The return of Manape the Mighty did not happen in a Pulp magazine. Arthur J. Burks wrote the two stories for Astounding Stories of Super-Science back in the early 1930s with “Manape the Mighty” (June 1931) and “The Mind-Master” (January February 1932). In the first tale, he told how a mad scientist, Caleb Barter, placed the brain of a man, Lee Bentley, inside the body of an ape. This happens on a deserted island where Bentley and the beautiful Ellen Eastabrook are stranded. Manape, as he is called, protects Ellen from other apes, leopards, all dangers. In the end Lee has his brain returned to his body and the man and woman can be together. Barter, supposedly, is killed by the apes of the jungle. (Until the sequel, where we find out, he has not.) All this apey Pulp inspired Julius Schwartz to include apes on the covers of his DC comics.
And it is in the comics that we see Manape return. “Man-Ape” appeared in Weird Terror #10, not a DC comic, but one by Comic Media. It appeared in March 1954. The writer who borrowed the idea is not known but the art was done by Don Heck. The plot is not exactly like the Burks story, for the writer adds a second rival for the girl’s love, allowing for a bummer ending, pretty much a standard requirement for a horror comic finale. The mad scientist gets the Frankenstein treatment, making him less threatening than Caleb Barter, who was the real evil in the original.
In a laboratory in the jungle, a terrible experiment is about to take place. John and Carol are witnesses to Dr. Marik’s triumph.
Marik has killed his assistant, Peter Gargan, for his brain. That brain now rests inside a large gorilla.
Gargan, speaking through his rough ape voice, admits to John, he only wishes to kill him and take Carol for his own. Remember, he has the brain of a man but the heart of a beast!
First, he takes his revenge on the doctor. Like all Frankenstein wannabes, the creator is destroyed by the creation.
John wakes up to find his faithful helper, Mogu. The two grab guns and dynamite. Manape is off to the jungle to defeat the apes and set himself up as king with Carol as queen.
To do this he uses his superior human brain– oh, and a gun. John and Mogu scare off the other apes with dynamite.
John and Manape face off. Manape charges as John shoots. Manape figures he can kill John even as he dies. This doesn’t prove to be true. John survives to take Carol out of the jungle. Carol wonders that Marik’s scientific secrets have been lost. John, voicing all Frankenstein side kicks, says this is for the best. “There are things Man was not meant to know!”
Here we have a much simpler tale of hubris than Burk’s tale. The trope is as old as 1818. In the original story, the apeman is the hero, charged with protecting his love, as well as getting his brain back into his own body. Burks had the opposite as well, an ape brain in a human body, that Man-Ape had to protect or he would never be able to reverse the procedure. Manape in the comic has the much simpler drive of possessing the girl and ruling over the jungle beasts.
Which takes me back to Juilus Schwartz over at DC Comics. He was midwife to the birth of Gorilla Grodd, a super-intelligent ape. The character appeared five years after this comic in The Flash #106 (May 1959). He was created by John Broome, who wrote a few Pulp SF stories, and artist, Carmine Infantino. Broome doesn’t bother with brain transfers but creates an entire city of super-gorillas. The spirit of Arthur J. Burks still lies over this classic comic character.
This leaves me wondering if “The Mind-Master” ever got swiped for a comic book? In the second story Lee volunteers to be placed inside an ape body again to capture Barter. I’ll keep my eyes peeled for that plot to show up in some old horror mag. Weird Horror #10 is available for free at DCM.
