Scathach80 wrote:
Tarzan started in prose, and he does not count. Therefore, neither should Indiana Jones. Otherwise, any property that ever gets adapted subsequently could count. The Guiness Book of World Records vulgarly stated once that Zorro was the most filmed cartoon character. Why they did not name Tarzan, I can only guess as resulting from Zorro's influence on the Batman.
I edited the title of the thread to reflect the purported ambiguity. I myself did not anticipate that people would ardently bring up Tarzan, Indiana Jones, etc and other subsequently adapted to comic books properties. 

Also, it does not matter how "comic book-ish" or "comic strip-ish" a property gets-George Lucas cited Flash Gordon as an influence on Star Wars. I will not include Mayhew as Chewbacca. Also, comic strips do not count anyway.