Tag: Doug Moench
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Planet of the Apes finishes without fanfare. Sutton is back on he and Moench’s story of the seafaring humans and apes and I guess Moench gets to resolve some of the outstanding issues in the series. Moench has a familiar pattern though. He works up a bunch of interpersonal hostilities and calms them all down—returning…
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Moench’s conclusion to his Battle adaptation isn’t exactly strong, but it’s better than I expected. The shooting script apparently had some ambiguity and Moench embraces it. As for Virgil Redondo’s artwork, it continues to be serviceable. What’s most impressive about this installment is how Moench paces the action and the expository sections. He does fast…
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There’s a letter from the editor this issue explaining all the improvements Moench is making in the Battle adaptation are actually from the shooting script and not Moench’s invention. I guess it’s fitting this chapter of the adaptation is the worst. There’s nothing Moench can do… it’s just a bad script and movie. But Virgil…
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All of the art is bad. takes over the original story. His apes are slightly better than his humans. His many-eyed alien might be the best. There’s a scene where it appears a Viking ship (this story introduces apes living like Vikings) is floating on air, because Trimpe doesn’t work the perspective on the scenery…
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This issue has some insurmountable problems. First, Sonny Trinidad takes over the pencils. He’s really, really bad. Planet of the Apes, thanks to him doing both the chapters in the issue, now becomes an ugly comic. It had some rough issues… but nothing compared to Trinidad. His reference for everything ape related seems to be…
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Moench breaks with the Battle movie story and finally makes the details work better in the adaptation. I suppose his bridging story foreshadowed the approach, but I wish he’d used it for all the adaptations. Instead, it’s just going to be for the finale. Alcala takes over the art chores and he does a fine…
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And Moench is nicely back on track. It helps he’s got Sutton back for their human and ape fugitives original story. Moench lays off the sci-fi elements and goes with the action instead. He’s made a fantastic villain out of the gorilla general—there’s a call back to the first issue in the series and it’s…
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I wish I could say Moench arrests Planet of the Apes plummet… and I suppose he does a little. This issue features a bridging story between Conquest and Battle, the final film. Oddly, Moench’s bridge is a sequel to Conquest, the movie, not the adaptation he finished the previous issue. It also makes no sense…
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This issue isn’t just easily the worst one, so far, of Planet of the Apes, it’s bad. Moench runs into two big problems. I won’t even bother mentioning how Herb Trimpe is not of the artistic caliber the series usually has illustrating. No, Moench instead finds a big old issue with each of his stories,…
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Sutton’s second page on he and Moench’s original story chapter (Ploog doesn’t return this issue) is one of the busiest I’ve ever seen in a comic book. It’s not scenery, it’s action and a lot of it. Sutton goes wild. And burns out. For the rest of the story, he’s clearly rushed. It actually looks…
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Tom Sutton inking Mike Ploog. It must be seen to be believed. The result is more Sutton than Ploog but the fluidity to the action is all Ploog. This visual feast is on Moench’s getting even stranger original story this issue. While waiting for the evil gorilla to arrive, the protagonists take peyote and trip.…
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Moench and Alcala continue their Conquest adaptation—with two chapters, taking up the entire issue—and the whole thing is a depressing affair. Moench sticks to the movie script, waiting until the end of the second chapter to totally get rid of any hope. He doesn’t, therefore, dwell in the futility of the story. There’s some hope,…
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Moench starts his Conquest adaptation this issue, but it’s nowhere near as impressive (and it’s impressive with Alfredo Alcala art) as the continuation of he and Tom Sutton’s story. He and Sutton’s seafaring humans and apes discover the Federation—a bunch of ships joined to form a floating city-state, where peace and prosperity supposedly reign. Of…
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Rival doesn’t get rid of the caricature entirely for the final two chapters in the Escape adaptation, but he definitely starts getting more ominous. His villain–still beaming in delight at times–is truly frightening. Having the last two chapters in the same issue is a real downer. Escape has an affecting conclusion and Moench and Rival…
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I like how Moench continues his stories after a break. Sure, it might have been to give Sutton time to finish or Ploog time to work on his storyline, but Moench uses the breaks well. The stories pick up a nice interval later. Here, for instance, the story of the huge city-ships continues. Sutton doesn’t…
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Ploog looks so loose in his portion of this issue, I’m wondering if he didn’t have inking help. The art’s still good… it’s just not of Ploog’s usual caliber when he’s inking himself. The group—the human, the ape, the girl—are sitting around in the President’s secret residence in Mount Rushmore. Their guide has electricity and…
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Ploog’s back on the original story with Moench, continuing their long-term storyline about the human and his ape friend. Moench’s heading West, into the congenital United States, and it makes almost no sense. I’m pretty sure the imagery has shown the Golden Gate bridge in Apes land at one time or another. I don’t think…
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I wonder how Moench’s original story would have gone without Tom Sutton. The setup is great–a divided city (gorillas against orangutans); only the city is a giant ship. Sutton has an amazing two page spread establishing the ship, though his background details on regular panels show the crazy setting too. Without Sutton, Moench would have…
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Moench and Alcala wrap up their Beneath adaptation. Moench doesn’t match the off-putting final moment, though he does manage to make the whole thing personal to the characters. It’s much better than the movie; it has great Alcala art and no bad Charlton Heston acting. I just wish Alcala had more interesting subject matter. The…
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Something happened to Rival between this issue and the last one. I think he decided it wasn’t worth the effort. His art was a lot better—far more finished—the previous issue. Here he’s not just loose, he sometimes plays for comedy. Moench introduces a settlement of apes and people who pretend they live in Camelot. They…
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Well, Moench certainly comes up with something interesting for this issue. The original story—with Rico Rival doing the art—is about someone in the seventies, presumably just after the astronauts in the first movie launch, who builds a time machine to get them back from the future. The story’s original and well-written, it just doesn’t make…
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Moench and Ploog are back with another installment of their human and ape fugitives. The mountain men apes and the gypsy apes are back too. This time they get into a battle with the mutants, after they capture the renegade gorilla who’s trying to kill them. Confused yet? Moench does a great job keeping it…
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I had hoped Moench would work out some of the kinks when adapting Beneath the Planet of the Apes, fixing the continuity problems. But he doesn’t. It’s a totally different world than the previous issue, even though only six days have passed. I wonder if it bugged him, having to stay faithful to a screwed…
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How did Tuska manage to screw up the reveal shot at the end of Planet of the Apes? It’s inconceivable, yet he ruins it. Wow. Sorry, didn’t mean to skip the original story. In it, Moench introduces gypsies. Mostly ape gypsies, but a couple humans too. Again, no idea how they found out about traditional…
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Ed Hannigan isn’t any great shakes at the beginning of his story—he does the original story, with Moench writing again—but at least he’s not lazy. By the end of it, he’s to the point he’s no longer distinguishing between apes and people. Oddly, he draws ape faces a lot better than human faces, even when…
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I hope Moench had fun with the original story in this issue of Planet of the Apes. While journeying through the Forbidden Zone, the heroes discover a settlement of mountain men apes. Moench uses them as a gag—and a plot device—and while the protagonists never know to ask how they learned about the lifestyle to…
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Ploog’s got Frank Chiaramonte inking him this time. The result is all those smooth Ploog lined becoming all of a sudden sharp. Chiaramonte seems to concentrate on making the apes look more like the movie apes, removing the Ploog fluidity. Moench and Ploog’s original story is, again, really well-paced. The first part of the story…
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I love the way Moench plots the original story. It opens with a title suggesting the heroes on the run will end up in the Forbidden Zone then he does everything he can to keep them out of it. Moench also gets a lot of mileage out of the diversions (they do end up in…
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I guess since Marvel started their Planet of the Apes magazine after the final movie, they didn’t worry about mixing up the magazine. For example, this issue starts with a story by Doug Moench and Mike Ploog (Gerry Conway gets story credit) set after the final movie… in the new Apes timeline. But the second…
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Are there any real surprises? Nope. Moench doesn’t even resolve the questions he raised last issue. It’s not a particularly good issue of the series—though far from the worst in terms of Moench’s expository dialogue. He’s got a bunch of it here too, but since it’s the last issue, he gets some leeway. There’s a…
The Stop Button 