Apr 18
Jon H Comments: This one caught me off guard, I thought it was just your typical WW 2 book, maybe a little on the Sgt Rock side of reality but then I noticed the monkey and realized it said WW3. Well…I still don’t understand what the monkey is doing. I’m guess it is a part of some para-military group. “If you need help, and you can find them, maybe you can hire…ooh ooh ah ah AH AAAH!!”
Published 1976
April 18th, 2013 at 9:38 am
“You have my machine gun!”
“And my rifle, knife and grenades!”
“And my poo!”
“CHARRRRRRRRGE!”
April 18th, 2013 at 11:16 am
Now Cheeta make war!
April 18th, 2013 at 11:33 am
John Stanley IS The War to End All Wars! Wait, I read that wrong, n/m.
April 18th, 2013 at 12:04 pm
This isn’t a bad cover. It’s just stupid.
… World War “Aye Yi Yi”
April 18th, 2013 at 1:14 pm
Over on the remains of the much-missed ‘Superdickery’ website there is a whole gallery entitled ‘Everything’s Better With Monkeys’. They didn’t discriminate, and had all the higher anthropoids on comic-book covers, often in conflict with Jimmy Olsen or holding up libraries at gunpoint.This is demure and subtle by comparison.
My main problem with this cover is that it reminds me too much of ‘Daktari’.
April 18th, 2013 at 1:45 pm
This…this is AWESOME!! Can’t even look at it without getting the giggles. So much bizarro goodness. The WWII era G.I. with the bloody bayonet. The Chinese soldier in slippers. The Monkey of War with his ruck. Simian soldiers take no prisoners. Unless they have bananas.
April 18th, 2013 at 1:53 pm
If it’s about World War Three, and published in 1976, why are the weapons and uniforms of World War Two or Korean War vintage? Was the artist incapable of doing anything more than copying reference photos?
April 18th, 2013 at 1:53 pm
What this cover lacks is a dolphin with an implanted drug delivery system.
April 18th, 2013 at 1:56 pm
Cover artist Bruce Minney’s men’s magazine illustrations are beyond awesome:
http://jamesreasoner.blogspot.com/2012/08/bruce-minney-man-who-painted-everything.html
April 18th, 2013 at 2:31 pm
This cover is pure joy. Go, battle monkey!!!
April 18th, 2013 at 4:04 pm
Couldn’t they have given the monkey a rock or a stick or something? http://t.co/EzQ0gxozPo
April 18th, 2013 at 4:06 pm
United in wartime! The Japanese warrior — the American GI — the French cheese-eating surrender m… WAAAIT a minute …
April 18th, 2013 at 4:20 pm
RT @ayjay: MONKEY NEED NO STUPID STICK • RT @arrroberts: Couldn’t they have given the monkey a rock or a stick or something? http://t.co …
April 18th, 2013 at 4:38 pm
RT @ayjay: MONKEY NEED NO STUPID STICK • RT @arrroberts: Couldn’t they have given the monkey a rock or a stick or something? http://t.co …
April 18th, 2013 at 4:54 pm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CtB9e_Tev0Q
Alas no Laurence Olivier extolling the battle prowess of monkeys.
April 18th, 2013 at 4:55 pm
Hey, hey we’re the monkeys! And people say we fought World War III!
April 18th, 2013 at 5:25 pm
@Bibliomancer: Good link. Those are some truly epic illustrations. Compared to those this cover seems to be a bit mailed in. Oh, nope. Just looked at the mad monkey berserker again.(giggling uncontrollably) This cover ROCKS! Go monkey go!
April 18th, 2013 at 5:41 pm
I can’t decide whether to give this cover a middling score because it’s not that embarrassing to read in public, or a high score because it’s awesome.
April 18th, 2013 at 6:26 pm
Well it does say it’s a spectacular novel so the requirement for a similarly inspired cover was clear
April 18th, 2013 at 6:43 pm
The story behind John Stanley’s WWIII is here:
http://stanleybooks.net/otherbooks.html
April 18th, 2013 at 7:22 pm
Viewed up close, the chimp has a truly haunted look on his face, a grim shadowing about the eyes. Might it be because his body as rendered bears absolutely no relation to the body of an actual chimp? Perhaps he is the victim of a cruel transgenic experiment, or maybe they all are.
April 18th, 2013 at 8:02 pm
What is battle monkey carrying?
1. Donkey Kong themed backpark pull of chocolate covered bananas and porno mags?
2. Bag of poop to fling at captured enemey soldiers………..and friendly soldiers, and heck just about everyone he sees?
3. The secret recipe for Coca-Cola which he is going to sell to China for prostitutes and a personal groomer (preferrably simian but not mandatory)?
4. His personal manifesto which contains a requets to change the name of “Rise of the Planet of the Apes” to “Battle Monkey Story” and his life long crusade against the evils of waxing, walking upright and the cosmetics industry?
April 18th, 2013 at 8:05 pm
Can it be?
Am I really the first?
To suggest. Gorilla warfare?
I’ll fetch me coat.
.
.
.
.
April 18th, 2013 at 9:31 pm
@Rags: I vote all the above! He doesn’t need to leave room for ammo.
April 19th, 2013 at 10:51 am
“Get your stinking paws off my bayonet, you damn dirty ape!”
April 19th, 2013 at 12:37 pm
“The nature of Monkey was irrepressible!”
A link to the titles and theme in case you didn’t get the series in your part of the world..
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K2huJqFsFDE
April 20th, 2013 at 4:31 pm
Despite the derision poor Monkey-face has suffered, he looks as if he has just made a perfectly competent grenade toss. Either that, or he has just bowled a googly at Lords.
Appropriate terms for the cover itself, perhaps (toss, googly).
April 21st, 2013 at 2:32 am
@Phil: Thanks for throwing yourself on the “gorilla warfare” grenade. I thought I was going to have to say it….
April 21st, 2013 at 9:36 pm
“One day, they pushed Rambonobo too far…”
Betcha didn’t see that pun coming!
April 21st, 2013 at 10:34 pm
@A.R. Yngwe: Ooh. That’s very good. Upper tier punning for certain.
April 25th, 2013 at 6:06 pm
All that’s missing from this cover is to have a giant Chuck Norris with his arms crossed standing behind our trio.
April 25th, 2013 at 6:10 pm
Ok, so the main sides to World War 3 are the Japanese, the Americans, and…..the Apes?!!
April 25th, 2013 at 6:14 pm
This cover evokes so many emotions in me. But most of all, it makes me want to sing….”Dr. Zaius! Dr. Zaius!”
October 24th, 2013 at 3:21 pm
I hope the monkey is on our side. I’m guessing so since it looks like all three…beings…on the cover are running together at an unseen enemy. So who is the American/Chinese/Simian army fighting in WWIII? For fun let’s imagine it’s alien dinosaurs.
October 25th, 2013 at 5:45 am
@HappyBkwyrm—or alien Space Cats.
October 25th, 2013 at 8:31 am
Stretch your mind a bit… and the “III” in the background becomes a gigantic Super Mario Bros. game monster.
July 15th, 2015 at 2:13 am
I remember reading this one when I was about 13 years old. My mother owned a used book store and I read quite a few obscure genre titles.
The only memorable thing about this book (35 years later) is one particular scene which was quite … warm …
For a 13 year old boy, that scene left an indelible impression…and I kept re-reading those pages for several years to come.
July 15th, 2015 at 12:55 pm
@S Wyatt: Please tell us that scene didn’t involve the chimp.
July 15th, 2015 at 8:20 pm
Maybe it involved a . . . Unicorns!
July 16th, 2015 at 2:14 am
Now that really would bring tears to your eyes.
October 23rd, 2015 at 10:56 am
“Curious George, like you’ve never seen him before!”
October 24th, 2015 at 6:01 am
“I have come here to throw faeces and kick ass… and I’m all out of faeces!”
July 8th, 2016 at 1:45 pm
Chimps are apparently very brutal in the wild – he might make an effective soldier. Just give him some PG Tipps tea and he’s ready to go!