In between "Star Trek" and "Star Wars," it should be noted, there was "Planet of the Apes." I was but a year old when the first film came out and still only six by the time the fifth installment in the series arrived (the arguably sickly barrel-scraper, "Battle for the Planet of the Apes,"), but I caught up with a vengeance thanks to ABC's much beloved "4:30 Movie." Then came the TV show in 1974, which I dutifully worshipped. I was not, however, a big fan of the Saturday morning animated series in 1975 ("Return to the Planet of the Apes"), but whatever. When CBS yanked the live action series off the air at the close of `74, I vividly remember writing a letter to the network (and including a nifty illustration), expressing my pronounced discontent with their decision. They did not write back.
While I mourned the premature demise of the TV show, the films were still kept in frequent afternoon television rotation, it seemed. I was also able to nurse my "Apes" fixation via the sprawl of related merchandising. And, of course, having already been a rampant comics geek, I feverishly collected the Marvel comic. When Marvel unleashed the "Planet of the Apes Magazine," I was enthralled. The artwork was lush and the original storylines were complicated and sophisticated. I loved it.
Eventually, of course, my love for POTA (as the insiders call it, evidently) was supplanted by my obligatory reverence for all things "Star Wars," later followed by Kiss, punk rock, puberty, girls, beer, etc. In short, I (arguably) grew up and moved on. But I still have nothing but adoration for "The Planet of the Apes" (although Tim Burton's abortive "re-imagining" in 2001 should be strenuously avoided at all costs). During a random recent Google search, I stumbled upon a lovingly cultivated cache of original cover artwork from the Marvel magazine series, and it was like finding a long lost album of family photographs. I would so frame any number of these and slap'em on my wall. Check them out.
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