By Rich Handley
Planet of the Apes fans who read comic books have fond memories of Marvel Comics' 1970s spinoff
Apes title. The series ran for 29 issues, containing adaptations of the five classic films, as well as informative articles and interviews, and several wonderfully trippy original stories written by Doug Moench and illustrated by the likes of Mike Ploog, Tom Sutton, Alfredo Alcala and Herb Trimpe. Marvel also published an 11-issue color reprint of the first two film adaptations, under the title
Adventures on the Planet of the Apes, and a weekly British sister-series from Marvel UK that produced a total of 139 issues repackaging the U.S. material in serialized format (all of which are archived for downloading
here).
What fans may be less aware of are a quartet of unpublished stories that Moench wrote that never saw print due to Marvel's unfortunate cancellation of the comic after 29 issues. After Marvel finished adapting
Battle for the Planet of the Apes, the magazine needed to move in a new direction, now that all five films had been adapted.
To that end, as of issue 30, Moench intended to make his Derek Zane storyline (from issues 9, 10 and 21, about an inventor lost in the future after building a time machine to rescue Taylor's crew) the main focus of the book. The result was "Journey to the Planet of the Apes," which would have been a multi-arc storyline that would have lasted until around issue #60, taking Zane on a variety of adventures into other eras and, ultimately, to other worlds. (It's astounding to realize that the writer had planned things that far ahead, and a crime to fans that none of it was ever produced.)
Moench completed an 18-page outline for the first chapter of the saga, titled "The Secret of the City." The plan was cut off at the knees, however, when Marvel—pressed for increased licensing fees from APJAC Productions—abruptly canceled the magazine before issue #30 could be produced. This first chapter of "Journey" thus remained unpublished, as did several other stories Moench had written for upcoming issues.
"Future History Chronicles VI: The Captive of the Canals" would have picked up where the fifth chapter of that story left off, with the main characters finding a great city known as Sexxtann, and encountering Her Majesty's Cannibal Corps. In part six, readers would have learned more about the Cannibal Corps, while also meeting Her Majesty, a giant female gorilla captured by the humans of Sexxtann, known as the Industrialists—descendants of citizens from several African nations who blamed apes and Caucasian humans for the planet's devastation, and thus decided to form their own isolated civilization.
Moench also wrote a new chapter of "Terror on the Planet of the Apes," titled "To Meet the Makers." This story, which took place immediately following the previous "Terror" chapter, introduced the Makers' latest creation: Smashore, a 9-foot-tall albino Gorilloid with a hole in his head to propel bombs, a utility belt, bionic eyeballs able to shoot death rays, and laser-shooters in his fingertips—a reminder that although it was set in the
Planet of the Apes universe, Marvel's "Terror" was, first and foremost, a comic book.
The above three unpublished tales are available online, thanks to Doug Moench, who provided them to me as research for my first book,
Timeline of the Planet of the Apes. Moench graciously allowed his work to be shared with fans, and archivist Hunter Goatley hosted them at his
wonderful Apes fandom site, with Moench's blessing.
But it's another Moench-penned
Apes tale that is the most intriguing.
Read more »Labels: comics, Doug Moench, Forbidden Zone Prime, Marvel, Planet of the Apes