Planet of the Apes 24 (September 1976)

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 job. It’s a little nonsensical–the story seems to take place near New York, but it’s almost like no one ever remembers there are other U.S. cities.

Still, competent writing and great art go a long way.

The original story, more of Moench and Sutton’s sea epic, continues. It’s excellent, with the crew discovering a radioactive ship made out of an old cathedral.

Moench makes a huge revelation very quietly–like the editor missed it. There are lots of Lawgivers, not just the one in the story. It makes the Planet far more finite.

CREDITS

Battle for the Planet of the Apes, Part Two: The Doomsday Spawn; artist, Alfredo Alcala. The Shadows of Haunted Cathedraulus; artist, Tom Sutton. Writer, Doug Moench; editor, John Warner; publisher, Marvel Comics.

Planet of the Apes 23 (August 1976)

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 amazing how much weight Moench gets out of it.

Great, great stuff. Sutton goes crazy with the action too.

Unfortunately, the art on the Battle adaptation isn’t as consistent. It starts out absolutely amazing—Vicente Alcazar and Sonny Trinidad’s apes are the most detailed ever in the series—but then someone lost the interest. I actually thought Alcazar and Trinidad split the issue, but, no, Trinidad just inked. If he did all the added lines… he was the one who fell off.

Moench does a good job adapting, juxtaposing action and talking heads.

CREDITS

Messiah of Monkey Demons; artist, Tom Sutton. Battle for the Planet of the Apes, Part One: The Weapons Shop of Paradise; penciller, Vicente Alcazar; inker, Sonny Trinidad. Writer, Doug Moench; editor, Archie Goodwin; publisher, Marvel Comics.

Planet of the Apes 20 (May 1976)

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 like he’s picked up some fluidity devices from Ploog, but then inks them so thick they’re static again. His faces, too, are disastrous.

Still, it’s wonderful to read.

Moench’s sci-fi developments are a little much, but they’re passable. It’s just a Planet of the Apes comic, right?

The Conquest adaptation hurries to it’s conclusion. Alcala continues to make the adaptation significant; the humanity he brings to ape and man is just great. Not a lot of white men, I suppose. They’re not the ones with humanity here.

Moench’s adapting continues to go quite smoothly.

CREDITS

Society of the Psychedrome; writer, Doug Moench; artist, Tom Sutton. Conquest of the Planet of the Apes, Part Five: Army of Slaves; writer, Moench; artist, Alfredo Alcala. Editor, Archie Goodwin; publisher, Marvel Comics.

Planet of the Apes 19 (April 1976)

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. I guess as long as it wasn’t a comic book, Marvel didn’t care about encouraging drugs in the seventies.

Moench brings in a lot of sci-fi elements this story and it’ll be interesting to see what comes of them.

Alcala continues to be the essential component to Moench’s Conquest adaptation. With so little dialogue–basically just squabbling politicans–Acala has to make just the visuals compelling. He does a great job of it; Alcala’s future world is restrictive, but still somehow open. It’s claustrophobic.

It’s a good adaptation; Alcala makes it even more spectacular.

CREDITS

Demons of the Psychedrome; writer, Doug Moench; penciller, Mike Ploog; inker, Tom Sutton. Conquest of the Planet of the Apes, Part Four: The Savage Is King; writer, Moench; artist, Alfredo Alcala. Editor, Archie Goodwin; publisher, Marvel Comics.

Planet of the Apes 17 (February 1976)

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 course, it doesn’t turn out to be as simple as that assumption and drama ensues. There’s amazing Sutton artwork of the characters moving through the impossibly large area and Moench comes up with some excellent plot turns.

Great characterization too.

The Alcala art on the adaptation makes it work; Moench lets the art do the heavy lifting. It’s twenty years after the last movie. Through the talking chimp, the reader gets to see just how lousy humans have made the world.

It’s mostly silent, just Alcala’s great art starkly showing the everyday atrocities.

CREDITS

Graveyard of Lost Cities; writer, Doug Moench; artist, Tom Sutton. Conquest of the Planet of the Apes, Part One: Slaves ; writer, Moench; artist, Alfredo Alcala. Editor, Archie Goodwin; publisher, Marvel Comics.

Planet of the Apes 15 (December 1975)

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 get to go crazy on those, but he does have a living submersible to illustrate. He does a great job.

It’s a good story. Moench gets a little too didactic, but the pacing is fantastic.

On the adaptation, Moench turns a bunch of talking head scenes into something very tense. It probably helps he’s adapting, so the dialogue beats are already done. He and Rival collaborate impressively to bring that talkiness to the medium.

Rival is still doing caricatures, but this time it’s villainous ones. There’s not a single smile, much less a laugh.

CREDITS

Dreamer In Emerald Silence; writer, Doug Moench; artist, Tom Sutton. Escape from the Planet of the Apes, Part Four: In the Cradle of a Father’s Sins; writer, Moench; artist, Rico Rival. Editor, Archie Goodwin; publisher, Marvel Comics.

Planet of the Apes 12 (September 1975)

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 been left with a somewhat wordy story. With him, it’s a phenomenal look at ape politics in isolation. Twelve issues in and Moench is making Apes more thoughtful and stimulating every time. Even if he does make all the gorillas pirates in this story.

The backup adapts Escape From the Planet of the Apes, which has a lot of comic moments in the source film. For the art, Rival plays up the comedy. The installment looks like a political caricature.

The style works though.

Moench does a good job adapting, keeping the comedy beats.

CREDITS

City of Nomads; writer, Doug Moench; artist, Tom Sutton. Escape from the Planet of the Apes, Part One: Upward To the Earth; writer, Moench; artist, Rico Rival. Editor, Archie Goodwin; publisher, Marvel Comics.

Conan the Barbarian (1970) #8

How sweet, Conan ends the issue with a girl on his arm. Well, actually, they’re on horseback fleeing for their lives, but it’s the first time he’s gone off with anyone else and the first girl to be around for the last page.

Windsor-Smith is doing something bad with the noses. It’s not the inkers. They’re these really small noses. I have no idea why he’s doing it, but it ruins his faces.

This issue is a direct sequel to the last, though some complications occur off-page.

It’s a treasure hunt–and Conan does get a sidekick for a while–and ends with Conan fighting some inexplicable giants during the place.

Thomas does a great job with the pacing again. This time the issue even has a longer third act (I’m curious if they’ll continue next issue straight from the cliffhanger).

Besides the nose, the book’s quite good.