Adventures on the Planet of the Apes or Charlton Heston Bronze-Age Goodness

We might as well start at the beginning with the 30 cent variant issues of Adventures on the Planet of the Apes. Planet of the Apes is one of the classic early science fiction movies. It was well received by moviegoers and critics alike when it debuted in 1968, and is widely regarded as one of the best movies of 1968 and is noted for its use of prosthetic make-up and its soundtrack by Jerry Goldsmith. It also starred Charlton Heston and a script originally written by Rod Serling.

In 1975, yes, seven years after the movie first appeared, Marvel released an eleven issue comic book series that showed adaptations of the Planet of the Apes movie and its sequel, Beneath the Planet of the Apes.

The first 30 cent price variant in this series is issue 5. CGC has certified nine copies of the book. The condition census grades are 9.6, 9.2, 9.2, 8.5 and 7.5. I think that issue 5 is the easiest to find of the three price variant issues.

Issue 6 is the second of the Adventures on the Planet of the Apes price variant issues. The issue contains the conclusion to the Planet of the Apes movie. CGC has certified seven books of the issue. The condition census grades for the issue are 9.4, 9.0, 9.0, 7.5, 6.5.

Issue 7 is the last of the three Adventures on the Planet of the Apes price variant issues. CGC has certified six books of the issue. The condition census grades for the issue are 9.4, 9.4, 9.4, 9.0, 8.0.

The books are very hard to find and high grade certified examples almost never come up for auction. GPAnalysis does not record a single sale of a certified copy of any of the three issues in the last five years.

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One of the neatest threads on the CGC forum site is my friend Stronguys review of the Marvel Bronze Age books. He has collected every bronze age book (but not the variant issues) and he helped me with a couple of the almost impossible to find 30 cent westerns and the impossible to find Weird Wonder Tales 15. Here is his review of Adventures of the Planet of the Apes. You can find the rest of his great thread here. http://boards.collectors-society.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=3409154&fpart=3

Adventures On The Planet Of The Apes
Issues 1-11
October 1975 - December 1976

Rating: 2/5

Not a lot to report on this one. If you saw the movies then you could have saved yourself $2.95 (or $3.10 if you lived in one of the 30¢ variant cities) and not bought the comics.

Issues 1-6 follow the original Planet Of The Apes movie pretty much scene for scene. George Tuska and Mike Esposito turn out some pretty bland art with only 1 memorable page -- the 2 page splash of Taylor and Nova in front of the destroyed Statue Of Liberty. But even then it's not that great. Issue 6 has a pretty decent Jim Starlin cover. I don't know that you can really credit Doug Moench with "writing" -- more like watching the movie and remembering. One thing that seemed strange was, you know how Hulk 168 has that Overstreet note about Betty being nude when she's really just standing behind a bunch of bushes presumably nude, well issue 1 has 2 panels with some interracial bare-assness and there's not one single mention in Overstreet about it.

Issues 7-11 follow the Beneath The Plane Of The Apes movie... once again, scene for scene. Taylor disappears into a mysterious wall of ice, rescue pilot Brent shows up and hooks up Nova (damn tramp!), they meet some telepathic zombie looking guys and Taylor blows up the planet. Alfredo Alcala took over as the artist for this run and the art takes a nice step up (if you like the Filipino art style... and I do).