Congo Bill

Congorilla
Promotional art for Justice League: Cry for Justice by Mauro Cascioli.
Publication information
Publisher	DC Comics
First appearance	More Fun Comics #56 (June 1940)
Created by	Whitney Ellsworth (writer) George Papp (artist)
In-story information
Alter ego	William Glenmorgan
Team affiliations	Forgotten Heroes Justice League
Notable aliases	Congo Bill
Abilities	Body of the Golden Gorilla, healing factor, ability to grow larger

Congorilla, originally a human character known as Congo Bill, is a superhero appearing in comic books published by DC Comics and Vertigo Comics. Originally co-created by writer Whitney Ellsworth and artist George Papp, he was later transformed into Congorilla by Robert Bernstein and Howard Sherman. The character first appeared in More Fun Comics #56 (June 1940).

Congo Bill encountered the legendary golden gorilla in Action Comics #224 (January 1957). He also encountered the similarly named Kongorilla in Action Comics #228 (May 1957).

Congo Bill was a long-running DC Comics adventure comic strip, running in various DC Comics titles from 1940 until Action Comics #248 (January 1959), when Congo Bill was transformed into Congorilla (the title of the strip was likewise changed). The Congo Bill strip was a standard adventure strip, often reminiscent of Alex Raymond's Jungle Jim newspaper strip.

Action Comics #191 (April 1954) saw the introduction of Janu the Jungle Boy, a young boy brought up in the jungle after his father had been killed by a tiger. The strip was a moderate success and moved from More Fun Comics to Action Comics with issue #37, where it stayed until issue #248, when it was transformed into Congorilla. In 1954, DC awarded Congo Bill his own title, which lasted for seven issues (August/September 1954 – August/September 1955).

The Congorilla series ran in Action Comics until issue #259, after which it was transferred to Adventure Comics, where it ran until issue #283. Since the demise of its own series, Congorilla has mainly been seen as a guest star in other titles, including as part of the Forgotten Heroes. The character finally received a mini-series of his own in 1992, where Congo Bill is betrayed by his (now corrupt) ward Janu, who usurps the Congorilla identity and Bill is forced to fight his adopted son to the death. Congo Bill became blind in his left eye, making it hard for him to see after fighting his son to the end. In 1999, DC Comics once again brought Congo Bill back for another four-issue limited series under the company's mature readership Vertigo Comics imprint. Congorilla returned in the 2009 series Cry for Justice, joining a proactive splinter faction of the Justice League. Following that series, Congorilla became a full-time member of the Justice League.