Archaia Entertainment has announced the July 25th release of Conspiracy of the Planet of the Apes, its first illustrated novel. Written by Andrew Gaska (Grand Theft Auto, Red Dead Redemption), Conspiracy of the Planet of the Apes chronicles what happened between the scenes of the original 20th Century Fox Planet of the Apes movie, which was released in 1968.   The new volume features a cover by Jim Steranko as well as 30 full color and 19 black-and-white illustrations by some of today’s leading fantasy and science fiction artists including Ken Kelly, Joe Jusko, Sanjulian, Mark Texeira, Leo Leibelman, Matt Busch, Brian Rood, Tom Scioli, David Hueso, Dan Dussault, and Dirk Shearer.
 
Conspiracy of the Planet of the Apes, which features the characters from the first Planet of the Apes movie, marks Archaia’s first venture into publishing prose books. Its July 25th release should put it stores just in time to benefit from the August 5th release of Rise of Planet of the Apes, the new “prequel” POTA film that stars James Franco, Frieda Pinto, and Andy Serkis.
 
The Conspiracy of the Planet of the Apes press release also announces that Archaia Entertainment will be switching its bookstore distribution from Diamond Book Distributors to Publishers Group West, which will be distributing the new illustrated POTA novel.