Martinex1: Four comics for four bananas! Today we are looking at comic covers with a strange but rather prevalent trope - gorillas! As I researched this, I was astounded by how many comic covers existed with gorillas as the main attraction.
We have genius gorillas, talking gorillas, gun wielding gorillas, giant gorillas, purple gorillas, and that is just the start. We have King Kong, Konga, Magilla Gorilla, Gorilla Grodd, and Gorilla Man.
Also hidden among the myriad covers may be the greatest rubber mask reveal of all time.
While a significant number of examples are from the Silver Age, the Bronze Age and even Modern Age are well represented. The silver age classic book Strange Adventures was surely fascinated with the creature, but Superman's Pal Jimmy Olson, Superboy, and the Flash also had their fair share of the hairy beast. DC was gorilla crazy for a while and definitely leads the pack, but we have offerings from other publishing companies like Gold Key, Charlton, Archie Comics, Marvel, and Image as well.
I think you will have fun taking a gander at these kooky covers. With over 60 covers, this is the widest selection offered yet in our $1 Challenge, but you can only afford four for your hard earned dollar, so make your personal picks and share your comments.
10 comments:
According to the lore of DC, the editors noticed that comic book covers with gorillas sold better than others and so a mandate of sorts went out to make sure gorillas (often purplish in color it seems) were included as often as possible. There is of course some doubt as to the veracity of his tale, but I rather like it. Reminds of the noxious fable of Iron Man's nose resulting from a random comment by the great Stan Lee.
Here's a website dedicated to the whole gorilla concept.
http://www.lethargiclad.com/gorilla/
Rip Off
1) Swamp Thing Annual 3. Love the detail of a Brian Bolland cover.
2) Supergirl 4. Gary Frank does amazing work. Although I confess his people tend to look angry all the time.
3) Avengers Forever 4. If I ever had to reduce my comic book collection to one box, this series would be inside it. Classic Avengers themes and stunning art.
4) Doom Patrol 86. I love these misfits. They may never achieve A list status and that is fine with me.
I already have Tarzan and Conan, so I'll choose:
Jimmy Olsen as gorilla reporter. Both issues! Kirby's run on this title has me curious about this character I guess.
Sgt. Gorilla in Star Spangled War Stories. Great cover and I wanna see what happens.
Magilla Gorilla. Surfing with an umbrella. Nice.
OMG...., DC sure loved their gorillas..., didn't they..!?!
Thanks for the explanation, Rip.
Sheeesh.
I was going to pass this one off to Gulliver but he refused to participate because the gorillas are almost always shown as the bad guys.
As Rip said, someone at DC (Irwin Donenfeld I think) thought covers with gorillas sold better, so DC had plenty. I'm spoiled for choice here, but I'd probably go with: Agents of Atlas (I read the Gorilla Man miniseries, but never got around to AoA); Swamp Thing Annual (I'm curious to see how Congorilla fits into Swampy's world); Savage Sword (because I remember Shadows of Zamboula being a pretty good story); and maybe Supergirl because I like Peter David's writing.
I remember thinking Six-Gun Gorilla would be great, but it wasn't. And Garett, that Sgt. Gorilla story is kinda goofy (and predictable) but overall it's not bad. Oh, and not to be too nitpicky, but Titano is actually a chimp, not a gorilla :)
Now I know gorillas, and non-human primates in general, were almost a staple of comic book covers in the Silver Age, and especially at DC, but there's still a bunch more from the Bronze Age that I recalled:
Brave and the Bold #140
Tarzan #2
Weird War Tales #89
New Teen Titans #15
Flash #295
Captain Carrot #20
Spider-man #223
Flash #330
My picks:
Tarzan Annual #1 (loved Marvel's Tarzan)
Savage Sword #14 (bang for buck)
Smash Comics #1 (bang for buck, + it's a Golden Age book)
Active Comics #16 (ditto)
Thanks for the additions Edo. Very cool. I bet there are dozens more too. The Weird War Tales and Tarzan are particularly interesting. Cheers!
And to all of our friends in Florida - we hope you and your families are safe. Best wishes to all. Keep us posted.
I've read that too---what Rip said. Some big editor at D.C. Comics thought apes on the covers were like candy to the young eye, so for some years at D.C. there were monkeys literally falling out of the trees--detective monkeys, super-powered apes with mind powers or kryptonite vision, apes dressed as hippies committing crimes.
In the D.C. universe, it must have seemed like you couldn't throw a rock without hitting a primate in the head, although I wouldn't advise it. They get riled up quick!
M.P.
Post a Comment