- Smile!
- Simka telling the gorillas to smile for the camera[src]
Simka is a Gorilla, and a famed photographer for the Security Police.
Novels[]
Conspiracy of the Planet of the Apes[]
After the hunt, Simka takes a picture of his half-brother Marcus’ protégé, Cerek, and another two gorilla colleagues, standing over the corpses of the humans they have just killed during the hunt.
Notes[]
- He takes the honor of being the first ape tha audience hear speaking ("Smile!").
- Bob Lombardo also played Marcus, a character who, like Simka, originated from the film’s marketing and was not created by any of the writers involved in the movie. It’s possible that the original intent was for the photographer and Marcus, the police bailiff, to be the same character. This, of course, faded over time as more media written by Apes fans was produced, clearly separating the two characters apart.
- Simka went unnamed in the film itself. It was during the movie’s marketing that a fictional newspaper called The Ape referred to him as "famed Ape cameraman Simka, on an assignment with the Gorilla guards"[1].
- In the 2011 novel Conspiracy of the Planet of the Apes, it is revealed that Marcus and Simka are half-brothers, sons of Digby.
- The character reappeared in two pieces of media more than 40 years after the original film, with 7 years of difference between them, both depicting the exact scene in which he appears in the movie. The novel Conspiracy of the Planet of the Apes narrates that he took the photo of his half-brother Marcus’ protégé, Cerek, along with two gorilla guards, while in the first issue of the Planet of the Apes: Ursus miniseries, the character goes unnamed and no mention of either Marcus or Cerek is present. The inconsistency between the two arises from the fact that BOOM! Studios’ continuity and the duology of novels by Andrew E.C. Gaska don’t mesh with each other, and when it comes to events so close to the first two films, they completely contradict one another. On one hand, Conspiracy has Ursus being closely associated with the chief of police, Marcus, and even has his lackey Dangral present at the hunt, while the comic miniseries depicts Ursus as being totally absent and as more of a pasive character during this event, only being notified of it when Moench finds Dodge’s corpse. Trying to link these stories is a futile effort, as they were never meant to fit together.
Appearances[]
- Planet of the Apes
- Promotional Newspaper - The Ape (mentioned)
- Planet of the Apes Magazine (issue #2)
- Adventures on the Planet of the Apes (issue #2) - reprint
- Conspiracy of the Planet of the Apes
- Planet of the Apes: Ursus (issue #1)
Gallery[]
