Cover: Bob Oksner & Sergio Aragonés & Tex Blaisdell

Showcase #77

Sep 1968 · DC · 0.12 USD

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★ 1st appearance — Sam Simeon★ 1st appearance — Angel O'Day

About this Issue

Showcase #77 introduced one of DC's most charmingly offbeat Silver Age concepts — a mismatched detective duo consisting of Angel O'Day, a judo-trained human private eye, and Sam Simeon, a fully articulate gorilla who moonlights as a comic-book artist. The issue planted a deliberate, self-aware flag inside the medium itself: Sam's employer, the blustering editor Stan Bragg, reads as a broad parody of Marvel's Stan Lee, making the debut story one of the earliest examples of inter-company satire in mainstream comics. By funneling the era's well-documented DC gorilla-cover craze — editors had noticed for years that ape covers reliably boosted sales — into an ongoing comedic premise rather than a one-off gimmick, the creative team transformed a sales trick into genuine characters durable enough to sustain three separate series across four decades.

In Showcase #77 (1968), a cast-wearing man stumbles into the oddball detective agency of Angel and Sam, a human PI and a gorilla who draws comics for Brainpix Publications. When Trumbull is kidnapped, Angel and Sam must race against time—Sam dodging traps across the city while Angel frees herself from captivity—after a mysterious plot emerges around the secret plans hidden in Trumbull’s bandages. Written by E. Nelson Bridwell, Howie Post, and Al Jaffee, with art by Bob Oksner and inks by Tex Blaisdell, the cover by Bob Oksner and Sergio Aragonés captures the wild, offbeat energy of this 1968 DC oddity.

writer E. Nelson Bridwell · writer Howie Post · writer Al Jaffee · artist Bob Oksner · inker Tex Blaisdell · letterer Ray Holloway · cover Bob Oksner, Sergio Aragonés, Tex Blaisdell

ComicBooks.com Value

Our Model is In Beta

Raw (VG) $13

CGC 9.8 · 3 in census $1,753

CGC 9.6 · 6 in census $654

CGC 9.4 · 15 in census $261

CGC 9.2 · 9 in census $157

CGC 9.0 · 18 in census $116*

CGC 8.5 · 9 in census $80

Show all 17 grades ▾

CGC 8.0 · 7 in census $65

CGC 7.5 · 5 in census $52

CGC 7.0 · 2 in census $52*

CGC 6.5 · 7 in census $52

CGC 6.0 · 1 in census $30*

CGC 5.5 · 1 in census $30*

CGC 5.0 · 3 in census $30

CGC 4.5 · 1 in census $20*

CGC 4.0 · 2 in census $20*

CGC 3.5 none in existence

CGC 3.0 · 1 in census $20*

* estimate — limited direct-sales data at this grade

Our model’s value — refined as new sales data arrives · CGC census counts shown where available

More listings for this title

VG $37 VG $50.98 FN $61 FN+ $70

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History

Writer E. Nelson Bridwell, already known inside DC as a meticulous continuity authority and the co-creator of the Inferior Five, conceived the pairing with artist Bob Oksner, DC's resident humor specialist of the 1960s. The tryout story was inked by Tex Blaisdell and edited by Joe Orlando, with the cover penciled by Oksner from a visual idea supplied by Sergio Aragonés, who was a regular DC contributor at the time. Bridwell's background as a Mad magazine alumnus clearly shaped the strip's self-referential comedy; the fictional comics publisher 'Brainpix Publication' and its grandstanding editor Stan Bragg are embedded jokes aimed squarely at industry insiders. The Showcase try-out format proved its worth: a solo series launched within months of this issue's September 1968 cover date.

Trivia · 8 facts

First appearance of Angel O'Day and Sam Simeon (the detective duo collectively known as Angel and the Ape), cover-dated September 1968.
Creative team: story by E. Nelson Bridwell, pencils by Bob Oksner, inks by Tex Blaisdell, editor Joe Orlando; cover pencils by Oksner from an idea by Sergio Aragonés.
Sam Simeon's name is a double pun — on the word 'simian' and on San Simeon, the California estate of publisher William Randolph Hearst.
Sam's day-job employer, the egomaniacal editor Stan Bragg of 'Brainpix Publication,' is a comedic stand-in for Marvel's Stan Lee, making this one of the earliest inter-company satirical jabs in a mainstream DC comic.
The Showcase tryout led directly to a self-titled ongoing series beginning with Angel and the Ape #1 (Nov.–Dec. 1968), which ran six issues before its seventh and final issue was retitled Meet Angel.
The series was revived in a 1991 four-issue miniseries by Phil Foglio, which expanded DCU continuity by revealing Angel as the half-sister of Dumb Bunny (Inferior Five) and Sam as the grandson of Gorilla Grodd.
A second revival appeared in 2001 as a four-issue Vertigo miniseries written by Howard Chaykin and David Tischman, with interior art by Philip Bond and covers by Arthur Adams.
Angel O'Day was voiced by Danica McKellar in the animated series Young Justice, in the episode 'Influence,' extending the characters' reach into animation.