2001: PLANET OF THE APES in COMICS INTERNATIONAL

From February 2001: A PLANET OF THE APES cover adorns COMICS INTERNATIONAL, the comics newszine.

This, of course, technically falls outside the Star Age... And there were no shortage of magazines with covers pegged to the Burton retooling of the Apes saga... But this one focuses on the return of the saga to comic books rather than the movie itself.

Dark Horse, no stranger to working with Fox on adapting their movie franchises to the four-colour world, brought back the Apes for the first time since Adventure Comics ran their extensive, but not always great, line a decade earlier.

Except, this was a license for the new movie and not the original saga, so the good old' days of the future were off-limits. Its tempting to think that the DH run might have enjoyed more longevity if they had been allowed to play with more aspects of the franchise. Once the excitement over the Burton version diminished (which, for me, pretty much happened during the film... Although you can't deny that THAT ending was memorable... Albeit nonsensical) then sales and enthusiasm about the comics version dropped in equal measure. DH bailed pretty fast and the franchise went on hiatus again.

There was, briefly, a British version published under license by Titan Magazines. It was only notable for being the first UK POTA comic since the Marvel strips had quietly faded from the pages of THE MIGHTY WORLD OF MARVEL over twenty years earlier.