Why Do Gorillas Sell Comic Books? 

I showed several old comics to the kids I used to work with. It was part of a comic creation class. The kids saw the chimps, monkeys, and gorillas and said, "Monkey!" Apparently, it works. No other animal attracted so many kids.

“Crisis on Infinite Earths” only sold because Solovar the sapient gorilla guest starred. Without Solovar, all the subsequent Crisis knockoffs were bombs. Just sayin’.

"Wonder Woman teaching a gorilla to play baseball" is a sentence that can only exist in comics and I love it.

Not gonna lie, the Giganta thing makes a lot of things click for me. Like how in the Justice League cartoon, Giganta had a thing for Grodd. Always found that odd but now it actually makes a bit of sense

I love how crazy Grant Morrison got with Doom Patrol. It was also highly transgressive to the norms of the early 90s in an amazing way. Because the fact that a brain in a jar and a French speaking intelligent Gorilla were gay was the least “taboo”(again by early 90s comic book standards) part of their relationship.

"Titano tries to shave Jimmy Olsen with a helicopter." - DC Comics, ca. Silver Age

I dunno how I never noticed that this was a common thing, but good call, Chris. You could do a video on the trope of disembodied brains in comics too, there are so many instances of it.

"DC went crazy with their gorilla covers." Darn, ya missed the perfect opportunity to say "DC went APE with their gorilla covers." 😆 Cool presentation BTW. Funny how we sometimes don't notice the obvious until it is pointed out to us.

The Congorilla was the best use of a gorilla in a comic with Grodd coming second. They were fun to read about. As a kid fun was what I wanted and these two gorillas gave that.

I've really missed the "Oh, hi! You caught me..." openings, so it was great to see you pull it back out for this episode!

I can't tell you all the gorilla encounters I've had in my life. The worst are the ones who think they're people, but are actually just super-intelligent gorillas.

It's like how zombies are popular now. There was a similar gorilla craze in the early days of film: Bela Lugosi and Raymond Burr turned into them, endless movies featured gorillas as the (not much of a) surprise "villain" at the end.

I was a little surprised you didn't mention 'Angel and the Ape' from DC...although to be fair you really did pack a huge amount information into a short amount time, while entertaining at the same time.

This is one of my favorite things in comics history. The idea that gorillas being so prominant that there was a whole movement. Being a reader of DC you get so used to the idea of intellegent gorillas just existing, you forget how absurd it is.

Looking into american comics as a kid, and seeing constantly gorillas, this really boggled me. It still does. Because though my experience is limited, I do not recall many italian/belgian/french/uk/japanese/etc comics where a big point of them would have been that there's an ape (maybe Cromartie High), while it's something that still seems to happen in american comics.

"You think of speed's natural enemy: gorillas." lol

I totally get it. Gorillas are awesome XD But my favorite has to be Mike from "Motor Girl" drawn and written by Terry Moore. If you want a comic about a female Veteran, who lives on a junkyard with a talking Gorilla, dealing with Aliens and PTSD, that is funny, clever and heartbreaking (and so beautiful), this is the comic for you. Afterwards, you will love Mike as much as I do. Promise.

At last, the return of the famed Gorilla Mask. That's what I call a Throwback.

'Why Do Gorillas Sell Comic Books?' That's a heckuva way to talk about my LCS owner, but I can't disagree.

The Fantastic Four battled the soviet super villain The red ghost with the power to become intangible and can pass through solid objects he had 3 super apes a gorilla with super strength, a orangutan with magnetic powers which can make guns and other metal objects float into the air, and a shape shifting baboon all of which were highly intelligent.

Six Gun Gorilla is a forgotten public domain Wild West comic where the O’Neil (that’s the gorilla’s name) hunts down the Strawhan gang who shot the prospector who taught him how to use guns and raised him like a son. The Eponymous Ape has been popping up in popularity lately in the indie comics radar.

Immediately Gorilla Grodd came to mind. Completely forgot about Monsieur Mallah though. That whole scene in Doom Patrol was so ..surreal and very Morrison. It's weird I remember watching the Justice League cartoon as a kid thinking Grodd and Ultra Humanite were the same character, due to that similarity.

Seriously I’ve been asking This question for the past 6 years, like I’ve always wondered why there are so many gorilla characters in the comic industry, especially DC

Disproportionate number of primates in comics when compared to number of wolverines.

Of course, there's also the things like Marvel Apes and JLApes. And of course there's the Golden Age characters, which are mainly one-off enemies, but you occasionally get characters like Six-Gun Gorilla, a protagonist gorilla who carries a revolver.

"It's not rocket surgery!" Chris, I have to say, there's no greater joy than when someone who's creative work you appreciate can surprise you with an unexpected move to an even higher level of entertainment. I would say this line pleased me in a way similar to when Kurt Busiak revealed [SPOILER] that Hank Pym had anguished for years with the shame that he had used his own brain patterns to create Ultron. Well done sir!!

I wonder if this is related to how in a lot of vintage sci-fi and horror movies the monster is someone wearing a gorilla suit.

I heard Julius Schwartz had a strict 1 gorilla cover per month rule. This was a limit not a requirement. Gorilla covers sold so well every DC title would have had one for every issue. Nothing but gorilla covers from DC, except Schwartz didn’t want to kill it with overexposure. Creative teams would beg him to give them the gorilla that month and he would refuse, only allowing it for whichever ever titles turn it was.

When this poped up in my YT feed I thought "eh i don't care about this subject but I'll watch it because this channel is great". I am really glad I watched this because this was hilarious i love this video

7:47 Oh, that's the Gorilla from Peacemaker.

I guess you could say they were going apeshit for Gorillas in the silver age(pelted with tomatoes).

Why do they sell? Simple: they're a great band, with hits like "Feel Good Inc." and "Clint Eastwood"

I'm a huge Nick Cardy fan. He got in on DC's silver and bronze monkey craze big time. Please consider a Cardy spotlight. He is an unsung comics hero. I wish the stories inside lived up to the fantastic covers...

Chris, how could you forget The Red Ghost’s gorilla?!?

You should talk about why writers like writing about evil Superman like villains

I remembered they did what seemed over a thousand gorilla covers in the 1960s through the 1980s.

I feel like a lot of 90s and early 2000s cartoon animators we're inspired by this Gorilla crazy with a lot of characters lol, Mojo Jojo is obvious but i swear there was like a few scenes in spongebob, deksters labs, and many others that feel referential to these comics lol

Never thought this would be a Comic Tropes topic for a video - and I love it!

Great topic! Let’s not forget Ape X from Squadron Supreme Ltd series donned the cover of #6 & 9, although not predominantly.. Great job & love the off the beaten path topics! 👍🏼

. . . And of course, in the early 2000s, a small group of DC alumni helped establish *GORILLA COMICS* as a short-lived IMAGE imprint. It oversaw the publication of CRIMSON PLAGUE (George Perez), EMPIRE (Mark Waid & Barry Kitson), SECTION ZERO (Karl Kesel & Tom Grummet), and SHOCKROCKETS (Kurt Busiek & Stuart Immonen). It also demonstrated that you could free the creator from the Densely Congested "gorilla sanctuary," but not the gorilla from the creator's imagination. Or something like that. ;)

The first "blockbuster movie" ever was about a giant ape running around New York City. They were on to something there.

Fantastic Four 13 is one of my favorite comics ever, featuring a gorilla, an orangutan, and a baboon as minions of the Red Ghost. But they don't appear (and aren't even mentioned) on the cover. Marvel missed an opportunity!

I screamed when you said "It's not rocket surgery," Thought I was the only person who used that phrase. Also, I know it's not comics, but my favorite talking gorilla is King Gorilla from Venture Bros. "They wanted the Surreal Life, KG gave em the surreal life!"

I probably knew about 4 or 5 of these. I can't believe there are so many more! What an odd trope.

Okay this episode was quite mind blowing, I never realized that until now lol.

Monkes is the what DC cinematic universe needs

clicked as soon as i saw the gorilla in the thumbnail

What's the coolest species on Earth? Gorillaz Nuff said!

man i feel like they almost missed an opportunity to make a "all monkey" comic series

Sleeper episode, didn’t know what to expect but I really enjoyed this one, great job!!!

I do remember Marvel having a re-occurring gorilla with superstrength and possibly a degree of invulnerability in the eighties on covers of Fantastic Four and Spiderman issues where they were going up against the Red Ghost and his super-apes. I can't recall which issues though. Sorry. A great insight in the quirky-ness of the gold- and silver-age comics anyhow! Very captivating, thanks!

I always question whether the gorilla thing was a real trend, or just something the higher ups assumed was the common thread that increased sales. Then again, I do immediately watch any comic book video I see that's about gorillas.

Yes! I love this topic. I've always noticed how gorillas tend to be over-represented in pulp magazines and old comics and movies

I find it hilarious that in the Super Friends image, with Giganta, Gorilla Grodd, and Sinestro, 2 of the 3 are Gorillas

Reading back at Martin Pasko's Superman run, a personal favorite of mine sue to his fleshing out of the Superman rogues gallery, particularly Metallo there was that odd chapter he tried to revive Titano. One of the mails he was sent said that Titano was better left forgotten. I disagree. He's a GIANT GORILLA WITH KRYPTONITE VISION, it's the closest thing we can get to Superman vs Kaijuu.

Cool! I love gorillas! I would argue that Beast was the gorilla man character for Marvel, I'm not a huge fan of the cat like beast, I think Marvel was more fascinated with werewolves and wolf/cat mutations than gorillas.

One of my favourite "silly" Judge Dredd stories was Monkey Business in the Charles Darwin Block. You can probably guess the whole story from the title alone.

Thanks so much for this one! I love hearing the background to the zany stories of the past explored!

You forgot about JLApe. Those got my attention as a kid when I got the Superman issues.

Reject humanity, return to monke

the greatest ape story of all time is, Monkey Business in the Charles Darwin Block, a Judge Dredd story and is well worth checking out!

Why do gorilla's sell comic books? Well how else are they supposed to make a living?

Fun video. But the cover with Bizarro Superman had me searching the channel for a Bizarro episode. Me am delighted to not find such a bad video.

I never noticed how gorillas were a specific DC trope. Someone went through a "monkee is gud" phase

I buy all of my comics from Gorillas and I never knew why. They just seem like trustworthy salesmen trying to support their gorilla families.

Stan Lee mentioned a few times that DC would often copy things Marvel did, like for example if lots of Marvel covers had red backgrounds then all of a sudden DC covers would get red backgrounds, and he would even use this fact to mess with them sometimes. So it seems like Silver Age DC had no idea what they were doing, and none of the sources really suggest that there was more than one gorilla cover comic that sold, it just seems like that experiment with the parrot who gets food at totally random times, and then one time it coincidentally gets food while shaking its head, so now it can't stop shaking its head over and over.

When I was a kid, a couple friends of mine and I wrote in to Marvel Team Up to try to get them to use the Red Ghost and his Super Apes. We wanted Spider Man and apes

Alan Moore and Chris Sprouse's Tom Strong has a gorilla pal named King Solomon.

Lovely work, Chris. Really takes me back, and reminds me of why I was a DC kid all those years ago. So nice to see M. Mallah getting some recognition, and The Ultra-Humanite, who I hadn't thought about in decades.

Surprised you didn't mention Alan Moore's Promethea and his Weeping Gorilla Comix, which combines the gorilla trope with the color purple, also a sales trigger.

Black Panther foe was called Man ape with the white gorilla costume.

This is the first video you’ve made that i watched, and that intro is so impressive I already like your vids man keel it up 👍

Cuz they're cool

Don't forget Red Ghost and his Super-Apes!

Apes do improve comics. Gail Simone's wonder woman run? Gorillas fighting Nazis its like the perfect idea

Not ALL gorillas sell comic books though. Some sit around scratching their balls all day. Wait! That's a comic store clerk, too.

You missed the great pulp character Six-gun Gorilla. Which had a small revival with Six-Gun Gorilla: Long Days of Vengeance, as well as a 6 issue run at BOOM! Studios This demonstrates a third common trope regarding apes; which has been seen through this video as well; teaching a normal gorilla to act like a human

That opening will haunt my dreams for weeks to come... Excellent work.

i see you rocking the teddy fresh

There was an issue of DC's series SECRET ORIGINS, issue #40, that handled this trope. The cover for that issue featured a number of apes, dinosaurs, motorcycles, the color purple and a fire in the background - an interior essay discussed how in the "old days" all of these things were stuff editors wanted on covers because it sold better.

Chris, green and purple? Your boots orange? Y'look like a villain...

You forgot the Fantastic Four's villain the Red Ghost. He had 3 ape goons

The Ultra humanite from Justice League 2001 is one of my favorite Gorillas/Human I gess.

Superman patrolling the city sees a gorilla 🦍: Why does it always have to be gorillas That’s the fifth one this week

Congorilla was my favorite. Congo Bill switched bodies with the big golden gorilla! Great stuff! Thanks for posting!

You forgot the Weeping Gorilla comic from Promethea

Appreciate the Teddy Fresh representation

"a mostly bald mad scientist" -- please don't copy my Tinder description

The Owl faces a gorilla in Crackajack Funnies #38.

Coz Reject Humanity Return to Monke

This may finally help explain why a Russian scientist (Red Ghost), given all the things he could have utilized to fight the battle for evil, chose effing apes.

It could probably be as simple as the fact that gorilla is the one animal that can be drawn in comics with anatomy and gestures not much different than a hunched over human, and still qualify as an animal. Most American comics artists shun drawing quadruped animals and birds due to lacking the enormous amount of study , observation and practice that it takes to draw these creatures. I don't see that kind of aversion to drawing animals in European, south american or Japanese comics. The only notable exception is Joe Kubert who drew some really amazing animals in his Tarzan series.

Thank you for this great video. I love this history big dives in this type of tropes and quirks of comics. Great work!

Less than 30 seconds in and I'm laughing. Why?!? Love the channel, man!

I love the bizarre, nonsensical stories of the silver age. And I love the art even more! Is my brain defective?

Wonder if Czar Simian, or any other Gorillas, made the cover of Kamandi?

I'm a fan of Weeping Gorilla in _Promethea_ myself!

At 8:20 I thought you said 'I know Jack sht'....when it was in fact 'I know Jack Schiff'.

I don't know---I've always enjoyed "KING KONG." I was just a kid when I saw the 1930's KONG. MAN...To a young dude, there was nothing but Awesome written ALL OVER that movie. Still enjoy it today.

I thought this was going to be a jab at talentless hack writers.