King Mantis stands about twenty feet tall. That makes the critter that it is sitting upon … much, much larger.
Tag Archives: giant monsters
Even Monsters Have Mothers – Color
GORGO is the name of the baby monster in the movie. The mother’s name is Ogra. She’s the one that stomps all over London in her search for her missing child. The moral of the story – mother monsters are not to be trifled with. I learned this lesson well. I leave baby monsters alone.
Even Monsters Have Mothers – B&W
When I was a kid I wanted to be a giant monster. I wasn’t a dumb kid. I knew that I couldn’t actually become a giant monster. Not only was I generally the wrong species I knew enough about the square cube law to understand that really giant monsters were impossible. I could, however, grow up to be a giant monster actor. That was a job that a human being could have.
Except.
Most movies of the movies that I saw that featured giant monsters (at least the type that required humans to wear monster suits) seemed to be made in Japan. Only a very few got made in English speaking countries. And none in America.
So I had to pursue other career opportunities.
GORGO was one of the few giant monster movies made in an English speaking country that used a human actor to play the monster. Mick Dillon had that role. He seems to have mostly worked as a stunt double and wasn’t very tall – he played jockeys in more than one movie. Cheers Mick!
A Lingering Scent of Gasoline and Buttered Popcorn – Color
Time passes. Memories fade. When human civilization goes, some of our books will outlast us. If they have been stored somewhere dry and comfortable. Our films? Our films will go when we do. Without the technology to play the film and the power to run the technology, a film is (most accessibly) just a spool with a sequence of images or (less accessibly) an obsolete digital file.
A Lingering Scent of Gasoline and Buttered Popcorn – B&W
And we’re back to our regular schedule – a black and white illustration posting on Sunday with a color version posting the following Wednesday.
This one is a more refined version of an image I did for the Drawloween/Inktober challenge last year. The prompt for that image was “Drive-In Creature Feature”.
I don’t have any real nostalgia for drive-ins. They weren’t a significant part of either my childhood or my adolescence. If I had a choice I’d have rather seen a film in a theatre building rather than a drive-in. I know people often used the drive-in for activities other than watching movies but I’ve got a one track mind. I go to the movies to watch the movie. I only remember going once, to see a double bill of Godzilla vs. Megalon and Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger. I’m sure that I have more than that but none of the films have stuck in my memory.
I do have sympathy for ghosts and creatures who have outlasted their original era. Most of us become the latter and, eventually, all of us become the former.
Mighty Daikazu – Color
This one ended up with much brighter colors than I’d planned. I’ve colored all my previous illustrations in RGB mode in Photoshop. RGB is the format used for online images. This illustration was done in CMYK mode. CMYK is the format used for print. The colors didn’t look this bright when I was working on them. They’re only showing up like this now that I’ve posted the image online.
Or maybe I’m seeing things. 
Nope. Above is an RGB version.
Apparently I have much to learn. Which is why I’m doing these things.
Mighty Daikazu – Black and White
Godzilla. Gamera. King Kong. Gorgo. Konga. Reptilicus. Daikazu. What do these monsters all have in common?
Each of them has headlined their own comic book series.
Only one, Daikazu, is an original comic book creation. The other monsters all starred in movies first. Daikazu starred in 11 black and white comics (eight of Daikazu, the regular series; three of Daikazu vs. Gugoron, a miniseries) published from 1987 to 1991. It was a fun book – written, drawn and published by Mike Wolfer. It was a fun book. I wish it had had a longer run. After suspending Daikazu Wolfer has had a long career doing adult oriented horror comics.
Daikazu is the monster on the right. The monster in the background is unnamed and only makes an appearance in this illustration.
