If you own a large number of Silver Age comics, you probably have one or more with a Gorilla cover. Yes, this was a thing. Starting in the mid-fifties, marketing research showed that comic books with Gorillas on the cover outsold those without. So what’s a publisher to do? As with the variant cover phenomenon today, where certain issues are published with multiple covers in an attempt to increase sales (there's always that small group of completest collectors who have to have them all), so, in the Silver Age, there was the ape on the cover phenomenon.

Some think the trend began with Strange Adventures #8 (published in May 1951), labelling this book the ‘First Gorilla Cover’. And although the highest number of Ape covers undoubtedly can be found on Silver Age DC titles, that didn’t stop other publishers of the time from getting in on the trend. In fact, just before he worked on Spider-man, Steve Ditko was funneling his abundant creative talent into the Charlton title Konga, an ape book. And do you remember how the Fantastic Four villain Red Ghost (in Fantastic Four #13 ) used his secret weapon of super-intelligent apes to try and defeat the FF?

So obviously, once the trend started it was hard to repress. The apes began appearing in greater numbers. Soon almost all the major DC heroes seemed to have an ape villain to fight. There was Flash’s enemy Gorilla Grodd, Batman’s foe, George “Boss” Dyke (aka The Gorilla Boss of Gotham City), Superman’s enemy Titano, the ape with kryptonite vision (????), and the hyper intelligent Monsieur Mallah the talking gorilla and founding member of the Brotherhood of evil, and the list goes on and on. Not to mention the number of books that made the simians themselves the heroes: Sam Simeon the ape in the pairing of ‘Angel and the Ape’ (appearing in: Showcase #77), Beppo, the Super Monkey (introduced in, Superboy #76), and the Chimp Detective (first appearing in Adventures of Rex the Wonder Dog #4).

So, while there are really too many famous ape appearances to count, here I will list what I consider to be the four essential ape covers everyone should have in their collection.

Batman #75 (March 1953) - First Gorilla Boss of Gotham

The Gorilla Boss is one of the lesser known Batman villains perhaps, but certainly not the worst of the bunch. Boss Dyke has his brain transplanted into the body of a giant Gorilla after his execution in the gas chamber and it’s up to the dynamic duo to stop the ensuing crime spree. Best returns on this comic are on 3.5 (+167.9% over the last nine years). The last sale was January of 2018 which saw that grade go for $150.00. This story was reprinted in the relatively obscure anthology comic Super-Heroes Battle Super-Gorillas #1 (which is itself worth picking up if you like Gorilla comics. To my knowledge there was no number 2 issue ever released).

Superman #127 (1959) – First Titano

‘More Fantastic than King Kong!’ exclaims the blurb on the cover of this issue. Sure, why not. Superman had his share of Gorilla antagonists but certainly the most memorable was Titano. Somehow this Gorilla had kryptonite vision. Luckily he wasn’t super-intelligent so Lois could easily trick him into putting on lead-lined glasses and save Superman’s life. Whew! Titano became a recurring Superman foe, so this comic is quite collectible. With only 58 recorded CGC copies, the best returns are definitely on 4.0 slabs (+ 8687.9%, yes you read that right, over the last six years). Anything under 5.0 can be found for well under $100.00. The Highest known grade for this comic is 9.0 and that sold for $1,015.75 on a Heritage Auction way back in 2010.

The Flash #127 (1962) – First Gorilla Grodd on Cover

Gorilla Grodd actually appears for the first time in Flash #106 (April 1959), which is also the first appearance of Pied Piper and so a more important key. But in terms of Gorilla covers, the cover to Flash #127 by Carmine Infantino is hard to beat. The cover features Grodd’s shocking return as he flashes a sinister smile at the stunned speedster. There are 86 CGC recorded copies of this comic. Best returns have been seen on 9.4 grades. This one was probably helped by the appearances of Grodd on the CW Flash TV show. The most recent sale of a 9.4 on February 22, 2018 sold for an impressive $2,390.00.

The Doom Patrol #86 – First Brotherhood of Evil/Monsieur Mallah on Cover

I’ve written about the Doom Patrol before. This group will soon be getting a live action program and I can’t wait. Created by Arnold Drake and Bruno Premiani, this creative and well written title also couldn’t avoid the ape trend. In what is chronologically the sixth book in the series’ run (DP premiered in My Greatest Adventure #80 and the title was renamed ‘Doom Patrol’ with this issue, so yet another reason to seek it out). 58 copies of this book have been sent to the CGC, the best returns have been seen on 8.5 grades over the last eight years (at + 93%). The last recorded Ebay sale, according to GoCollect.com, was as 8.5 which sold for $330.00 on May 21, 2017.