I have a more or less lifelong obsession with the original Planet of the Apes series. As a kid my regular fix of Ape Action was the UK version of the Marvel cash-in comic. Unlike its US counterpart, the UK comic was published weekly, so the British publishers soon ran out of source material and started making up their own stories, some of which were then reused by the Americans when they ran out.
I have many issues of this much-loved (but not particularly good) comic in my possession, so I'm going to share some of the covers with you, starting with Issue 60, from the week ending December 13th, 1975. There's quite a lot going on with it.
The back cover of the issue is this rather ambiguous exclusive 'pin up' of the great Roddy McDowell. Roddy was a superb and underrated actor and, by all accounts, a kind and lovely man, but is this the sort of picture anyone, particularly a child, would want hanging over their bed?
No, thought not.
In this house we love Roddy McDowall. Especially the foppish ne’er-do-wells he played in Journey to the Unknown, Night Gallery and Columbo. His Tam Lin is also one of my favourite films. Such a shame he didn’t direct any more.
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