The classic action and drama of Apes is back in this brand new graphic novel series.
After the dramatic conclusion to the last arc, Ape and Human society seem to be at a breaking point! Skintown is in flames, and the ape government is hunting down the fleeing humans. Bako makes a desperate move that could change the course of the war, while deep below the city, sister turns on sister!
Award-winning author of Revelator, The Album of Dr. Moreau, Spoonbenders, We Are All Completely Fine, and others. Some of his short fiction has been collected in Unpossible and Other Stories.
He's won the World Fantasy Award, as well as the Shirley Jackson, Crawford, Asimov Readers, and Geffen awards, and his work has been short-listed for many other awards, including the Hugo, Nebula, and Sturgeon awards . His books have been translated in over a dozen languages, and have been named to best-of-the-year lists from NPR Books, Publishers Weekly, Kirkus, and Library Journal.
He is also the writer of Flatline an interactive fiction game from 3 Minute Games, and comics such as Planet of the Apes.
He's a frequent teacher of writing and is a regular instructor at the Viable Paradise Writing Workshop.
Talk about good story telling! I just finished the third volume of the series and still loving it. Both the story and the artwork are equally beautiful.
This volume is all about the war. The battle for South Town has begun between the humans (the inferior citizens whose offspring are now being born mute for unknown reasons) and the apes. Loved this one completely!
Reprints Planet of the Apes #9-12 (December 2011-March 2012). The war between apes and humans is rising as the humans of Southtown try to escape Ape City for freedom. As the warriors of both species clash, Sully finds herself a prisoner inside of Mak and nearing birth. As both she and Alaya remember the events that destroyed their peaceful childhood world, Sully questions Alaya’s plans for her child.
Written by Daryl Gregory, Planet of the Apes Volume 3: Children of Fire is a Boom! Studios sci-fi action-adventure comic book collection. Following Planet of the Apes Volume 2: The Devil’s Pawn, the series features art by Carlos Magno, and issues in this collection were also collected as part of the Planet of the Apes Omnibus.
While I enjoy the new Planet of the Apes films, the original Planet of the Apes movies hold a special place in my childhood. With Godzilla, I remember it felt like there was always a Planet of the Apes movie on TV, and before VCRs, it was always exciting to see what movie would randomly pop-up. It is nice revisit the world created by the original Planet of the Apes films and see a continuation of what happened after Battle for the Planet of the Apes.
This volume of the comic features heavily on Sully’s upcoming birth. It has action surrounding it involving the insurrection, but Sully’s tricky delivery at the hands of the apes and her frenemy Alaya has her unsure what is going to happen. With the baby born, the series has a new goal…rescue the child (and it does a ten year time-jump to set it up more).
The biggest problem with most of Boom! Studio’s comic book collections is the length. With four short issues, the collection feels small and probably would be better read as an omnibus. This collection has a more definitive ending than some of the collections, and it has to be nice for writers not to be really restrained by the “six issue comic book collection”…plus, it gets the trades in the hands of readers sooner.
This adaptation of Planet of the Apes is decent. It does feel big and theatrical and I could see this being the storyline for a potential two part movie. It is too bad that the series didn’t have a long life because there is so much to do with the ape world. Planet of the Apes 3: Children of Fire is followed by Planet of the Apes 4: The Half Man.
War! Tensions have bubbled over, tempers have flared and turned into raging infernos, and the battle for Southtown is on. On one side, the humans; second class citizens whose offspring are now being born mute for reasons unknown. On the other, the apes, divided into several species and factions: The gorillas, the chimpanzees, and the orangutans. All of have their own motives, and not all of those are in the best interest of the humans. There is an underground human resistance who have hoarded old world human technology: guns. The apes are seemingly outclassed here in this era, set many years before the events in the 1968 film. Or are they? Daryl Gregory and Carlos Magno continually churn out quality material.
The paper in this book, which was made in China, has that dirty, powdery feeling to it. Sometimes these Chinese made books have this rough, crappy texture to the paper, and this is one of those times. The coating in inconsistent throughout the book, with maybe 1 out of every 4 pages being smooth, and the rest feeling either like sandpaper or having that gross powdery feeling. Either way, me no like. I do love the smell of these toxic Chinese inks, though.
High praise needn't be verbose - a good story well told. (an opinion I carry over to the succeeding volumes as they drew me in so quickly and completely I read them in one sitting)
This 3rd installment in the series was excellent. They do a good job with flashbacks and moving the story forward. I'm looking forward to the next part in the series.
The breaking point is reached and the human resistance is organized. Bako seeks a new team for the defense of the city and the voice ape wants to bring back peace with war and slavery on human...
As in the previous volumes it's more of an alternate reality than main line pota, but in an apes purist. The characters are good, but some of the situations are a bit out there. Still worth reading.
I'm still loving this series as a beautiful development and exploration of the world between Battle for the Planet of the Apes and the original movie. Things get even more intense in this volume, which is great, but I did shudder a little at some obvious 9/11 imagery.
The 9/11 stuff flows organically from how the plot's been building over the series, so it's not like Gregory and Magno are derailing the story to make a clumsy analogy. If you're going to use 9/11 imagery, this is probably the way to do it. And social commentary has always been a huge part of Planet of the Apes. It's just that there are other ways to talk about terrorism without flying airships into twin towers and I personally wished Gregory and Magno would have used those instead.
The third volume of Boom!’s Planet of the Apes series, Children of Fire is more of a transition between stories than a story in and of itself. What plot there is follows a human resistance cell called the Ghost Battalion a Delphi as they lead the human exodus to the mountains and plan a counterstrike against the ape city of Mak. The writing is rather weak (consisting mostly of voice over narration), and the paneling is poor and stretches to fill empty space (which really highlights the lack of story). Not one of Gregory and Magno’s best efforts, Planet of the Apes: Children of Fire is a subpar comic that doesn’t do much for the overall series.
My only complaint is that these volumes are way too short... a beautifully drawn, increasingly complex, engaging addition to the PoA mythology. More please!
The BOOM! Comics run of POTA continues with this 3rd volume. We continue to learn how The Lawgiver's vision at the end of Battle comes to an end. Art work is outstanding.