Ape (2026)Issue #1

Rich Tommaso spent over six years–going from his work on a variety of Black Phoenix projects and returning every so often, to this special one, to slowly craft a panel here and a page there, little by little. All in an effort to sharply hone his skills in order to produce a comics art work reminiscent of the early 1952-1956 Mad magazines! Studying (and deeply admiring) the “Mad” works of Will Elder, Wally Wood, Jack Davis and of course, the Mad creator himself, Harvey Kurtzman, by 2026, after five months of uninterrupted work, Rich has finally finished this long-awaited project. In this one-shot comic book, APE No. 1, you’ll read about mad scientists, strange visitors from outer space, horny bald men in newspaper offices, gun crazy cowboys, junkies, flunkies, businessmen, husbands, wives, lovers, haters and angst-ridden teenagers! Everything you’d expect to find in an old, mid-20th-century issue of Mad!