Friday, May 16, 2014
The Grooviest Covers of All Time: The Marvel-ous Godzilla
Greetings, Groove-ophiles! This weekend's big flick is the new Godzilla movie. If all goes according to plan, Ol' Groove will have seen it before you read this pugnacious post (I'll tell ya what I thought later). I have always been a Godzilla fan, so how cool was it when Mighty Marvel got the rights to the King of the Monsters back in May, 1977? It was pretty cool, especially when you consider that Doug Moench wrote it, Herb Trimpe drew it (Happy Herb was the Master of Big Green Monsters, wuzn't he?), and they even got S.H.I.E.L.D., the Champions, the FF, Devil Dinosaur, and the Avengers involved. Check out these cool covers by Happy Herb and an army of awesome inkers, baby!
Loved this series! Godzilla Rocked! Loved #1, Red Ronin & the scene in Godzilla #3. Where Hercules flips Godzilla JJJaaaaa Hercules eats his Olympian Wheaties!! Red Ronin should had joined the Shogun Warriors! Loved the Warriors also!
ReplyDeleteThe cover to issue 4 remains one of my favorite Marvel Godzilla covers of all time! Aside from being drawn, inked and colored so beautifully, it really captures the essence of both the Toho Godzilla and the Marvel Godzilla. Even after all these decades (I got the whole series in its first run), this is one cover that I've never forgotten. (Issue 5's cover--the concluding part of the story begun in issue 4--was also pretty cool.)
ReplyDeleteAnd of course, I like to think that issue 1 has become iconic in the whole of Godzilla lore (in America, at least). Not only does it show the King of the Monsters arriving in America, the same cover (recolored) got used for the anthology reprint. Also, part of it--Godzilla himself--got used on the cover of the View Master set... anyone remember that? (For that matter, does anyone remember View Masters? They're still around, but nowhere near as prolific as they were back in the 70's and 80's... but I digress.)
That particular set, "Godzilla's Rampage," featured a combination of artwork lifted mostly from issues 1 & 2 along with original artwork in a very loose re-telling of the original American film Godzilla, King of the Monsters.
Good times...
CR