Review by Win Wiacek

With a Planet of the Apes TV show due in 1974, Marvel issued a magazine combining serialised comics adaptations of the movies, features and articles, and this first monster compilation gathers a wholly new addition to the mythos.

Gerry Conway is credited for the idea, but Terror on the Planet of The Apes is scripted in entirety by Doug Moench who alternated these trenchant tales with two other Apes strands: “Future History Chronicles” and expanded comics adaptations of the five original films (see Planet of the Apes: The Original Marvel Years).

Moench undertook to fabulously and fantastically expand upon the Planet of The Apes premise. The most significant scenario dealt with the much-strained friendship of two teens: a human named Jason and chimpanzee Alexander. They grew up together in an idyllic integrated community of apes and humans, guided by benign spiritual leader the Lawgiver, but when the saint vanished on a pilgrimage, the garden of Eden began to rot.

Over the first ten chapters Terror on the Planet of The Apes was illustrated by Mike Ploog who produced some of his very best work on what was his longest continual run on any strip, after which Tom Sutton took over with Herb Trimpe drawing the final chapters. Ploog’s art is inspirational, and some chapters are shot directly from his pencils.

Chapter One has Jason and Alexander witness chief Peacekeeper Brutus leading a murderous lynching and burning raid on the human sector. Despite being disguised by hoods and robes, the youngsters see gorillas murder Jason’s parents in the opening gambit of a scheme to make their kind the dominant species on Earth. In Chapter Two’s ‘Fugitives on the Planet of the Apes’ the witnesses’ attempts to expose the atrocity lead to Brutus murdering his own wife and framing Jason and Alexander for the deed.

The power of mutual hate is explored throughout a saga of continual danger, hairsbreadth escapes and a testament to persistence and understanding. Assorted apes and their motivations are included as Jason and Alexander encounter different communities as they wander, picking up new companions along the way. The most important is archaeologist/philosopher Lightning Smith, a human whose pursuit of the secrets of the Ancients has unearthed a stockpile of pre-disaster wonders.

Frustratingly, the saga remains uncompleted, but in postscript ‘Still Apey After all These Years’ Rich Handley offers more information and partial closure with his efforts to share Moench’s unpublished last scripts. He also posits what might have been had the author been allowed to complete the saga abruptly curtailed when the magazine was cancelled without warning.

In equal parts vivid nostalgia and crucial component of current comics expansion, this compelling and lovely treat is pure whacky fun no film fan or comics devotee should miss. There’s more to come in Beast on the Planet of the Apes.