Examining the Planet of the Apes Mythos

“A planet where apes evolved from men?”

With those horrified words, Charlton Heston’s Colonel George Taylor summed up exactly what viewers were thinking in 1968 the first time they saw Planet of the Apes in theaters. Loincloth-clad humans reduced to mute savages, living in cages or in the wild? Xenophobic orangutans, militaristic gorillas, and curious chimpanzees with a rigid class structure, Greco-Roman names, religious dogma, and the ability to speak and reason? What goes on here? It’s a madhouse!

Audiences were hooked — and they remain hooked almost five decades later. Planet of the Apes (based on Pierre Boulle’s French novel Monkey Planet) has spawned eight films, with a ninth currently in the works, as well as two television series and several novels. It’s one of the most respected franchises in pop-culture history, thanks to the talents of writers Rod Serling, Michael Wilson, Paul Dehn, John and Joyce Corrington, William Broyles Jr., Rick Jaffa, Amanda Silver, and Mark Bomback; directors Franklin J. Schaffner, Ted Post, Don Taylor, J. Lee Thompson, Tim Burton, Rupert Wyatt, and Matt Reeves; makeup artists John Chambers and Rick Baker; and a long list of beloved actors who have breathed life into some of the most memorable science-fiction characters ever to grace the large or small screen.

Bright Eyes, Ape City: Examining the Planet of the Apes Mythos, edited by the same team behind Sequart’s Sacred Scrolls: Comics on the Planet of the Apes, examines every Apes film, TV show, and novel, from 1968 to the present. This anthology features insightful, analytical essays about the franchise’s long history, from popular film historians, novelists, bloggers, and subject-matter experts. If you’re eager to learn more about Apes lore, then you’ll need to get your stinkin’ paws on this book.

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ABOUT THE EDITOR

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Rich Handley (richhandley.com) has written books about Planet of the Apes, Back to the Future, and Watchmen, as well as licensed Star Wars and Planet of the Apes fiction, and he edited 70 volumes of Eaglemoss's Star Trek Graphic Novel Collection. Rich has co-edited Titan's Scribe Award-nominated Planet of the Apes: Tales from the Forbidden Zone; nine Sequart anthologies to date discussing Planet of the Apes, Star Wars, Battlestar Galactica, Hellblazer, Stargate, and classic monsters; and four Crazy 8 Press anthologies about Batman and the Joker. He has contributed essays to DC's Hellblazer: 30th Anniversary Celebration; IDW's five Star Trek and three Star Wars comic-strip reprint books; BOOM! Studios' four Planet of the Apes Archive hardcovers; Sequart anthologies about Star Trek and Blade Runner; ATB Publishing's Outside In line focused on Star Trek, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, The X-Files, Twin Peaks, Babylon 5; and a Becky Books anthology covering Dark Shadows. Rich writes a weekly Star Trek column for HeroCollector.com and is the managing editor of RFIDJournal.com.

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ABOUT THE EDITOR

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By age three, Joseph F. Berenato began a life-long love affair with comic books, monster movies, and science fiction. Hailing from Hammonton, NJ, Joe obtained a B.A. in English and spent four years as the entertainment editor of The Hammonton Gazette before returning to his roots at his family's blueberry farm. Joe was a contributor to Gotham City 14 Miles: 14 Essays on Why the 1960s Batman TV Series Matters, and is currently hard at work authoring or co-authoring two reference guides for Hasslein Books: It's Alive: The Unauthorized Universal Monsters Encyclopedia (with Jim and Becky Beard) and Something Strange: The Complete Unauthorized Ghostbusters Encyclopedia. A graduate student at Rowan University, Joe will earn an M.A. in writing in 2015. In what little spare time he has left, Joe serves as an administrator, art director, and content contributor at AtomicWanderers.com.

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