The Apes of Wrath

by Richard Klaw

  Apes represented Man in his baser instincts. With the same basic DNA, opposable thumbs, and Darwin all right there it was easy to substitute an ape for a man to make a basic moral point.

  Throughout the Golden Age (generally defined as the period from the beginning of the superhero age with Action Comics #1 in 1938 until the reintroduction of The Flash in Showcase Comics #4 in 1956), apes in various forms appeared to no great acclaim. Mostly they were sidekicks as in the various jungle-related comics such as Jumbo, Jungle, Sheena, Nyoka The Jungle Girl, and more.

  Chief among the jungle-related comics would have to be Tarzan. Created in 1912 by Edgar Rice Burroughs, Tarzan first appeared in the Sunday comics as Tarzan of the Apes in 1929 with art from Harold (Hal) Foster, whose gloriously detailed pen work would later grace Prince Valiant. Foster started the strip in 1928, left it to Rex Maxon, and then took it back from 1931 through 1937. Other artists who drew the Sunday strip included Burne Hogarth, Ruben Moreira, Russ Manning, and Mike Grell.

  In the Tarzan strip, Tarzan had a unique relationship with the apes, having been raised by a great she-ape and thinking of himself as a pale-skinned member of the tribe. He could talk their talk and walk their walk and he considered them family and equals.

  Over the years Tarzan appeared in numerous comic incarnations, starting with newspaper reprints in such titles as Sparkler, Tip Top Comics, and Single Series. Later Western Publishing started printing original stories in their Dell Four Color series followed by the Tarzan series. In 1962 the title switched to Gold Key publishing (still a part of Western) and continued until 1972. The Tarzan series ran for 206 issues under Dell and Gold Key before being picked up by DC comics in 1972. Dell and Gold Key artists included such greats as Jesse Marsh, Russ Manning, and Doug Wildey, and included adaptations of most of the Burroughs’ Tarzan novels.

  It should also be noted that Burroughs created the giant white apes that terrorize Martians in his Mars novels, many of which were adapted to comics by DC Comics writers and artists in the Weird Worlds comics of the 1970s.

  Between 1972 and 1977 DC Comics took over the Tarzan comic book and continued the numbering, publishing issues 207 through 258. In 1977 Marvel Comics took it over but started a new numbering sequence, running 29 issues and three annuals before ceasing in 1979. Later other comics houses including Dark Horse and Charlton published Tarzan comics. At the Grand Comics Database there are more than 180 entries for comics with Tarzan in the title from at least fifteen different countries and totaling over 6,600 individual issues!

  So, what made the Strange Adventures title with its ape cover take off? It appears to have been a matter of timing: 1951 was when the first of the postwar baby boomers began to go to school. As they learned to read, they sought something other than Fun with Dick and Jane. Comics were available and they were cheap. Television was still in its infancy and it had not encroached on most of their lives. The superheroes of The Golden Age were gone for the most part. Sure, Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, and Blackhawk continued but their stories were frequently bland. There was no continuity from one story to the next. Superman found himself facing Titano, the Super-Ape with kryptonite vision. While Titano maintained his beastly personality, he brought Superman to his knees in their few encounters.

  Horror, western, science fiction, and crime comics were on the rise and fearsome apes filled in where previously Nazis and Japanese criminals flooded the market. The simians could be seen as a substitute for all of Man’s evil practices. And, since they were not human, there could be some respite from the evils of the war years. There were ape witches, ape policemen, apes copying superheroes. Jimmy Olsen even married an ape in one issue.

  Among the more interesting titles during this period was Congo Bill. Previously Congo Bill was a hunter working in Africa, much like Clyde Beatty or Jungle Jim. The stories were, again, nothing special. But in 1952 Bill found a magic ring which allowed him to exchange bodies with a wild golden ape. Bill’s mind inhabited the ape’s body while the ape’s mind went into Bill’s body. The Congorilla stories were an occasional feature of Action Comics beginning with issue #248 (1959) but they never really caught on. Congorilla/Congo Bill appeared sporadically throughout the years, with a disappointing miniseries in 1999 and a teamup with Starman in 2011, even eventually joining the Justice League in 2009.

  In 1952, the comic Rex the Wonder Dog introduced Detective Chimp, which had thirteen appearances in the title. The character was later revived for the DC Infinite Crisis series and was a member of Shadowpact (created by Fables scribe Bill Willingham).

  Inquiring minds may have enjoyed the proliferation of apes in the various anthology titles of the period, but it was not until the superhero reinvention of the mid to late 1950s, when the Flash was reintroduced in Showcase #4 in 1956, that readers got to see a new type of ape. In issue 106 of The Flash readers were introduced to Gorilla Grodd. Oddly enough, this issue of The Flash did NOT feature an ape on the cover, preferring to show the Pied Piper in his first appearance. Grodd did not appear on the cover of The Flash until issue 127.

  Grodd was an outcast from Gorilla City located in central Africa. He was strong, superintelligent, possessed of remarkable psychic power, and purely evil. It took all that the Flash had to stop him in the initial encounter and, in subsequent encounters; it sometimes took all of the Justice League to stop him.

  The dam began to break. Gorillas as something other than beasts became the new norm. Konga (Charlton Comics, 1960) was based on the Hammer film of the same year and featured art by Steve Ditko. The success of the movie tie-in led to a regular series featuring the giant ape which ran more than twenty issues. The Brave and the Bold #49 (1963) featured “Strange Sports Stories” and had a winning team with gorillas and baseball in “Gorilla Wonders of the Diamond!”

  Other super villains of a simian nature were soon on the market. There were ape villains menacing most of the DC universe at this time. Among the notables here was The Doom Patrol #86 with the first appearance of The Brain and Monsieur Mallah. That first cover with Mallah is classic. The Doom Patrol, one of the many superteams of the period, was facing a giant television screen. On the screen a disembodied brain in a vat of chemicals was giving instructions to Mallah, standing beside the equipment with his Thompson submachine gun at the ready, and a bandolier of ammunition crossing his chest. As the Brain gives him his instructions, the gorilla speaks. The combination of gorilla and disembodied brain took a very strange twist when in The Doom Patrol #34 (1990) Mallah and the Brain declare their undying love for each other. The two are destroyed in that issue when Robotman’s body with the Brain inside explodes as Mallah and the Brain kiss. But, as comic characters do, reappeared later, and in the Salvation Run series (2007–2008) are both killed by Grodd.

  And the ape phenomenon was not confined to the DC universe. Gorilla-Man first appeared in Men’s Adventures #26 (1954). In this story hunter Kenneth Hale is seeking to live forever, which can be done by killing the Gorilla-Man. He does this and finds that his immortality comes at the price of becoming the new Gorilla-Man. Gorilla-Man later worked with the X-Men, S.H.I.E.L.D., and the Agents of Atlas. During the fifties, Marvel tried two other incarnations of a Gorilla-Man in Mystery Tales #21 (1954) and Tales to Astonish #28 but neither of these incarnations led to other stories.

  In Fantastic Four #13 (1963) creators Stan Lee (writer), Jack Kirby (penciler), and Steve Ditko (inker) featured a villain, Ivan Kragoff, known as the Red Ghost, who takes three apes with him into space to duplicate the cosmic ray bombardment that gave the Fantastic Four their powers. And it works, as Mikhlo, a lowland gorilla, acquires super strength, Peotor the orangutan acquires magnetic powers, and Igor, a baboon, becomes a shapeshifter. Kragoff acquires the ability to become intangible. They fight the Fantastic Four on the moon in a fun battle. Marvel was never much into the ape culture so this marked a significant issue in their continuity. Spider-Man fought a few monkeys when he faced the Circus of Crime, but, for the most part, apes did
not fall into the Marvel milieu for a while. They appeared as beasts again in the sword and sorcery titles such as Conan, Solomon Kane, and Savage Sword of Conan, as well as the jungle strips Ka-zar and Shanna the She-Devil.

  So with gorilla supervillains, there must be gorilla superheroes somewhere on the horizon. There were several notable near heroes, including Angel and the Ape. Created by writer E. Nelson Bridwell and artist Bob Oksner (often with inks by Wally Wood!), the titular ape is one Sam Simeon, a comic book artist who also partners with Angel O’Day at the O’Day and Simeon Detective Agency. The stories here are humorous rather than a normal superhero title. The pair was featured in Showcase #77 and then had their own title for seven issues. They have been revived for a couple of miniseries, including one by Girl Genius mastermind Phil Foglio in 1991.

  Taking the Angel and the Ape model a different direction, Arthur Adams’ Monkeyman and O’Brien (1993) featured huge ten-foot-tall superintelligent gorilla Axewell Tiberius (Monkeyman) from another dimension who teamed up with a beautiful seven-foot-tall superstrong Amazonian woman, Ann O’Brien. The pair had interesting adventures against the Froglodytes and the Shrewmanoid without lapsing into slapstick.

  King Kong may be greatest fantastic gorilla of them all. According to Wikipedia, he was also the subject of a Mexican comic book that ran 185 issues. It was later followed by another title King Kong in the Microcosmos, which ran thirty-five issues. In 1991 Monster Comics produced a six-issue adaptation of King Kong written and illustrated by Don Simpson with covers from Dave Stevens, Mark Schultz, Al Williamson, William Stout, Tom Luth, and Ken Steacy. The adaptation was based on the film novelization by Delos Lovelace rather than the filmed screenplay. The novelization differs significantly from the film as it was produced from an earlier version of the script in order to be published in advance of the film for promotional purposes. Consequently it features the famous spider sequence, a fight with three Triceratops, and a fight with a Styracosaurus which do not appear in the film.

  In 1999 DC comics used the Justice League of Apes (JLApe) across their various titles’ annuals as a connecting theme. In this series, the Justice League is turned into simian form by a Gorillabomb initiated by the Simian Scarlet, a gorilla terrorist group led by Grodd who have already assassinated the Gorilla City leader Solovar. Later Marvel would produce an entire ape version of their superhero pantheon in Karl Kesel and Ramon Bach’s Marvel Apes (2008). The Gibbon, an apelike mutant named Martin Blank, finds himself transported to another universe where ape characters, the Ape-vengers led by a gorilla Captain America, take on Doctor Ooktavius. There are many simian versions of Marvel heroes including Spider-Monkey, Ms. Marvape, Gro-Rilla, Invisible Simian, Simian Torch, Marvel Chimp, and the Silver Simian.

  But the 800-pound gorilla hanging around in the room has to be the Planet of the Apes series. The story has been handled through a variety of companies and titles, beginning with a single-issue adaptation of the second film, Beneath the Planet of the Apes, in 1970 by Gold Key comics. The Grand Comics Database lists twenty-eight combinations of titles and publishers totaling 246 individual issues including ten combinations for the title Planet of the Apes (200 individual issues including one annual). The biggest run is for the Marvel UK Planet of the Apes which ran 123 issues. This included reprints of Marvel’s twenty-nine-issue magazine-size Planet of the Apes title (with breathtaking art from Mike Ploog and Tom Sutton), which had done adaptations of the five films and, according to one source, reprints of the Killraven series retitled as “Apeslayer” with alien apes as the enemy. Marvel also had an eleven-issue run of Adventures on the Planet of the Apes beginning in 1975, which did color versions of the adaptations of the first two feature films.

  There followed some foreign comic adaptations featuring TV or film characters. In 1990 Adventure Comics did twenty-four original issues as well as five miniseries—Urchak’s Folly, Forbidden Zone, Ape City, Blood of the Apes, and Ape Nation (a crossover with Alien Nation). Beginning in spring 2011 BOOM! Studios began a new Planet of the Apes comic written by Daryl Gregory and illustrated by Carlos Magno. This comic covers a timeline similar to that of the first two movies. Also Betrayal of the Planet of the Apes from BOOM! began in late 2011 following a totally different storyline set prior to the first film.

  BOOM! Studios introduced a ten-page prequel to the Rise of the Planet of the Apes movie, on the web, with a script from writer Daryl Gregory and art from Damian Couceiro and Tony Parker, which ran prior to the film’s opening and finished two days before the premiere.

  Other non Marvel or DC comics include such titles as The Adventures of Barry Ween, Boy Genius: Monkey Tales (2001–2002) written and illustrated by Judd Winick. In this six-issue story arc, the ten-year-old foul-mouthed genius befriends bigfoot and sends his girlfriend Sara back to prehistoric age. Sky Ape, by writers Phil Amara, Mike Russo, Tim McCarney, and artist Richard Jenkins, features Kirk Madge as Sky Ape (an ape with a jet pack), who fights crime in a style similar to how the Monty Python guys might have done it, with non sequiturs and insanity.

  Image Comics has Cy-Gor, a half-gorilla, half-man, cyborg, created by Todd McFarlane (writer) and Tony Daniel (artist), who first appeared in Spawn # 38 and later had his own mini-series and maybe an incarnation of Kali, the goddess of death.

  Grease Monkey, created in 1996 by Tim Eldred, features an Earth where 60 percent of the population has been destroyed by alien invasion. Good aliens come in and offer to enhance the intelligence of dolphins (who refuse) and gorillas (who accept) to help turn around the recovery process. Mac is an accelerated gorilla who serves as chief mechanic to the Barbarian Squadron of female fighter pilots aboard the battlecruiser Fist of Earth.

  Banana Sunday by Paul Tobin, under the name Root Nibot (writer), and Colleen Coover (illustrator), saw its four-issue mini-series appear from Oni Press in 2005. The comic deals with high school student Kirby Steinberg, who has three intelligent apes who go to school with her. The three are an orangutan (Chuck), a chimp (Knobby), and a gorilla (Go-Go). Tobin and Coover are husband and wife. The comic explores themes of alienation and friendship.

  The internet and the introduction of webcomics allowed the passion for apes to appear unhindered by the commercial restrictions that face print media. Apes proliferated around the web with such titles as Joe and Monkey; Ape, Not Monkey (which has some discussions of science and religion), and The Thinking Ape Blues. While not always successful, they were frequently entertaining. A fairly recent entry is Apes ‘n’ Capes, a webcomic begun in 2011. It has not progressed far enough yet to establish a firm feel, but it looks promising.

  Many great artists have tackled the apes over the years. In 1966 Frank Frazetta did the amazing cover to Creepy #11 (not illustrating anything in particular) as well as (and this is small stretch) the 1955 Flash Gordon versus the caveman cover for Weird Science Fantasy #29, considered by many to be the greatest comic cover of all time. The cavemen appear more simian than human. Frazetta had also done some Tarzan paperback book covers as well as other Burroughs characters. Hal Foster and Burne Hogarth did wonderful apes for their Tarzan Sunday pages, as did Alex Raymond for his Jungle Jim Sunday pages. Joe Kubert’s apes in the DC Tarzan series were also superbly drawn. Noted science fiction artist Richard Powers even produced a King Kong coloring book.

  Over the last twenty years, though, one artist has to be singled out for his ape work: Frank Cho frequently included apes in his Liberty Meadows newspaper Sunday pages. He frequently depicted himself as a Monkeyboy when speaking to his readership. He still does this on his apesandbabes.com website. While no apes were regular characters, Cho liked to draw them and, with little provocation, they would show up in movie advertisements that the characters watched, as daydreams, or, just because Cho had new pens and wanted to try them out. And, since he also like dinosaurs, there were many wondrous and epic battles portrayed.

  For the last 100 years apes have been a part of the illustrated entertainment for adults and children everywhere. While
never wildly successful, they have endured bringing visions of heroes and derring-do to their readers. Whether hero or villain, pawn or instigator, they remain fascinating now and will continue on through this century.

  Suggested Additional Reading

  Joy, Bob. DC Goes Ape!

  DC Comics, 2008.

  Eury, Michael. Comics Gone Ape!

  TwoMorrows Publishing, 2007.

  Schwartz, Julius and Thomsen, Brian M. Man of Two Worlds.

  Harper Paperbacks, 2000.

  Websites

  Grand Comics Database

  http://www.comics.org/

  Comic Book Gorillarama

  http://members.shaw.ca/comicbookgorillarama/cbgindex.htm

  Frank Cho

  http://www.libertymeadows.com

  The Gorilla Gallery

  http://cravenlovelace.com/cravenblog/the-gorilla-gallery/

  Gorilla Age of Comics

  http://www.lethargiclad.com/gorilla/

  List of Fictional Apes

  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_fictional_apes

  Joe and Monkey

  http://www.joeandmonkey.com/

  The Thinking Ape Blues

  http://thinkingapeblues.com/

  Ape, Not Monkey

  http://www.apenotmonkey.com/

  Apes ‘n’ Capes

  http://apesncapes.com/

  RED SHADOWS

  Robert E. Howard

  The first published Solomon Kane adventure follows the legendary Puritan as he chases the murderous Le Loup across the wilds of Africa. Complete with sword fights, mysticism, and apes, this Weird Tales contribution ranks among Howard’s best works.

  I: The Coming of Solomon