20 Hilarious Lion King Comics Only True Fans Will Understand
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Fans have produced an epic amount of art, fanfiction, and more based off The Lion King.
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The Lion King is never going to disappear. The retelling of Hamlet through lions in Africa is currently the 36th highest engrossing film of all time. It was the highest engrossing animated Disney film for a while until the more recent movies, Frozen and Zootopia. As you can imagine, the film won tons of awards for its music, animation, and emotional story.
With its sequels and spin-offs, the world of The Lion King has only strengthened over time. Remember Lion King 1 ½ ? That was based off of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead. Then we moved to The Lion King 2, which kept loyal to being adaptations of Shakespearian tragedy and was based off of Romeo and Juliet. As for the current TV show, The Lion Guard, Disney decided to let go of their Shakespearian patterns. The TV show is still a hit with tons of merchandise in kid’s stores.
The spin-offs are definitely not stopping either. Following in line with Cinderella, The Jungle Book, and Beauty and the Beast, The Lion King is in the midst of having a live action remake. They plan for the movie to come out when The Lion King turns twenty-five-years-old in 2019.
All these spin-offs and sequels are only the tip of the iceberg as well. Fans have produced an epic amount of art, fanfiction, and more based off The Lion King. What about comics? Let’s see what fans have conjured up!
20 Moustacha
I never understood people’s fascination with mustaches and this isn’t much of a comic, apart from the drawing of a mustache, but we liked it too much to exclude. If a lion saw that, they’d think something was wrong with him. He has hair on top of hair! They’d probably be amazed he never got beat up and even became King.
According to the Disney Wiki, a ton of different characters inspired Mufasa. Of course there is the Ghost of King Hamlet, as we do actually see him as a ghost in the stars like the ghost in Hamlet! Others on the Wiki include King Richard, Slim from Mice and Men, King Jaffe from Coming to America, Aslan from Narnia, and Osiris from Egyptian mythology.
Mufasa is portrayed almost as all-knowing and wise. In a way, he’s perfect. Better than Simba, as it’s mentioned he would never have banished someone like Kovu from the Pridelands in The Lion King 2.
The more I think about it, Mufasa never did a single thing wrong that I can pick at. He always had good advice, looked after his people, and was never arrogant about his duties. Simba is way more flawed and can probably never be as good a King.
Apparently Mufasa served as inspiration for Mayor Leodore Lionheart in the 2016 Disney film, Zootopia. Very different characters, but they do lookalike!
19 What Really Happened
This one really got a laugh out of me. The artist brings up the point that smoke inhalation from the fire could have been enough to end Scar. Quite a less adrenaline-rushing end isn’t it? By the end of The Lion King, Pride Rock is on fire. Scar and Simba are at the top where all the smoke is billowing. In the actual movie scene, you can see ash, embers, and shrapnel floating everywhere.
The artist mentioned in their description that Simba and Scar act like the fire isn’t even there, except when Scar throws ash in Simba’s face. According to the artist (and I agree with them), it’s smoke inhalation that is the most deadly part of fires, not usually the fire itself.
Scar being older than Simba (thus probably not having as strong lungs), he would be the first to fall from the smoke. This also makes more sense because when has Simba ever fought another lion except during play-fights as a cub? This would have been a far more likely scenario for Simba to win in a fight against Scar.
In fact, didn’t Kiara pass out from smoke in the second movie?! The fire wasn’t as big as this one!
Comic was made by NostalgicChills.
18 Not Much Of A King
These last two are kinda cheating, as they’re memes in a comic-book style, but we liked them too much to leave off the list.
Simba does in a way get what he wanted through his dad’s destruction. In his song, “I Can’t Wait to be King,” he does seem excited to take on the mantle of Mufasa. Though of course I don’t think he realized that his dad would have to be gone for that to happen.
Mufasa’s demise is probably one of the most memorable Disney scenes due to seeing it actually unfold., not to mention Simba’s cries over the body.
It was very raw for a Disney film. It was like Bambi’s mother all over again but worse because we saw everything.
Unlike Prince Hamlet, Simba runs away and disappears for a very long time. In Hamlet the prince remains and goes a little insane in his plot to avenge his father. Simba takes a totally different route and a ton of time passes before he even thinks of getting revenge because Scar convinced him that everything was his fault. With all that in mind, Scar is smarter than Claudius from Hamlet. He knows that Simba would be in the way and deals with him in a very sneaky way. The only reason his plan failed is because Nala bumped into Simba.
17 Scar’s Name
The reality the name Scar’s parents gave him is actually pretty depressing. Mufasa and Scar’s parents were Ahadi and Uru and based on A Tale of Two Brothers, Scar was actually named Taka when he was a cub.
That is not a step-up from Scar by the way, Taka translates to “dirt,”, “trash,” or “want” in Swahili. That’s a terrible name compared to Mufasa, which means “king.” What were Scar’s parents thinking?! From the books, Ahadi isn’t shown in a bad light. He seems to be the same sort of goodly king that Mufasa was in The Lion King.
If we want to be crazy, we can actually trace Simba’s great great grandfather, Mohatu. That ancestor was mentioned in the book The Brightest Star. Mohatu, being a deceased ancestor, is a star in the sky that Simba notices and he learns the story of his great great grandfather. So we all can go pretty far back into Simba’s lineage!
I still can’t get over Scar’s name though. Why did his parents give him such a terrible name that translates to dirt and trash? If I had that name next to Mufasa, I’d be bitter. It’s almost like his parents wanted him to be angry and evil.
Comic was made by Alexander Hoffman.
16 Bag Of Peaches Mama
“The Circle of Life” song from the beginning of the movie is probably one of the songs out there with the most misheard lyrics. Many fans honestly don’t know what it’s saying or how to pronounce the words. The song consists of interwoven English and Zulu.
One Zulu line starts off with, “Nants ingonyama bagithi Baba Sithi uhm ingonyama.” I would not even know where to begin with saying that! It translates to “Here comes a lion, Father. Oh yes, it’s a lion.” Yes, many fans have had a good laugh at the simplicity of the lyric’s meaning.
I certainly think it’s my favorite musical number in the whole film. The title refers to nature’s way of taking and giving life to the earth. It means if something dies, another thing is born. It sort of shows the beauty and divinity of life and death in nature.
When I saw The Lion King theatrical musical (which you must see if you’re a Lion King fan!), this song was breathtaking. It’s sung by Rafiki and an off-stage woman. It’s referenced in tons of other media as well due to its popularity. I mean, you could probably recognize the song from just this comic, so tons of media hopped onto The Lion King train since they know it’ll be recognized by their viewers.
15 Different Pridelands
It is interesting to put The Lion King in different times and places as different animals. The artist did a good job of making them recognizable as Zazu and the hyenas. I wonder what the lions would be? I suppose they would be larger sort of raptors than the hyenas. My dream though? T-Rexes. The Lion King except all the lions are T-Rexes.
It’s a cool premise but every scientific update we’ve been getting lately makes the T-Rexes seem way less cool than they used to be. Like maybe they sounded like a goose and had feathers? When we were little, they were apex predators. Now scientists have been wondering if they were actually just scavengers.
It would make the cliff-hanging scene so dumb because T-Rex Mufasa would be hanging on with his tiny T-Rex hands. Scar would only have to breathe out for him to fall! Also what would the wildebeest be? What can trample a T-Rex? A bunch of brontosauruses? Wouldn’t that cause an earthquake?
Instead of the Elephant Graveyard, I suppose it could be the Triceratops Graveyard. Timon and Pumbaa would be a Pig-Footed Bandicoot and maybe just a large turtle? Rafiki though, I guess he would be some prehistoric primate like a Archaeolemur or Australopithecus.
Artist is unkown.
14 Not Simba
In The Lion King 2, the main antagonist, Zira, sort of brainwashes her son from a young age to hate Simba. Zira is leader of The Outsiders, a clan of lions who were still loyal to Scar, so Simba had them banished from the Pridelands.
The fact that Scar was destroyed by hyenas somehow got past Zira though, as she vowed to avenge Scar by getting Simba dethroned. If she only knew about the hyenas, The Lion King 2 would have been a very different movie. Though maybe she would still be after Simba since he still dethroned Scar.
No part of the movie really acknowledges that hyenas were the real end to Scar and that bothered a lot of fans. But hey, no misunderstanding, no movie I guess.
In the original script, Zira was going to be Scar’s mate. Later on their relationship was purposely obscured and they made her out to be “just a follower” due to the incestuous undertones Kovu’s romance with Kiara would have had. I don’t know if it would have been that big a deal since they’re lions and that stuff isn’t taboo for all animal species. Whatever though, since Disney makes children-level content, it likes to be careful.
Comic was made by LordBoop.
13 Outrun The Scientists
Big question: Do humans exist in The Lion King?
There has been discussion over the question in the Disney Wiki. It’s been stated that the only installment of the franchise that has had humans appear was in a spinoff TV series that ran from 1995-1999 called The Lion King’s Timon and Pumbaa. There is a large portion of the show featuring Timon and Pumbaa interacting with humans and travelling the world. As you can imagine, the series was labeled as non-canon due to its slapstick nature.
A Disney Wiki user “Lord O’ Darkness” has theorized that Timon and Pumbaa would be the characters to know about humans. They explained that the character’s behaviors and ways of living suggest that they might have encountered humans.
For example when eating a grub, Timon says, “Tastes like chicken” even though chickens don’t run wild in Africa. He would have had to see them and somehow tasted them from human farmland. And, of course, there is the hula scene Timon and Pumbaa use as a distraction for the hyenas.
The Lion Guard also had a holiday special about Christmas, which revealed that Timon and Pumbaa know about Christmas and teach it to the rest of the Pridelands. They even make up a “Dandy Claws” instead of Santa Claus.
Comic artist is unknown.
12 A New Era
This would’ve been a cool scene if Scar discovered Rafiki’s tree drawing of Simba. It would have been a nice quiet scene too. I can just picture it! Lions are able to climb trees, so it would’ve been possible. If Scar did find this painting, and think all fans would agree this would be what he would do.
According to the artist, the blood is just red tree-sap but it is supposed to represent real blood. What a creative idea! This is definitely one of the more dark Lion King comics.
There is a rumor that Scar and Mufasa are not actually blood relatives. This arose in an interview with The Lion King’s director and producer, Don Hahn. He said, “While making the movie] we talked about the fact that it was very likely [Scar and Mufasa] would not have both the same parents. The way lions operate in the wild, when the male lion gets old; another rogue lion comes and kills the head of the pride.
“There was always this thing about well, how do you have these two [male] lions? Occasionally there are prides that do have two male lions, in an interesting dynamic because they’re not equals [since they don’t have the same parents]. One lion will always kind of be off in the shadows.”
This comic was made by NostalgicChills.
11 “How Did I Get Up here?”
Well Kiara, you were in the middle of a musical number. That’s how it happened. This reminds me of cats climbing trees and not knowing how to get down.
Kiara made a good headstrong princess character for Disney, often thinking for herself but without going too far and seeming selfish. I believe she’d make an even better ruler than Simba since Simba was easily manipulated by Zira while Kiara had better intuition. She doesn’t cave-in into her inner demons like her father either. She even tries to save Zira! I think she takes more after Mufasa than Simba.
We learn more about Kiara as a cub from the TV show, where she and her brother, Kion, have a healthy sibling rivalry (nothing like Scar and Mufasa though).
Kion seems happy to not be a ruler and having fewer responsibilities than his sister. There have been episodes were she gets kidnaped by hyenas, where she receives royal training, and is present for different formal celebrations.
I like grumpy Kiara. In the movie, even as an adult, she seems to be the smallest lioness in the pride so she makes-up for her small size in attitude. She is not the most patient sort either, so her getting stuck is funny.
Comic was made by Juffs.
10 Scar’s Tail
Aw, typical cat behavior! Also, so in-character for Scar! I want this scene in the actual Lion King!
The Lion King did a good job with its lion research from its family structure down to their physical attributes. For example, it’s a fact that lions live in large groups called “prides.” It’s very likely that’s how Disney came to call their homeland the “Pridelands.” A pride would have a ton of females and two or three males. Sounds about right for what we saw in The Lion King! Also despite being called “King of the Jungle” they don’t live in the jungle, but in the grasslands of Africa. I suppose King of the Jungle is more of a title for a tiger?
There are facts that The Lion King didn’t touch on though, like how it’s the female lions that do all the hunting. Lions like Mufasa would probably nap all day. I suppose that’s not so King-like.
As for what lions have in common with house cats: they both love to rub on things, sleep a lot, love catnip, smell things with their mouth open, scratch things, and big cats also love to play in boxes! That’s actually a lot of things in common for cats of such different worlds!
Comic was made by Juffs.
9 Who You Really Are
Kovu is a pretty interesting character. Meant to be Scar’s descendant (though not by blood), he was brainwashed by Zira that Simba is the worst and that he’s the reason their lives suck. In a way, Zira was right since Simba did exile her and her group to the termite mounds.
Throughout The Lion King 2, Simba is suspicious of Kovu and his relationship with Kiara. This comic is a pretty fun summary of how Simba treated Kovu when he was invited to join the pride.
In a way, Simba was right to be suspicious since Kovu was originally there as part of a plot of Zira’s, though he changed his mind in the end due to his love for Kiara.
In development, Kovu was actually going to be Scar’s descendant so he actually looked even more like Scar in the story-drafts. His mane was originally going to be slicker and black, and his eyes were going to be bright green just like Scar. But as mentioned before, his blood-relation was cancelled due to possible undertones with Kiara. Though I think what stuck with me as a child was that being blood-related made it all the more important that Kovu became a good guy.
Comic was made by Juffs.
8 Cloudy Night
When it’s cloudy over the Pridelands, I guess the old kings can’t see what’s happening? I guess Mufasa will say, “Uh, they are sleeping,” to Simba.
So what do we know about the Great Kings of the Past? This comic is based off a scene where Mufasa explains to Simba that they are deceased rulers of the Pridelands who look down on the living beings from the stars. As we know from seeing a deceased Mufasa speak to Simba, a Great King of the Past can reveal himself to a descendant via clouds in the sky to give advice, often when the descendant is in need of guidance. If only we humans had that!
From the TV show, we also have learned that the Great Kings of the Past get to choose who is the next Royal Mjuzi. Basically The Royal Mjuzi is Rafiki’s job, the knowledge keeper. Also we learn that they control the Roar of the Elders that Kion has. By “control” I mean they can take it away like they did with Scar when he used the roar for evil purposes. Sometimes when Kion uses the roar, you can see the elders in the sky as clouds roaring with him.
There is also that awkward moment in the Lion King 2 when Kovu asks Kiara if Scar is up there with the other deceased royals. To be honest, that’s a very good question.
Comic was made by Juffs.
7 YOLO!
I just want to save that last panel as a reaction image!
I mean Timon and Pumbaa were there for comedy, so characters like them are usually given the lines that adults think is most likely to make the kids laugh. Thus we do get Pumbaa’s farts and Timon’s Hula dance. Though there is still stuff for adults, like Pumbaa actually getting what the sun is made out of because of his connection to gas. That’s honestly probably one of Disney’s most clever jokes.
You probably didn’t ask for this but here is what the acronym YOLO is all about: “You only live once.” To be real, that is the same sort of vibe “Hakuna Matata” goes for. Though if Timon and Pumbaa did wear those human clothes or just clothes in general, I’d probably leave the theater.
YOLO was so overused that I think most people know have a fight or flight response to the acronym. I bet some readers even just scrolled passed this when they saw YOLO mentioned.
Disney has never really resorted to memes for their comedy, have they? Their more recent work like Moana, Frozen, and Zootopia hasn’t done that to us. The upcoming Lion King remake probably won’t either.
Comic was made by achaziel.
6 The Grass Is People
I think all of us had these little habits to not step on certain objects when we were little. The whole “If you step on a crack, you’ll break your mothers back” rhyme enforced those ideals. We’d jump over cracks and in grocery stores, we’d only step on a certain color tile. What if baby animals did that? Not stepping on grass would be funny. You’d have to find rocks, rivers, and trees to get home.
This comic is based off of the time Mufasa explains the Circle of Life to Simba. He talks about how everything eats each other in a circle. Lions eat zebras and lions fertilize the grass that the zebras eat and so on. It is a funny idea that Simba, being a child, would of course take what his dad said literally and decide the grass is part of his family.
This would be a good reason to go to the Elephant Graveyard wouldn’t it?
Maybe even Scar would say, “There is no grass there, so you should play there,” in an attempt to endanger Mufasa and his son.
Though if Simba won’t even step on grass, what does he think of the zebras eating the grass? Would he be offended now? Or did he conclude that that’s the reason lions eat the zebras, because the eat the grass that was once lions?
Comic was made by Juffs.
5 Still Hungry
This comic is dipping its toes into probably one of the biggest questions about The Lion King: the food chain. The lions eat all the other animals! They are on the top of the food chain while animals like meerkats and warthogs are around the bottom. When we look at the reality of it, a lion probably could not live off of bugs no matter how many bugs his friends could find him. Lions are massive and therefore need tons of protein to survive.
Data in an article has proven that Simba would have needed to eat three bugs per minute to survive in the story. That would be without sleeping!
The same article that found this conclusion laid out the data. Lions like Simba need about eight to nine thousand calories a day. For a comparison, humans need two thousand to twenty-five hundred. Crickets have only 121 calories per 100 grams. So a full-grown lion like Simba eventually became would have needed to eat about twenty four thousand crickets a day. Finding that many would also burn the calories he needs, so he’d probably need even more! He’d probably eat so many bugs, there would be none left for Timon and Pumbaa.
A huge thank you to those on reddit who cracked open this mathematical lion diet!
Comic was made by Juffs.
4 Stick Around For Finner
This was originally a threat by the hyenas in the original movie. They were hinting that they would eat the cubs and Zazu for dinner. This comic is a cute little twist! Of course,part of why Scar was able to control the hyenas as his minions was because they were starving and probably didn’t have anything to eat other than what Scar provided. This is partly why Scar gets eaten by hyenas in the end.
Before the final draft of The Lion King, the hyenas were actually going to be the main villains.
Eventually this changed because Disney’s zoo connections that they got animal info from said they did not want the hyenas portrayed as bad characters like they have been throughout history. Thus we have the comical and neutral hyenas we know and love from the movie: Shenzi, Banzai and Ed.
Then Scar was going to be a loner who is a brute who just desired territory. When the writers realized they could base their story on Hamlet, Scar became much more charismatic, intelligent, and got family-relations to the protagonist.
Unlike Scar, the hyenas do not seem to be outsiders by choice. Why were they banished from the Pridelands?
Comic was made by Juffs.
3 Scar-Face
What is Simba drawing with? It’s red, so our first thoughts are natural, but it’s not the case.
According to the book, A Tale of Two Brothers, Scar was actually called “Taka” before he received the scar on his face. He got the mark as a teenager when he was angry that Mufasa was chosen to be the heir to the throne. He gets even madder when their father was solving Prideland issues instead of hunting with him.
Scar decided to make Mufasa look bad so their parents could have second thoughts about who gets the throne. He tried to get Mufasa in a fight with a Cape buffalo named Boma. The plan backfired and Boma’s herd attacked Scar. He then got that facial scar and Rafiki told everyone to call him called “Scar” as a reminder of his failure.
I guess the reminder did not help him so much since he still tried to get rid of Mufasa in The Lion King and succeeded.
Actually that was rather cruel of Rafiki to do, which probably only made Scar all the more angry and made him not learn from his mistake. We learn a lot from the books that Scar was not born evil, but was raised to be miserable in comparison to Mufasa.
Comic was made by Juffs.
2 I Am King!
I never thought about how long Scar planned on being King. This comic is actually wrong, and Scar did try to get rid of Mufasa in other ways before his success in The Lion King.
Believe it or not, the history of Scar goes into the TV show The Lion Guard. Despite not being King, Scar did have an important role in his youth. He was tasked with leading the Lion Guard, which is a group of protectors who protect the Circle of Life. He had been gifted with a roar called the Roar of the Elders. This power gave him a lot of confidence to the point he decided he should be King instead of Mufasa.
From the show, we know Scar did try to stage a coup before Simba was born.
However, the rest of the Lion Guard refused, so he used his roar to destroy them. That’s how the lost the roar too, because it’s a power that can only be used for good. So in a way, this comic overlooks what we know from The Lion Guard show. It is more of a show for little kids, but for big Lion King fans, it’s worth checking out for the lore and history.
The coup wasn’t even his first attempt! In the book, A Tale of Two Brothers, he also attempted set a cobra on Musfasa while they were still being raised by their parents.
Comic was made by Juffs.
1 Wind Gusts
Rafiki is the wise sage of the Pridelands, though he often teaches only through cryptic metaphors. He is very eccentric and sometimes refers to himself in third person. Maybe part of why he is so cryptic is because his prophecies are brought to him in a cryptic way?
The movies show the wind almost speaking to Rafiki, blowing past him and he suddenly gets excited and draws what he thinks is happening (and he is always right). This makes him a pretty trustworthy narrator.
Rafiki is actually a woman in the Broadway musical version of The Lion King and I think that’s my favorite Rafiki. Her role is extended, being a powerful voice in some of the songs such as “The Circle of Life” and “He Lives in You.”
We do learn from A Tale of Two Brothers that Rafiki was not always living in The Pridelands and lived as a traveler before serving the royal family.
For those curious, Rafiki’s quote “”Asante sana, squash banana, we we nugu, mi mi apana,” is Swahili for “Thank you very much, squash banana, you are a baboon and I am not.” I’m sure that makes sense to someone. What does that mean? I have no idea!
Comic was made by Juffs.
Writer, author of The Awei Series, and cat foster parent. Her favorite games include Dragon Age, Pokémon, Final Fantasy XIV, Team Ico games, Ōkami, and RPG maker horror games. She probably would be a Fairy/Ghost type Pokémon Trainer.
Link Source : https://www.thegamer.com/funny-lion-king-comics-disney/