miles of wild and dangerous territory.
Two days after receiving the telegram
the Rand family set off for Cairo in John's plane. However, later that
same day...
(Ka-Zar: King of
Fang and Claw/Marvel Comics#1/7) - over the
heart of the Belgian Congo,...
(Ka-Zar: King of Fang and Claw (fb)) - some two degrees south of the Equator...
(Marvel Comics#1/7) - the plane developed motor trouble...
(Ka-Zar: King of Fang and Claw/Marvel Comics#1/7) - and crash landed in the dense jungle, its arrival witnessed by the lion Zar, lord of the jungle.
(Marvel Comics#1/7) - Having suffered only minor injuries...
(Ka-Zar:
King of Fang and Claw (fb)) - including a long, bleeding gash
on his forearm, which he failed to even notice initially in his
concern for his family...
(Ka-Zar: King
of Fang and Claw/Marvel Comics#1/7) - John staggered from the
wreckage. Checking on his wife and son, John found David to have
suffered only minor bumps and scrapes, but
Connie had been less lucky. John carried her from the broken plane and
confirmed that her leg was broken. After John patched her up as best he
could with the plane's medical kit the family settled down to surviving
until they were rescued or Connie became well enough to risk traveling.
(Ka-Zar: King of Fang and Claw) - John reassured his wife
that they would be fine while waiting for rescue as he had a
rifle, two automatics and plenty of cartridges aboard the plane.
Even when he heard Zar's roar and recognized it for what it was,
John merely viewed the lion's presence as a challenge he willingly
accepted. Had he been alone in this same predicament, he would
have enjoyed the promise of danger and excitement. Lacking an axe,
he used his stout knife to cut the thick lianas and tree branches
and erected a make-shift but comfortable lean-to under the wrecked
plane's protective wing, and started a fire for warmth and to
deter the local wildlife from coming too close to their camp.
(Ka-Zar:
King of Fang and Claw/Marvel Comics#1/7) - David
was innocently unafraid of the jungle's other denizens and tried to
befriend the smaller ones, such as the monkeys. While Zar maintained a
wary distance, the leopard N'jaga soon decided the opportunity for an
easy meal had come when David wandered near the edge of the clearing the
plane was in. However Connie's warning cries alerted John, and he shot
the pouncing leopard with his rifle. Wounded, N'jaga fled into the
jungle, prompting an upset David to chastise his father for scaring away
what he saw as another potential friend. John marveled at his son's lack
of instinctive fear (or common sense if you ask me), but David's
protests didn't stop him from saving the boy a second time, this time
shooting with his pistol a venomous snake that threatened the child.
(Ka-Zar: King of Fang and Claw) - Zar instinctively hated
John, but witnessing John using his guns also instilled a sense of
wary respect in the lion, and he kept his distance, never directly
interacting with the man. Despite his disdain for the humans, the
lion also scared away other predators that came too near to the
humans' habitation.
(Ka-Zar: King of Fang and Claw/Marvel Comics#1/7) - John reassured his family that searching planes would soon find them, and spent the next few days building a safe and comfortable home for them out of parts of the wrecked plane. Water from a nearby lake and fuel in the form of wood were in ready supply,
(Ka-Zar: King of Fang and Claw) - as was food, as roots,
berries, fruit and game were plentiful, and so...
(Ka-Zar: King of Fang and Claw/Marvel Comics#1/7) - they
thrived despite their predicament, with Connie rapidly recovering.
Eventually Connie heard a plane overhead, and John rushed to catch its
attention using a signal fire and a large tarpaulin, which he waved
while wading in the nearby lake, away from the tree cover. Despite his
best efforts, the rescue plane, which had been looking for the missing
Rands, missed these signs and turned away to search further north. John
tried to console a despairing Connie by insisting the spot they had
crashed in was on a "busy highway" for aircraft, so another chance would
soon present itself. However, while the search plane did return, it
never came as close to their camp as it had that first day, and never
spotted them.
(Ka-Zar: King of Fang and Claw) - Connie consoled herself
with the belief that as soon as her leg was sufficiently mended
they could begin the long overland trek to get themselves out of
the wilderness. However John realized that the rainy season had
just begun, and that they would have to wait until that finished
before they could risk traveling, though he kept this to himself
so as not to deprive his wife of her meager consolation.
(Ka-Zar: King of Fang and Claw/Marvel Comics#1/7) - Then
disaster struck as Connie was stricken with a raging tropical fever,
which soon claimed her life. Her dying wish to John was that he ensure
David survived, and she gave him the wedding ring he had once gifted to
her to remember her by. John's determination to keep his promise to her
proved to be the only thing that prevented the heartbroken John from
ending his own life, which he felt no longer contained any meaning.
Brought back to his senses by recalling her wish, he buried his wife...
(Ka-Zar: King of Fang and Claw) - then lost himself in
grief once more, brooding by her grave for a week, coming out of
his reveries only when he needed to provide food for David. He was
finally forced out of his lethargy two weeks after Connie's death
when David too came down with fever, reminding John that he was
neglecting his responsibilities and the promise he had made.
Thankfully, after being touch and go for three days, on the fourth
day David's fever broke. John realized they would have to wait
around three months until the rainy season ended, but became
determined that as soon as that happened the pair of them must
make the trek back to civilization, though he promised himself
that as soon as David was safe he would return to retrieve
Connie's remains.
(Ka-Zar: King of Fang and Claw/Marvel Comics#1/7) - With this
daunting journey in mind he studied
the map from the plane...
(Ka-Zar: King of Fang and Claw) - determined they were around 2 degrees south of the equator, and between the 25th and 28th meridians east, ...
(Ka-Zar: King of Fang and Claw/Marvel Comics#1/7) - and
plotted a course across 200 miles of jungle to the nearest
European colonial outpost.
(Ka-Zar: King of Fang and Claw) - After six months at
their settlement, the rainy season neared its end, and John
informed David they would set out the next day, but as they
visited Connie's grave to say a temporary goodbye ...
(Ka-Zar:
King of Fang and Claw/Marvel Comics#1/7) - an especially fierce storm struck suddenly, lashing the jungle, so strong it
began to uproot some of the giant baobab trees near the cabin John had
constructed. Grabbing David up, John raced through the driving rain
towards the safer shelter of some nearby caves, but lightning struck a
tree they were passing. As it fell towards them John threw David out of
its path but was struck on the head by the falling baobab. The storm
subsided as quickly as it had sprung up, and David led his concussed and
semiconscious father back to their cabin. Reluctant to leave, the child
asked John if they still had to start for home soon, and a confused John
informed him that they were home, since they were where "mummy" was.
Though John recovered his faculties in every
other respect, the delusion that the jungle was his true home never
cleared up.
(Ka-Zar: King of Fang and Claw) - He liked to believe the
tract of wilderness they dwelled in belonged to him, and this
notion grew in time to become an absolute conviction.
(Ka-Zar: King of Fang and Claw/Marvel Comics#1/7) - He
and David thrived in their new lives, with John soon abandoning his
civilized clothing for attire made from animal skins and growing a thick
beard as if to visibly proclaim his new status as
a jungle dweller.
(Ka-Zar: King of Fang and Claw) -
Exhausting his ammunition supply, he fashioned new weapons from
available materials for both himself and his growing son.
(Ka-Zar: King of Fang and Claw/Marvel Comics#1/7) - He taught David to read and write, but otherwise let the boy grow up alongside his animal friends, and both father and son became wise in the ways of the jungle, expert hunters with bows and arrows, and able to traverse through the trees by brachiating and swinging on lianas.
Though Zar continued to hate John from a safe
distance, the lion and David became friends after the boy rescued the
beast from quicksand.
When David was in his early teens human intruders
ventured into the Rands' domain. Alerted by the smell of smoke, the pair
investigated, soon spotting a quartet of men, three Africans (Bouala,
Mubangi and one unidentified) and one white man (Paul De Kraft), who had
made camp by a stream from which they were now scooping up shovels full
of gravel (they had stumbled across emeralds in the stream bed). John
openly approached the interlopers and angrily commanded them to leave,
then turned to walk back into the jungle. Seeing De Kraft raise his gun
to shoot John in the back, David fired an arrow which shot past his
father's right ear and struck De Kraft on the upper arm, forcing him to
drop his weapon. John and David faded into the jungle, vanishing from
the invaders' sight. Once alone with his son, John reminded David that
the jungle was sacred to his mother, telling him that no one could be
allowed to profane it.
(Ka-Zar:
King of Fang and Claw - BTS/Marvel
Comics#1/7 - BTS) - De Kraft sent Mubangi to find John's camp
and confirm how many were in the jungle dweller's camp. Mubangi soon
located the cabin John had built and reported back to his employer that
they faced only the man they had seen and a young boy, and that neither
had guns. Shortly before dawn David slipped away from the cabin to spy
on De Kraft's camp, unaware that De Kraft and his men were at the same
time making their way to the cabin. In David's absence they attacked the
cabin, shooting John twice and setting fire to his home.
(Ka-Zar:
King of Fang and Claw/Marvel
Comics#1/7) - Fatally wounded, John
managed to crawl from the burning building, and was found by David, who
had raced home after hearing the shots ringing through the jungle.
Carrying his father further away from the fire, David failed to hear
John mumbling a warning, and was caught off guard by one of De Kraft's
men, who threatened him with a spear. Emerging from the jungle, De Kraft
made clear his intention to kill both of the Rands. As John weakly
looked on, David spun to snatch up his father's knife, but De Kraft
already had his gun drawn and would have shot the boy had the lion Zar
not chosen that moment to intervene on his human friend's behalf. De
Kraft fled while Zar was killing two of his men, but the help had come
too late for John. Giving the boy Connie's wedding ring to remember his
parents by, John died moments later in his son's arms. David buried John
Rand next to Connie.
Comments: Created by Bob Byrd. Rand initially appeared in a pulp novel, Ka-Zar: King of Fang and Claw, thus having a single creator, the writer. However, he was first visually depicted by Ben Thompson, who illustrated an adaptation of Byrd's story for Marvel Comics#1. It was the sixth comic strip story in the issue, but seventh overall as there was also a text story in the issue. John Rand has the distinction of being the first human to appear in what would later become known as Earth-616, the mainstream Marvel universe; though his son Ka-Zar is named and depicted on the cover of King of Fang and Claw, John Rand is the first human to show up in the story itself. He's not quite the first character to appear in 616 - that honor goes to the lion Zar - but he can lay claim to being the first human character.
There's a slight discrepancy over the order
of events following the plane crash between the version in the pulp
story and the version in the comic. In the comic N'jaga attacks David
and is driven off, and then days later, when Connie is well enough to
hobble along on a crutch, the rescue plane first passes overhead. In the
pulp story the rescue plane makes its first pass within a day or two of
the crash, and N'jaga attacks after the rescue plane has stopped coming,
exactly a week after the crash.
David renamed himself Ka-Zar, "brother of" Zar, after his father's demise, so while John was alive he was still only called David Rand.
David's profile in All-New Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A-Z#6 gave his year of birth as 1918; since the pulp novel King of Fang and Claw informs us that David was thirteen when his father died this means John died some time in 1931, give or take a year. We also know from the original pulp tale that John spent ten years in the jungle before being slain, which means that between 1921 to 1931 we have scope for untold adventures of the jungle lord version of John Rand. As well as potential adventures in the region, it's also worth remembering that just because he chose to make his home in the Congo doesn't mean he couldn't have ventured further afield on occasion during that decade - who was the Black Panther back then?
This profile was completed 05/05/2021, but its publication was delayed as it was intended for the Appendix 20th anniversary 's celebratory event.
Profile by Loki.
CLARIFICATIONS:
John Rand has no known connections to:
Constance Dean met John Rand while she was attending finishing school in France and eloped with him after a whirlwind romance. After John discovered his diamond fields in South Africa the couple settled outside Johannesburg, where their son, David, was born a year later. When he was three Constance learned via telegram that he father was deathly ill in Cairo, prompting them to fly to his side, but the plane crashed in the Congo. Of the trio aboard Constance suffered the worst injuries, breaking one leg, but thanks to John's first aid she was well on the way to recovery when tragedy struck and she fell ill with fever and died. Her dying wish was that John protect their son, and she gave John the wedding ring he had gifted her as a memento.
--Ka-Zar: King of Fang and Claw (Marvel Comics#1
images: (without ads)
Marvel Comics#1 70th Anniversary Edition, p55 (p3 of Ka-Zar story), pan7
(main image)
Marvel Comics#1 70th Anniversary
Edition, p55 (p3 of Ka-Zar story), pan2 (clean shaven headshot)
Marvel Comics#1 70th Anniversary
Edition, p55 (p3 of Ka-Zar story), pan1 (stupid and ungrateful brat
David complains that John has saved his life)
Marvel Comics#1 70th Anniversary Edition, p60 (p8 of
Ka-Zar story), pan3 (jungle John swinging through the trees with David)
Marvel Comics#1 70th Anniversary Edition, p60 (p8 of
Ka-Zar story), pan7 (jungle John getting his disco on - Staying
alive, staying alive!)
Marvel Comics#1 70th Anniversary Edition, p56 (p4 of
Ka-Zar story), pan3 (Constance Rand)
Appearances:
Ka-Zar: King of Fang and Claw
(October 1936) - Bob Byrd (writer), Lorence F. Bjorkland (art)
Marvel Comics#1/7 (October 1939)
- Bob Byrd (writer), Ben Thompson
(art), Martin Goodman (editor)
First Posted: 09/01/2021
Last updated: 08/28/2021
Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.
Non-Marvel
Copyright
info
All other characters mentioned or pictured are ™ and © 1941-2099
Marvel Characters, Inc. All Rights Reserved. If you like this stuff, you
should check out the real thing!
Please visit The Marvel Official Site at: http://www.marvel.com
Special Thanks to www.g-mart.com for hosting the Appendix, Master List, etc.!
Constance Dean Rand