BOOM! Studios has released the second installment of their Rise of the Planet of the Apes prequel comic this week.

Anticipating the worldwide release of the new horror/science fiction film, BOOM! Studios is producing a free weekly episodic prequel comic atapescomics.com.

Starting on July 13, writer Daryl Gregory with artists Damien Courciero (Hawks of Outremer) and Tony Parker (Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep) began telling the tale of the events leading up to the upcoming theatrical release of Rise of The Planet of the Apes. Each weekly installment is a five-page voyage into this unique world where apes are destined to take over our world, ultimately leading to the 10- page conclusion on August 3, just two days before the movie’s release.

20th Century Fox is starting to ramp up the promotional campaign for Rise of the Planet of the Apes as the movie’s August 5 release date fast approaches. Just recently the studio released a pair of television spots and new domestic and international trailers. If you’ve seen any of the previously released trailers, you won’t find much new in these videos. The international trailer probably contains some extra shots, but I’ve seen it all before. You can watch the new videos and trailers here below.

Still, I love the look of the film so far. The CGI motion-capture on the apes looks amazing to the point where even in their brief appearances you feel a great deal of sympathy for them, especially in the lead performance by Andy Serkis as Caesar. But with the exception of John Lithgow, the human actors don’t fare as well in these trailers. I hope it’s just a case of the promo materials holding back.

The full-length trailer for the latest in the Planet of the Apes saga, a long-in-development prequel entitled Rise of the Planet of the Apes, has debuted and you can watch it below.

The last time 20th Century Fox attempted to reboot their valuable Planet of the Apes franchise the result was Tim Burton’s 2001 “reimagining” that despite being one of that year’s biggest hits was little more than a mediocre summer action picture that was heavily compromised in the rush to meet the release date that had been locked down before the movie even went before the cameras. A decade later and the studio has decided to give it another shot, but this time it looks like they may have done it right and created an Apes installment that could measure up to the best of the original film series, which debuted with the modern classic Planet of the Apes in 1968 and concluded with Battle for the Planet of the Apes in 1973 (not counting the live-action and animated television spin-offs that followed in the wake of the release of Battle).

Archaia Entertainment has announced that it will release an illustrated prose novel, Conspiracy of the Planet of the Apes, this Summer.

Archaia, which is currently publishing a new Planet of the Apes comic book series, will release the 176-page hardcover, its first delving into prose books, on July 25, 2011. The book, which is written by Andrew E.C. Gaska from a story by Gaska, Rich Handley, Christian Berntsen, and Erik Matthews, will recount events that took place off-screen in the classic 1968 film Planet of the Apes.

Click the image here above for the larger, full version of the cover.

The first trailer for 20th Century Fox’s upcoming Planet of the Apes prequel, titled Rise of the Planet of the Apes, has now been released online.

The movie shows the origins of the apes that eventually evolved beyond human beings and took over the planet after a scientist’s testing shows shocking advancements in evolution in one of the test subjects, named Caesar.

Instead of going with costumes and makeup, it was decided long ago to use the popular performance capture/CG technologies used in movies like The Lord of the Rings trilogy, King Kong, and Avatar. To make things a little easier, the same team that worked on those films, WETA Digital, was brought in for the job.

You can see the trailer below the line now.