DC History Club: Primate Peril, Gorillas, Monkeys and Chimps, Oh My?!

Oh, and let us not forget the Kookie Super-Ape (AKA Bizarro Titano). Of course.

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Bobo T. Chimpanzee for me. Pan troglodytes, assuming the obvious. I believe his only criminal MO is not paying for drinks?

I’d trust Bobo with my life, but not my mystic realm. I think most of the denizens of Gorilla City can be trusted, provided you’re not threatening their sovereignty.

Citation requested.

No, their nocturnal, so only Batman needs to worry.

Probably out of frustrations due to racist hiring practices. A gorilla needs to eat, and needs startup capital in order to be self made ape.

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Monsieur Mallah in
Titans Annual 2

After all we have been through together

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Sgt Gorilla! Who the heck promoted him. Holy smokes. “The only non-com who escaped from a zoo to join the Marines.”

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I’m checking out Kookie Super Ape’s hair. He’s got it going on.

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keath

15m ago

Bobo T. Chimpanzee for me. Pan troglodytes , assuming the obvious. I believe his only criminal MO is not paying for drinks?

-Repeat offender on that one.

I’d trust Bobo with my life, but not my mystic realm. I think most of the denizens of Gorilla City can be trusted, provided you’re not threatening their sovereignty.

Nice JLD callout, love that series

Citation requested.

Coming

No, their nocturnal, so only Batman needs to worry.

Batman vs Bushbabies by Greg Pak

Probably out of frustrations due to racist hiring practices. A gorilla needs to eat, and needs startup capital in order to be self made ape.

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unrequited ape love

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Giganta was a gorilla, for real. Wonder Woman #9 (1942). Professor Zool invents an evolution/devolution ray, wackiness ensues including:
giganta 1


Bam, gorilla becomes an incredibly hot giant ginger. And that’s speaking as an historian so there.

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All props to @KookieSuperApe for info on two gorillas trying to fly under the historical radar, Sgt Gorilla and Kookie the Super Ape, both have been added to the list.

Sergeant-Gorilla-Star-Spangled-DC-Comics-a
He may be a gorilla and a marine, but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t have feelings too.

Bizarro_Titano_Earth-One_01

In this photo, you can see Kookie’s hair is all business in the front, party in the back.

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In 1966, they retold gorilla Giganta again. Still professor Zool, but now adding Dr Pyscho and most importantly historical wise, she’s blonde instead of ginger.

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Would read. Would also like hardcover prestige format.

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Also, she’s boy crazy over Steve Trevor

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Why are there so many Primate Characters? Simply put: Gorillas Sell!

A quote from CBR referencing a TwoMorrows magazine that gorillas sell and a link to the article that includes other covers that sell.

Irwin Donenfeld, son of DC Comics founder Harry Donenfeld, and an executive at DC during the 1950s and 1960s (right up until the company was sold to the company that later bought Warner Bros. and named the new company Warner Bros.) explained the impact of comic book covers to Jon B. Cooke in Comic Book Artist #5 from TwoMorrows, “Everybody knows that the cover sells the product. I made a book that had photos of the covers of every magazine that we published and when I got the sales reports, I put the numbers underneath the cover. So I followed every single magazine that we produced and I was able to see how certain themes would sell. For example, I discovered that gorillas sell.”

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Cool, from same article. Gorilla also allows for the all important alliteration

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I remember reading this story as part of a 100 Page Giant. It’s on the service so check it out.

Detective Comics (1937-) #339

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If you’ve read this (actually fairly entertaining) check out the Japanese Bat Manga available here. They recycle the same story with a few differences

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Manga version starts with issue 10

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My favorite “apes” would be Grodd and the Ultra-Humanite. Back when I was in high school and actually owned the Infinity, Inc. issue with the Ultra-Humanite on the cover, my 13 year old sister decided to color him in because she didn’t like that he was white!!!

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Strange Adventures was definitely Gorilla Central in the '50s and '60s. Aside from those already posted in this thread or linked in that article, here are some more:

Some from some other titles:

The '80s Secret Origins series had an all-ape issue:

DC put out two Super-Heroes Battle Super-Gorillas in 1975 and 1976:

And a book in 2008 called DC Goes Ape:

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Your sister was a dangerous monkey. Love early Infinity Inc with Todd Macfarlane experimenting with his art

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