Planet of the Apes – Greg Goldstein's Comic Art Gallery

Gabe Hardman — The Apes Go “Boom”

June 27, 2024 Greg Goldstein Original Art and The Artists

Betrayal Of The Planet Of The Apes #3, January 2012

True Confessions:

When I was at IDW Publishing, we chased the Planet of Thae Apes license hard. And I mean hard. (I’m a super fan.) We had some terrific story ideas, and some talented creators ready to come on board if we acquired it.

The challenge was, that Fox couldn’t provide us with a guarantee that they had proper clearances on the original Marvel material. Reprinting that material would help finance the creative costs on the new series, as well as help fund the licensing fees, so that ended up as a deal breaker for us.

So… Boom swept in and acquired those rights without the reprint guarantee. And did a great job on their new material. And the joke was on us, ultimately, because Boom did end up with at least some of those reprint rights.

Sigh.

That said, we did get to do a super fun Star Trek / Planet of The Apes crossover with Boom, which is mostly a story for another day. But one nugget: Boom asked me to negotiate the “Taylor” (Charlton Heston) likeness rights with the estate, and that was one of the more reasonable and rational Hollywood-style negotiations I have ever had. And even Marvel didn’t originally have those rights. So, there’s that.

Oh, and the great Gabe Hardman did this superb cover for an issue of one the Boom series. Did I neglect to mention that?

Mike Ploog — Marvel Goes Ape

June 26, 2024 Greg Goldstein Original Art and The Artists

Planet Of The Apes #3, December 1974

Things you learn.

According to Roy Thomas, in an editorial in the first issue of Planet of the Apes magazine, it was my friend and old Topps colleague Len Brown who persuaded Roy — and Marvel — to acquire the POTA license. Roy’s article on that process is worth a read.

Another fun fact: Mike Ploog insisted he draw the series, which was developed as a sequel to the fifth and final original Apes film, Battle of the Planet of the Apes.

And that’s cool, because Mike provides us with some very lovely artwork throughout, including this terrific page.

Mutants! Monkeys! Maniacs! What more could you ask for?

(Special note: Pretty much everyone was late to the party on the POTA license, but when they finally got there in time for the final film and then the TV series, It became, as they say, “a thing.”)

**Roy Thomas tells us the origin of Marvel’s Planet Of The Apes.**

Jack Kirby — Gorillas, Tigers, The Apocalypse, Oh My!

August 22, 2023 Greg Goldstein Original Art and The Artists

Kamandi #16, April 1974

I didn’t react well to Kamandi… at first.

I was a huge fan of the Planet of the Apes Franchise, and when I first saw the promo image (The Comics Reader, probably) for the cover of issue #1, I became miffed.

Why would Jack rip off POTA? Was the King finally out of original ideas?

Ah to be that young and foolish again. Kamandi quickly became a favorite. And little did I know that the Statue of Liberty “end of human civilization trope was already a SF trope by the time Rod Serling incorporated into his brilliant POTA screenplay. (See below.)

And, if you’re going to end human civilization with one breed of animals develop advanced intelligence, why not do it with all of them.

Heh.

That’s why the King is the King.

And, it gets better. Turns out Jack was incorporating some similar ideas he had previously used in a short story in Alarming Tales, 15 years prior to Kamandi. (Also, see below.)

So, what did I know? Not much, apparently. Like I said, to be that young and foolish again.

This page is the final issue Mike Royer inked, and the first that D Bruce Berry (working apprentice style) had a hand in. He took over solo the following issue. Tom Kraft of the Jack Kirby Museum believes both worked on this specific page.

Kamandi, apes and tigers — all on one page. What more could I ask for?

Now, or then.

Planet Of The Apes Statue of Liberty Scene

A post apocalyptic and buried (land or water) Statue of Liberty had appeared at least three times prior to the first POTA film. (I’m not exactly sure when the reprint of After The Rain first appeared, but the cover art is much stronger this time around.)

*A destroyed Statue has appeared countless times since Planet of Apes.*

*Before and after comics; the dreadful Mighty Samson (1965) & John Byrne’s Doomsday + 1 (1975) cover that pays homage to Kirby and POTA.*

Jack Kirby Alarming Tales pre-Kamandi Story — *Kirby’s original tale (pun intended) of advanced animal species fighting. with each other in a post apocalyptic world first appeared in Harvey’s Alarming Tales #1 (1957.)*