Of the kaiju I considered “borrowing” for King Roach the Gargantuas are the only ones I thought of a King Roach specific story for. In their movie they were brothers (sort of). One was brown and “good” (he just hung out in the forest by himself) and the other was green and “bad” (he came to the city and ate people).
This is the good brother. If he were in color he would be brown.
I have not seen Varan. I think it’s available on DVD but I really only spend 5 or 6 hours a week watching movies and then it’s almost always with Nizzibet. She fails to appreciate the glory of giant monsters stomping on tiny cities. When I did this drawing in 2003 Youtube didn’t exist either. These days if I need to see a monster in action I can usually locate some footage there. So this is a version of Varan for the King Roach series that, like the version of Anguirus earlier this month, I’d likely never actually use in the King Mantis series.
Most of King Roaches adversaries are giant monsters. King Roach stands about 15 feet tall. His enemies range for slight shorter than that to much, much larger.
For the fun of it I cast versions of various movie monsters as King Roach opponents. This one is a version of Anguirus. Anguirus has the distinction of being Godzilla’s first sparring partner. He appeared in Godzilla Raids Again, the first sequel to the 1954 Godzilla. The figure at his feet is an “average” human male. Increase the figure in size by three and you get a rough guess as to how King Roach compares in size.
If I ever get around to doing the King Roach series I’m unlikely actually many movie analog monsters. They’ve already got their own movies. As much fun as I have drawing them I don’t really have any new stories to tell about most of them – “Giant monster appears and King Roach has to figure out how to make it go away without getting squished” – is good once. After a couple dozen times it would just be tedious.
Coming up with a design for a giant sized version of the Devil was tricky. On the one hand, ol’ Scratch is supposed be almost omnipotent so becoming big and mean enough to throw down to with Godzilla should be easy for him. On the other hand, any being that powerful should be able to kick Godzilla’s ass. And isn’t Satan after human souls? Why would he waste time messing with an atomic lizard? It’s questions like that that probably prevented the movie from being made in the first place.
The finished version is here.
The finished version of this critter is found here. (As of 5:13 this morning it had been viewed 666 times. Heh.)
Apparently, one of the movies that Toho (the studio that produces the Godzilla movies) considered making was Godzilla vs. the Devil. Inspired by the popularity of The Exorcist and The Omen, it was to feature Godzilla fighting a bunch of giant hellspawned creatures before he took on Satan himself. Considering how goofy and weird the 1970’s Godzilla movies were I imagine Godzilla vs. the Devil could have been a classic of goofy cinema.
The finished version of the this illustration can be found here.
Finished version here.
Megalon fought Godzilla once in Godzilla vs. Megalon, the thirteenth film in the Godzilla series. I originally saw the film at a drive-in with my family when I was a kid.
I watched the film on tape recently. It’s enjoyable in a what-the-hell sort of way.
This sketch (from, I think, 2005) represents an attempt to do a portrait of the monster. I don’t think it’s a bad job but I didn’t like it enough to add ink and color.
