Gates The Comic by Hal Hefner, Presented by Heavy Metal

I love concept art and today I saw some AWESOME concept art from the new Planet of the Apes film. Rise of the Planet of the Apes is a remake or should I say re-imagining of the movie the Conquest of the Planet of the Apes. This was the film that told the story of Caesar, the first talking chimp, the son of Cornelius and Zira, two apes from the future that foretold of a bleak ending for man—as slaves of the APES!

So it reminded me today of some of my old concept art…when I had one character in particular that was VERY monkey-like. Nektu is the character’s name and he will be vital to the story in the upcoming pages. However due to the failure of Marky Mark and Tim Burton’s take on Planet of the Apes, one studio in particular suggested I make this character less “ape-like” . Nektu was my nod of respect to Planet of the Apes, and I really fought the idea to first but then I realized he was right. And so I made him slightly more reptilian and canine rather than cat and monkey. And it worked out well.

So in honoring the new Planet of the Apes teasers here are several characters I had drawn over the year that ended up on the cutting room floor. These folks, were either altered or eliminated altogether.