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With this post, we'll be taking a little rest from our PLANET Of The APES series for a while, so that you can work up an appetite for when it returns. You now have the first year's worth of covers to fawn over, so that should keep you going for the meantime. Is one of your fondly-remembered comics from childhood amongst this bunch? Let's hear all about it in the comments section.
Incidentally, don't you feel sorry for that first ape in the above cover? It looks like he's knock-kneed and pigeon-toed - hardly a great combination in anyone's book, eh? In fact, the poor simian looks a little cross-eyed as well. It's no wonder he's so angry, what with all these physical imperfections.
Issues 46 and 50 are obviously the gems here. As for the rest, I remain strangely underwhelmed.
ReplyDeleteI'm buggered if I can remember a single one of these covers, yet I bought the comic every week until it folded.
The odd one or two rings a faint bell with me, MC, but not many. And I've usually got a good memory for such things. Underwhelming is the key word to remember in this case.
ReplyDeleteFor some reasin they remind me of my Shang Shi comic covers Kid. Could they be the same artist? I recall getting hold of a POTA record and comic about 20 years ago, which had a similar cover. My fave POTA possession is a a very early VHS of Beneath the Planet of the Apes in a simple photo card slipcase. Oh, and Happy New Year to you and all the readers of Crivens!
ReplyDelete#47, #48# & #49 were the ones which published the story I mentioned in a comment on an earlier post, the one with a story which all takes place on a giant ship. Great to se these covers again ALL of which I remember, & even though quite a few of these aren't what you'd call quality artwork, they certainly did the trick for me back in '76 or whenever it was.
ReplyDeleteI think you're right, Woodsy. Looks like the same artist(s) to me. And I'm sure that all the readers of Crivens reciprocate your kind sentiments.
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There's an ad for that strip in one of these posts, Staz. Yeah, the covers did their job at the time. We're probably judging them by the standards of more sophisticated artwork today.
"I think you're right, Woodsy. Looks like the same artist(s) to me. And I'm sure that all the readers of Crivens reciprocate your kind sentiments."
ReplyDelete#46's cover painting is by (you guessed it) Bob Larkin; it's #10's of the US magazine. #50's cover is by Ken Baar (#12 in the US)--you can just make out his signature along the right-edge curve of the window.
Thanks for that, Sroman. Of course, I was referring to the line art covers, as the same artist drew some Shang-Chi covers for Avengers weekly, which didn't feature painted ones.
ReplyDeleteThe cover of #43 had been the splash page in #42 - is that the only time a cover appeared as a splash page first ? (I'd love to say I remembered that fact after 40 years but actually I saw it on the Hunter's POTA website where you can read all the apes strips). And #50 may look nice but the story inside was another example of how Marvel's movie adaptations took liberties - it shows the apes in space which wasn't in the film. Those POTA sequels just got dafter - we are supposed to accept that three apes from a pre-industrial society travel into the Forbidden Zone, find Taylor's ship at the bottom of a lake, raise it, fix it and fly into orbit !!
ReplyDeleteOn a side (but related) note, seeing these covers has reminded me of the interior artwork on the apes movie adaptions. Speaking as an artist who has (& continues to)worked on licensed movie/TV tie in titles over the years, it's amazing to me how little regard was apparently paid to making the strips look like the source material. I'm not just talking about the likenesses to the actors. I love Alfredo Alcala's work on Beneath' (apart from his version of the Statue of Liberty reveal, which is very underwhelming compared to the way it's done at the end of the adaption of the original film)& Conquest, but looking at the art, my guess is that not only had he not seen the movies, but it appears that Marvel didn't even send him any reference material!! The beauty of that is of course that being unrestrained by the need to make things 'just so' Alcala produces artwork which is almost universally (apart from that Statue of Liberty thing)visually superior & more dramatic that the movies themselves.... the mutants & Taylor's EXTREMELY bloody death in 'Beneath' being two examples. Alcala wasn't alone in this of course, I remember Rico Rival's work on 'Battle' being among my favorite of the whole POTA run, & gave the impression that the film (which I hadn't seen when I read the comic) had a scope & drama which in reality it lacked... when I eventually did see it even my 13 year old self could see that it had little more that TV show production values.
ReplyDeleteAaaaaanyway..........
Ahh, thanks for clearing that up, Kid. I'm in the States, so the UK titles popped up in only a few comic shops here, usually in two-for-a-dollar boxes because the store owners wanted to clear out their stock. That's how I discovered the early version of Captain Britain.
ReplyDeleteCJ, I think that sometimes writers and artists are working from earlier drafts of movie scripts before changes have been instituted. Presumably, they're supplied with those scripts by the studios. For example, Jack Kirby's 2001 adaptation had things from the book that weren't in the movie. So any deviations might not be down to the comic team involved.
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I remember reading at the time, Staz, that Marvel had avoided using the likenesses of the actors because it would have cost them dosh to secure permission. Anthony Quinn once objected to his likeness being used on the box art of Aurora's Hunchback kit, necessitating alterations to it. Incidentally, that was my impression when I saw the final three Apes movies on TV - they seemed like extended television episodes in their production values.
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Nae bother, Sroman - you still got 'em?
"Nae bother, Sroman - you still got 'em?"
ReplyDeleteOf course! They're somewhere in the collection. After checking the cover gallery at Comic Vine, I'd say my copies start at issue 13, just before he teamed up with Captain America to fight the Red Skull. Then I followed it to the final issue, #39.
I did a cover gallery series of Captain Britain weekly not long ago, S. Use my homepage search box and you can see the covers from issue #1.
ReplyDeleteEven though I still have all my POTA's, these covers are much neater! I always say you "do" the best covers on the web!!
ReplyDeleteDoes that mean I'm a 'cover artist'?
ReplyDeleteI guess it does, as you make 'em all look pristine!
DeleteDon't know how you do it?
The two 't's - talent and technology, JP.
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