Planet of the Apes Archive

If you’re a nerd of a certain type and age, you might remember the 1970s Marvel comic series Planet of the Apes, the black and white one under the Curtis Magazines imprint.

The Curtis comics were interesting in that they were sold as magazines on the magazine rack, not the comic book one. Which meant they weren’t marketed toward kids, and so not bound to the then predominant Comic Code Authority. (Although kids like me found them anyway.) They didn’t have the content restrictions regular comics did, enabling them to show a lot of stuff regular comics couldn’t at the time. The imprint also included a Conan series, which had limited nudity but a substantial dose of violence and gore, as well as a number of other titles.

The Planet of the Apes one ran during the middle years of the 1970s. Their core material were adaptations of the original Planet of the Apes movies from the late 60s / early 70s. The adaptations were very well done. I read some of them prior to seeing most of the movies, and remember finding the actual movies something of a letdown in comparison. The comics were free to tell a story without the then technical limitations and budget constraints the movies faced, particularly the later ones. The adaptations were actually based on pre-production versions of the scripts, the ones before those budgets forced compromises.

But the really interesting content were the original stories in the magazine, particularly a series called Terror on the Planet of the Apes, which revolved around a pair of friends, an ape and a human, called Alex and Jason. These stories were written by Doug Moench early in his career, before he went on to become celebrated for creating Moon Knight as well as work on Batman, Master of Kung Fu, and other titles. I only found the magazine late in its original run, so was only able to read the later parts of the series.

And the series is often described as wacky. Similar to the overall Apes franchise, it explores themes of racial discrimination and other societal injustices and ethical dilemmas. But it also expands the Planet of the Apes world and mythology, which in the movies tend to focus on one Ape City and the Forbidden Zone. These stories start out there, but then go far beyond it into other lands and societies.

So we end up with concepts like mutants controlled by giant brains in vats, a pioneer mountain culture including apes and humans talking like mountain men of the early 1800s, a primitive ape tribe, a Native-American-like culture with both apes and humans, and Viking-like apes. And if that weren’t enough, we also get cyborg gorillas and a hidden ancient alien base. All against the backdrop of a world altered by a nuclear holocaust centuries earlier, with a very 1970s / comic book sense of the mutations that would arise.

If this sounds at all familiar to you (or interesting), the main reason I’m going over it is that old series is available in Kindle format on Amazon. I only discovered it this week, and spent much of yesterday reading through the whole Terror series, something I was never able to do back in the 1970s. The Terror series makes up the first volume, with the other volumes covering the movie adaptations and other original series I don’t recall but plan to check out.

Reading this ended up being pretty nostalgic, as well as satisfying an itch I had long forgotten about, seeing a story in its whole that I’d only been able to get fragments of as a boy. The stories are silly in a lot of ways, and a bit meandering when read all at once instead of in the original monthly or bi-monthly installments. But if you can set that aside, they’re pretty fun.

The volumes are a bit pricey, although they’re included in a Comixology subscription, if you have one. And to be clear, this is all based on the old Planet of the Apes franchise, not the more recent reboot series. (Which I think is excellent, a creative reimagining that brilliantly captures the spirit of the original series, just not what these are about.)

Also it’s worth mentioning that the original magazine series was cancelled abruptly, so the Terror series also ends abruptly, although not that far from what could have been a wrap up of the story. The edition includes a final essay discussing where Moench planned to take the remaining story.

So if you’re like me and remember the old series with some fondness, or just like old Bronze Age of Comics stories, this may be worth checking out.