10 Weirdest Controversies Surrounding Comics

10. DC's Gorilla Warfare

"Please believe me! I am the victim of a terrible scientific experiment!"

This was the writing on the sign held by an encaged gorilla on the cover of Strange Adventures #8 (May, 1951). Inside this issue was The Incredible Story of an Ape with a Human Brain, and for some reason, it sold a LOT of copies. These strong sales convinced the editors at DC to try out their own "terrible scientific experiment": what if, instead of putting human brains inside apes, they put apes inside EVERYTHING?

What followed was an inescapable onslaught of primate content. Not only did DC create new characters like Detective Chimp and Gorilla Grodd, they did everything in their power to insert apes into their already successful flagship series. Superman was suddenly facing the likes of Titano, a King Kong clone who could shoot Kryptonite out of his eyes, while his pal Jimmy Olsen would regularly swap bodies with different gorillas (when he wasn't getting married to them, that is).

While it was undeniable that including a gorilla on the cover of your comic would increase your sales, DC's Vice-President Irwin Donenfeld was afraid that if every comic continued to 'ape' this trend, the novelty would wear off. He therefore introduced his "one gorilla a month" rule, severely limiting the amount of ape-centric issues he would publish. Creators were forced to once again rely on exciting storylines and impressive art to sell comics, rather than simply slapping a big hairy simian on the cover.