Marvel had some great Planet of the Apes cover paintings in the 1970s, that evoked scenes from the movie series. Here's a number of them, with the cover logos removed.
Planet of the Apes #7: The classic Statue of Liberty is shown in the background as Brent (James Franciscus) and Nova flee a Gorilla posse.
Planet of the Apes #8: Brent and Nova again on the run in a Beneath-inspired cover. I had a great crush on Linda Harrison, who played Nova in the first two movies. I thought Earl Norem, who painted this cover, liked her a lot as well. Uncle Sal Abbinanti recently disclosed his Nova thirst on Around Comics episode 252, to the bewilderment of Tom Katers.
Another interesting aside: Linda Harrison starred as Wonder Woman in an unaired 1967 pilot, according to Wikipedia. She would have been a natural fit for the WW costume!
Planet of the Apes #10: The Gorillas have met their match with the mind-bending mutants. Brent and Nova cuddle next to the nuke for safety.
Planet of the Apes #12: Cornelius--the good hearted chimpanzee who aided Taylor and Brent in the first two films--makes his Escape from the Planet of the Apes. The cover shows a scene we never saw in the movie--Cornelius' astonishment at watching his planet explode.
Planet of the Apes #21: Conquest of the Planet of the Apes. Watch out Jessica Simpson, those red-suited Gorillas are taking over the world! I love this movie and the rioting scenes! Roddy McDowell's speech (as Caesar) at the end is worthy of Shakespeare.
Planet of the Apes #27: Battle for the Planet of the Apes, the climatic fight between Caesar and Aldo in the trees. Aldo actually killed Caesar's kid in this movie. I cried buckets.
Did anyone have the reaction that I did when after seeing Battle? I desperately wanted to learn what happened to Caesar and his Great Society. The ending shows the Lawgiver making a sermon in the future, where Caesar's statue sheds a tear. More tragedy must have occurred after the final film. It seems like this mystery will never be solved. Nuff said.
Update: While I received these POTA covers from a different source, I learned that they originated from Hunter's Planet of the Apes Archive. Dave Ballard wrote to alert me--he was also the person who retouched the covers. Check out that website, they've got some unpublished Doug Moench scripts and many other cool Ape-related things.
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