Apes Rule!

It's been a great month for Apes here at the Dojo. Last month featured a month-long look at many things related to the Planet of the Apes and this month I find on the stands waiting for me, two new comics which both showcase other famous apes quite prominently.

Boom Studios has released Kong of Skull Island, a comic which seems to pick up on the threads of a proposed King Kong back story first established by Joe DeVito in his expansive work Kong: King of Skull Island. This story seems to be the until now secret origin of the Kong, as the species first arrives on Skull Island along with some of the humans who will play an important role in their early development. This is the story of Skull Island before the great wall.

The debut issue features a bombastically illustrated story which delivers on impact with several full-page and double-page spreads to accommodate the larger than life cast which includes a number of "Kongs" as well as some giant dinosaurs. I found the story itself, the writing spare, so much so that I had a difficult time deciphering just exactly what was going on at all times. Modern comic book writers seem to want to not bore a reader with too much explanation and that's admirable to a point, but you cannot excise so much exposition that a situation comes across as vague. At least this debut issue needed a bit more verbage to help my get the players straight.

But I'll learn more as I go as I'm sure to stick with the remainder of this six-issue limited series.

Also on the stands this month is the second issue of the highly entertaining revival of the Hanna-Barbera hero universe in Future Quest. This book's conceit is that nearly all of H-B's action heroes are gathered together to combat a threat to life on Earth and beyond.

This time we learn more about how Space Ghost and more importantly his allies Jan and Jayce arrive on Earth only to be discovered and assisted by Jonny Quest and Hadji. We also see Birdman and the Herculoids in action with lots of neat hints about what comes next.

Featured on the cover are some of the "Beasts" of the various teams with Bandit leading the way for Herculoids Gloop and Gleep, Zok the Dragon, and the twin ape terrors Blip the Monkey and the awesome Igoo the Rock Age.

Igoo is probably my favorite of the various Herculoids, though I confess having a very hard time picking one. They are an amazing and varied group of heroic critters, all of whom are distinctive and charming.

But overall  the Apes rule!

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