John Rand

John Rand was a British man, the husband of Constance Rand, and the father of David Rand, later known as Ka-Zar the Great. Rand owned a diamond field in southern Africa. During a flight from Johannesburg to Cairo, John and his family crash-landed in the Belgian Congo. Constance's leg was broken and she later died of fever, leaving John alone to raise his three-year-old son. John and David buried Constance, and John declared the land sacred to her memory. John's job of rearing David was perhaps easier than expected, as David showed a natural aptitude for living in the jungle, and David entered his teenage years as a capable young man.

John and David soon made enemies of a criminal treasure hunter, Paul de Kraft. De Kraft was defiling the land by attempting to take emeralds from the river. When John confronted him, De Kraft attempted to shoot him, but David thwarted him with an arrow. De Kraft and his men later found John and killed him, inspiring David's emotional transformation into Ka-Zar.