Sheena, Queen of the Jungle was one of the first female heroes to appear in comic books. Mort Meskin drew her first appearance in January 14, 1938, for weekly issues of Wags. The tabloid was created for British and Australian markets by comic book pioneers Jerry Iger and Will Eisner.

Following the success of Wags, Iger and Eisner gave Sheena her comic debut in Jumbo Comics #1 (September 1938). Sheena appeared in every issue until 1953 and was featured on the cover of 143 issues. She had her own Sheena, Queen of the Jungle comic from 1942 to 1952 with 18 issues published by Fiction House.

Sheena appeared in issues of Jungle Adventures, Marvel Comics Super Special and Amazing Heroes. She starred in a two-issue Sheena series from Marvel in 1984 and Sheena Queen of the Jungle 3-D #1 from Eclipse and Blackthrone a year later. Sheena was in AC Comics’ Jungle Girls in the late ‘80s, and the Sheena, Queen of the Jungle series from Devil’s Due in 2007. Dynamite has published three series starring Sheena in 2017, 2021, and 2023.

A Sheena, Queen of the Jungle TV series soon followed, starring Irish McCalla. Born Nellie McCalla, she was a struggling artist from Nebraska who moved to Los Angeles in the late 1940s. To finance her art career, she posed for glamour photos and modeled for noted pin-up artists Alberto Vargas and Fritz Willis. The statuesque beauty won the role of Sheena in the mid-1950s. Produced by Nassour Studios and Rodriguez Productions, 26 episodes were filmed in the jungles of Las Estacas, Mexico between December 1955 and September 16, 1956, for syndication in the US.

The popularity of the series led to an appearance on the Milton Berle Show on June 5, 1956, along with newcomer Elvis Presley. McCalla continued her art career, completing 1,000 paintings by the mid-1980s.

Hearst International released the feature film Sheena: Queen of the Jungle with Tanya Roberts on August 17, 1984, and Columbia Tri-Star produced the Sheena TV series with Gena Lee Nolin in 2001-2002, with 35 episodes.