Saturday, April 4, 2009

Infantino Goes Ape! - DC's Gorilla Covers


Carmine Infantino may not have started DC's fascination with gorilla covers, but he sure enjoyed drawing them over the years. Many believe Strange Adventures #8 started it off with the image of a gorilla trying to get out of a zoo by writing a message on a chalk board, drawn by Win Mortimer. But I think the executives at DC just found out that issues with apes on the covers had an increase in sales, so they did a lot of them in the years to come. Numerous talented artists drew ape covers for all the various titles, but DC's sci-fi anthology books were always my favorites. Seeing apes on the cover of a Tarzan comic was not really out of the ordinary, but when they fly spaceships around Saturn's rings, they stand out. Strange Adventures was always the best comic to find covers with intelligent apes working on scientific experiments, practicing medicine, on talk shows, and even cross-examining a witness in the courtroom! But Carmine did appear to do a high number of these covers, or a least a story in them, including his popular Flash Gorilla Grodd covers. Featured here are some of the numerous DC ape covers done by Carmine Infantino or issues with one of his gorilla features inside.















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