Lesser primates dominate the comics world now

Legend has it that DC Comics in the '60s used to think simians on the cover always meant boffo sales. Gorilla Grodd seemed to appear on every other cover of "The Flash," and the Superman titles sometimes featured Congorilla, Titano the Super-Ape and Beppo the Super-Monkey.

Now Marvel Comics is taking that bet.

The first two issues of a four-issue miniseries, "Marvel Apes," debut in September (the last two issues arrive in October). And it is exactly what you think it is: A planet of the apes starring familiar, albeit furry, characters.

The star -- sort of -- is Marty Blank, a C-list Spiderman villain who used to dress up like a gibbon and called himself ... well, you can guess. Accompanied by Fiona Fitzhugh, a brilliant-but-beautiful scientist (is there any other kind these days?), the erstwhile gibbon is plopped into an alternative dimension where the anthropoidal evolutionary tree didn't have a human branch. So Marty finds himself in the United Simians of America, where he meets Iron Mandrill, the Ape-vengers and -- wait for it -- Spider Monkey.

Hey, these jokes just write themselves, don't they?

Anyway, after the surprise success of Marvel's zombie-verse (a series of miniseries featuring Marvel characters as the flesh-eating undead), "Marvel Apes" comes across as an attempt to catch lightning in a bottle a second time. And maybe they will -- as a colleague of mine often says, monkeys make everything funnier.

To help make the sale, Marvel is publishing alternative covers of many of its titles this month with apes in place of the regular stars. Also, subscribers to Marvel's digital comics got an advance peek through Sept. 1 of online-only backup tales of the Ape-verse at marvel.com/digitalcomics. (They're available for public viewing now.)

Somewhere, Gorilla Grodd is smiling.

Elsewhere in September:

-- "A cold, driven man with little emotional life, and a desire to do good, but violence is all he's good at." That's how writer Scott Allie describes a character, created in the '30s by the father of Conan, who gets his first Dark Horse miniseries this month. "Solomon Kane" No. 1 (of 6) features Robert E. Howard's grim Puritan adventurer, who doesn't talk much about Jesus but sure spends a lot of time killing monsters.

-- Ever wonder who Batman would vote for? In defending the (fictional) presidential candidates from assassination, various superheroes must reveal and deal with their differing political opinions in the first two issues (of four) of "DC Universe: Decisions."

-- As a further celebration of the political season, Fantagraphics' David Levine has written and drawn "American Presidents," a collection of short stories illustrating the tales of the significant presidents of the 18th and 19th centuries, and all of them from the 20th century. Bluewater Productions follows with the second bananas in "Veeps," by Bill Kelter and Wayne Shellabarger, which promises to be pretty funny.

-- According to The New York Times, DC has printed 900,000 copies of the "Watchmen" graphic novel since the movie trailer debuted in mid-July, including a new hardback coming out this month. "Watchmen," directed by Zack Snyder ("300"), is scheduled for a May 5, 2009, premiere.

Comics Ticker for September:

"Dark Tower: Treachery" No. 1 (of 6) is a new miniseries at Marvel featuring Stephen King's Roland the Gunslinger ... Spock's cousins get the spotlight with a new IDW miniseries, "Star Trek: Romulans -- Hollow Crown" ... Comics legends Simon Bisley and Alan Grant join the zombie bandwagon with "The Dead," an ongoing title at Berserker Comics ... Little horror-movie-loving Sam gets a surprise when he writes to the king of vampires instead of Santa Claus at Christmas in "Dear Dracula," a graphic novel by Joshua Williamson and Vinny Navarrete at Image ... Marvel's "Secret Invasion" is featured in 17 titles this month ... Warren Ellis' new series at Avatar features drug-created superheroes, in "No Hero" ... It's almost Halloween, which means it's time for our 14th visit to "Bart Simpson's Treehouse of Terror" at Bongo ... Speaking of Halloween, "Vincent Price Presents" adapts the master of the macabre's movies, plus some new material, at Bluewater Productions ... The first jungle queen returns in her second modern miniseries, "Sheena: Dark Rising," at Devil's Due ... The British Invasion and superheroes are both parodied in Vertigo's "Greatest Hits" miniseries, where a Fab Four play music and fight crime ... Marvel takes another stab at manga with the miniseries "Samurai."

(Contact Andrew A. Smith of the Memphis Commercial Appeal at capncomics(at)aol.com or visit www.captaincomics.us.)