Book Review: KILLER KAIJU MONSTERS: STRANGE BEASTS OF JAPANESE FILM Edited by Ivan Vartanian

Giant monsters have always been a huge draw for horror fans and especially young audiences.  Most of our early association with giant monsters is with the numerous Godzilla films and even Mighty Morphing Power Rangers or Ultraman.  Ivan Vartanian has taken our love of the giant monster (and more specifically the Japanese giant monster) and crafted the book Killer Kaiju Monsters: Strange Beasts of Japanese Film.  Although not a complete and comprehensive guide to Japanese monsters it does give readers a quick overview of some of the most popular starting with the Big G himself – Godzilla. 

Each monster in the book is accompanied with stills from the films that they were featured in as well as a filmography of those films (for the completest that needs to see all the films their favorite giant monster may have appeared in).  You can’t understand what Japanese giant monster films are unless you understand the term “kaiju” and Vartanian does a great job explaining to the casual viewer what a kaiju is and what it meant in the original Japanese giant monster films.  In fact, Vartanian also delves into character design and presents cross sections of kaiju in addition to illustrations and various forms of artwork that has been inspired by the kaiju.  

A real highlight of the book is the look at soft-vinyl figure collecting and the plethora of pictures showcasing the various figures created over the years.  There is even a paper craft kaiju in the book that allows you to put together your own “little” giant monster.  One of the highlights for me was the Japanese illustrated comic at the end depicting kaiju against yokai (spirits and paranormal world creatures) in order to dramatize the thematic and stylistic differences between the two types of characters.  Despite being exclusively in Japanese I can plainly understand what is going on due to the illustrations.

As I mentioned before this is in no way a comprehensive book as it really only focuses on Godzilla and his rogue’s gallery of monsters with a small mention of Gamera.  I could’ve gone for a longer book that had more info on many more overlooked kaiju but this is a great starting on point for those wanting to know more as this is the basics.

Graphic Novel Review: ENORMOUS

 What would happen if the world was suddenly overrun by a bunch of mutated plants and giant monsters that decimate the world’s population?  This is the basis of the graphic novel Enormous from writer/designer Tim Daniel and artist Mehdi Cheggour.  Ellen is one of a few survivors of a decimated world and her job is to search the cities for other survivors and bring them back her underground lair, where it is safe from the dangers of the world above.  Just as she is heading back home with several child survivors who have hiding out, she is over taken by James and his people, another group of survivors who have more nefarious goals.  Now she must find a way to escape her captives and protect the children while traveling through a world that sees them as nothing more than the bottom of the food chain.  

 

Cheggour’s artwork is breathtaking to behold and lush with details showcasing a world in which humans are the endangered species.  It also helps that the book itself is in a larger format than normal graphic novels so the page spreads with the actual monsters puts you right into the danger of the world itself.  Daniel’s designs for all the monsters are also very original and something to behold as they jump off the pages and look like something out of an H.P. Lovecraft story.  Daniel’s story works because it never forgets that it is the human interests that drive the narrative and Ellen’s story is one worth telling.  The book could have easily been one that was simply a nice showcase for all the great monsters contained within but there are large sections of the narrative that focus on Ellen and the rest of her group trying to escape the maniacal James and his people.

Giant monsters have been a mainstay of the horror genre especially when you look at the continuing success of such icons such as Godzilla, King Kong, and Gamera but more recently monsters have made a successful comeback in such films as Monsters, Super 8, and The Host, not to mention all the giant monsters that are featured in the various Syfy Channel original films.  Daniel and Cheggour’s book is is definitely a must for fans of giant monster stories that just so also happens to be a good post-apocalyptic story as well.