As far as the Marvel Magazines go, PLANET OF THE APES was one of the longer running titles with 29 issues. Debuting in 1974 and running until 1977, the magazine rode some of the popularity of the films which were playing regularly on television. Folks who are familiar with the cable TV repeats would probably have gotten a kick out of how the films were originally presented on ABC's Sunday Night Movie.  The melodramatic preview opening sent chills up and down your spine.

Then, there were the two television programs. One was live action and one was animated. Both were downright outstanding. The films and the television programs spawned an incredibly amount of tie-in merchandise including dolls, toys, games, etc. The APES franchise was going strong despite only producing 5 films.

Annoyingly, the series could have been continued. A 6^th film in the series was planned and scrapped. The reason for this was sequels generally did less money than their predecessors so Fox had reduced the budget on each Apes film accordingly in order to maximize return revenues. Moving the tales to the "modern" era of 1973 with ESCAPE FROM THE PLANET OF THE APES was the supreme budget cutter. Since each movie moved more and more towards the future the feeling was they would eventually have to duplicate the world of the first film. They didn't want to spend that kind of money. And, besides, the films were airing on TV and were assuming the role of long commercials for the tie in merchandise. Since the merchandise was selling without a new film, why make a new one?

 
So, speaking of tie-in merchandise…a Marvel Magazine was launched that allowed Marvel's artists and writers to delve into the world of the Apes. Considering that the writers were huge fans of the series they brought an enormous amount of enthusiasm to the project. This is evident in the quality of the writing making this somewhat forgotten Marvel Magazine well worth a second look.

 
In the mid-1970's, the APES craze was still going strong. So strong was it that in 1975 Fox released ALL FIVE FILMS in a quintuple feature called "The Go Ape for a Day Marathon" in theaters. By the late 1970's, the PLANET OF THE APES craze would start to fade. This had the obvious effect on tie-in merchandise. After two and a half years, Marvel's PLANET OF THE APES MAGAZINE would be no more….