Follow TV Tropes

Following

Comic Book / Angel and the Ape

Go To

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/angel_and_the_ape_2046.jpg
He taught Tarzan how to swing.

Spinning off from Showcase #77 (September, 1968), Angel and the Ape was a goofy humor series published by DC Comics for six issues in the Silver Age. Starring Angel O'Day, a gorgeous super-sleuth who speaks thirteen languages and knows karate, and Sam Simeon, a comic book artist who happens to be a talking gorilla, the title featured wacky mysteries in the vein of Scooby-Doo. The fact that Sam was a talking ape was played completely deadpan. After their cancellation, the duo spent the next couple decades in comic book limbo, save for a few cameos (including Rick Veitch's Swamp Thing).

More memorable is the four-issue limited series from 1991 that brought the pair back into The DCU. Written and illustrated by master humorist Phil Foglio, the miniseries revealed that Sam was actually from Gorilla City, which explained his ability to talk, and that he was the grandson of none other than Gorilla Grodd, nemesis of The Flash, from whom he inherited low-level psychic abilities that make him appear as a normal human to onlookers. This revival also brought back the Inferior Five, another 60s humor comic; member Dumb Bunny turned out to be Angel's half-sister.

In 2001, Vertigo Comics released another four-issue miniseries by Howard Chaykin. Though extremely risqué, it maintained the same kind of humor. Their first appearance in the 2010s were in the book Scooby-Doo! Team-Up, where they teamed up with Scooby Doo and co, whom they were created in vein of.

Never the most popular characters, Angel and the Ape remain noteworthy for the sheer silliness of the premise.


Angel and the Ape provides examples of the following tropes:

  • Big Applesauce: Though originally called "Fun City", the city where the comic is set is soon officially identified as New York.
  • Biting-the-Hand Humor: After he quits Stan Bragg, Sam goes to work for "DZ Comics" working for "Morton I. Stoops", a stand-in for DC editor Mort Weisinger who looks like an ape himself.
  • Bruiser with a Soft Center: Sam, who fits the "sensitive artist" mold to a T, except for being, y'know, a 500 pound gorilla.
  • Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: Dumb Bunny. Also Angel in the Chaykin miniseries.
  • Interspecies Romance: Sam and Dumb Bunny.
  • Joker Immunity: Justified when King Solovar of Gorilla City takes Grodd in yet again at the end of Foglio's miniseries. Sam asks for a real explanation why Grodd's still around; Solovar replies that, if he can't find a way for humanity and Gorilla City to live in peace, he'll have Grodd around to lead them to war instead.)
  • Money, Dear Boy: In-Universe, why Sam does schlocky comic books instead of the more refined art he wants to do.
  • Most Writers Are Writers: Sam is a beleaguered comic book artist, which allowed for some satire about the industry.
  • Ms. Fanservice: Angel and Bunny.
  • Neck Snap: Grodd does this to Bunny in the Foglio miniseries, but it paralyzes rather than kills her, and Sam talks a reality-warping piece of alien technology into fixing her up.
  • New-Age Retro Hippie: In his spare time, Sam enjoys meditating and playing the sitar.
  • Nice Guy: Sam.
  • No Ontological Inertia: Discussed. In Foglio's miniseries, Grodd's plan revolved around the "Green Glob", a Reality Warping artifact that only made temporary changes. Sam defeats Grodd by getting a temporary power boost and using it to make a more permanent change to Grodd's mind. ("What happens to my powers now is irrelevant. If I hit you with a hammer which then disappears, you've still been hit with a hammer.") Later, Sam manages to talk the artifact into permanently healing a paralyzed Dumb Bunny. (It immediately Ascends To A Higher Plane Of Existence after going beyond its programming.)
  • Only Sane Man: In the Chaykin miniseries, Sam is the only character who isn't an oversexed idiot. (Well, Angel's not an idiot, but she's still oversexed.)
  • Platonic Life-Partners: Sam and Angel. (Foglio's series teases a Relationship Upgrade, but they decide that even with a species change for Sam, they're Better as Friends.)
  • Private Detective: Angel.
  • Psychic Powers: Sam in the Foglio miniseries.
  • Punny Name: A hallmark of the Vertigo series; the central plot is about the death of a model called Bambi Dextrous (a stage name but even so), and the duo are assisted by a cop named Det. Komicz.
  • Sequential Artist: Sam.
  • Show Within a Show: The comics Sam draws, including "Jungle Girl", "Real Ape", "Atilla Gorilla", "Deus Ex Machina Man" (a reference to Phil Foglio's strip "What's New?"), and "Hey Boy and Miss Thing".
  • The Speechless: Sam is unable to speak in the Chaykin miniseries.
  • Take That!: Sam's boss is a nutso comic book editor named "Stan Bragg".
  • Talking Animal: Sam.
  • The Unintelligible: Sam in the Silver Age comics; he could only talk in growls and snarls ("Urgle, gleek, glug, raack, meerk, blip brack!") that only Angel could understand. Translations were usually provided that showed he was actually quite erudite, and most of the time he only "spoke" through thought balloons anyway. The Foglio revamp just had him speaking normally.
  • Unusually Uninteresting Sight: In the Silver Age comics, nobody seems to care that Sam is a gorilla. (The psychic powers from Foglio's miniseries were a Cerebus Retcon of this; Sam's just powerful enough to keep passerby from realizing that the big, hairy guy's a gorilla — unless he's distracted. Then the screaming starts.)
  • Vulgar Humor: The Chaykin miniseries is pretty much non-stop sex jokes, stopping just short of full frontal.
  • Weaksauce Weakness: Sam gives Grodd one at the end of the foglio series by giving him an irresistible craving for junk food. Since only humans make junk food, Grodd can't wipe out humanity.
  • Weirdness Censor: Sam's low level psychic powers in the Foglio miniseries keep people from noticing he's a gorilla. Most of the time.
  • Wunza Plot: She's a gorgeous super-sleuth who speaks thirteen languages and knows karate. He's a comic book artist who happens to be a talking gorilla. Together they fight crime.

Top