Kaiju artist Todd Tennant has sent us a preview of King Komodo’s next opponent.
Cool, eh?
For those who don’t know, Tales of King Komodo is a kaiju-based graphic novel serial by Todd Tennant and Mike Bogue. It appears in each issue of the giant monster magazine G-Fan. See information on the in-progress trailer here.
Todd tells me that mSCORPIO will be introduced in G-Fan #85, and we’ll see him in to-the-death combat with King Komodo in G-Fan #86. If you’re not already there, be sure to get into King Komodo immediately. G-Fan is available through newsagents and specialty stores in the US, but having a subscription is a much better bet, certainly for those elsewhere in the world.
With the aid of Dennis Davison, artist Todd Tennant has produced a “trailer” advertising his graphic novel version of the abandoned 1994 script for Jan De Bont’s US Godzilla.
Check it out, and then go read the graphic novel itself!
Todd Tennant has created an imaginary trailer for his graphic novel version of the US Godzilla film that never was — you know, the one scripted by Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio that Jan De Bont was set to make before the studio sunk it, later to hand the project to Roland Emmerich … different script, different perspective, different Godzilla…
Just follow this link and click on “Start Slideshow” to view it.
There is a killer frame at the end I was dying to include here … but I thought it would be better for you to see it for yourself in context.
So go view what might have been for yourself — and then read Todd’s graphic novel if you haven’t already done so. It’s an ongoing work, but there’s 63 pages there so far — and it’s free!
Having just read G-Fan #83, I’m suitably impressed by the new King Komodo graphic serial, Tales of King Komodo, which Todd Tennant (with Mike Bogue) has started in that issue. For one thing there’s a killer scene of a giant octopus attacking a ship! (I admit I have a weakness for giant cephalopods.)
Though I know that Todd has coloured versions of the panels, the ominous, black-ink rendition that appears in G-Fan gives the whole thing an impressive retro-look that more than suits the storyline.
Seeing King Komodo in action again (well, he will be in action in subsequent episodes) reminded me of a project of Todd’s that I’ve meant to detail here — the making of a trailer for a non-existent King Komodo movie. I’d seen some material relating to it and so asked Todd what it was all about.
Brief Description of the Project
In 2004, filmmaker Dan Tapia, SPFX artist Vince Akira Yoshida, and artist Todd Tennant set out to make a “trailer” that would hopefully introduce the world to the daikaiju KING KOMODO, a graphic novel story idea created by writer Mike Bogue and Todd Tennant.
Pre-production illustrations and plans were made. Dan Tapia shot the live footage on location at a farmhouse in Canada, but due to a lack of funding the project was put on hold. Vince, Dan, and Todd hope to re-activate this project and finish this trailer sometime soon, but for now and for the record, here is the basic story-line and photo records of what did take place back then.
The KING KOMODO “Trailer” Concept (as of 1 July 2004)
The Plot: A young girl waking up early in her 2nd storey farmhouse room and looks out her window. She sees something that makes her very happy and wakes her parents, shouting,”They came …. they were HERE! Come see!”
The farmers are then seen walking our of their house onto the front porch (set on a small hill), and look out onto their adjacent cornfield, where there are large “circular impressions” in the cornfield. They walk out into the field and stand in the “impression”.
“See, Daddy! I told you they would come and visit us!!” (implying these are “crop circles” caused by aliens, as in the film Signs).
There is a booming sound heard in the distance….it grows louder and the earth shakes progressively more with each “boom”, as whatever is causing this seems to be approaching. Suddenly a large shadow overcomes the farmers and most of the cornfield. Instinctively, they turn in the direction of whatever is making this shadow.
The final “shot” is from behind the couple looking back at their house, only to see it being smashed flat by a the gigantic foot of King Komodo.
The screen goes black and there is a terribly loud and long ROOOOAAARRRR! … then the words “KING KOMODO IS KOMING!” appear in white.
The Monster
[Click on images to see them at a larger size.]
The Family
The actors who auditioned for the “farmer” and “farmer’s wife” roles seen here were not used in the final shoot. The “little girl” seen here was included in Dan Tapia’s final shoot.
A catalogue of wondtabulous merchandise has just become available. Produced by the good folk at WETA studios (SFX creators for such films as Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings trilogy and King Kong), in conjunction with Dark Horse Books, it is a visually spectacular and conceptually ironic collection of weapons and other devices of great use to Imperial Interplanetary conquerors and their constituents.
Just look at this testimonial!
Crudmobot 370, a fine piece of Grordbortian manufacturing if ever we saw one, was initially programmed for helping the elderly and gardening. But not anymore!
“Dear Doctor, I just wanted to inform you that I think my head is partially repurposed wave weapon components. While changing Eldritch Fuddle Senior’s man-diaper, to stop himself from slipping, he grabbed my head to balance. Something clicked. In a blinding flash of electricity and excremental vapour his entire mid section was gone.
That was a surprise, for both of us. My surprise circuits almost melted in fact, and my regret valve just imploded, fused solid. Anyoldway, just thought you might be interested to know that, and that my new job as a truck mounted heavy gun for the French Foreign Legion is going spiffingly. I am now disintegrating minorities I had never even heard of!”
The catalogue looks fabulous and is eminently useful for all you folk out there intent on establishing the superiority of the Empire.
Here is the cover:
And a couple of useful pages (click to see a bigger, more readable version):
Here’s an ad that is designed to convince anyone of a suitably heroic disposition:
And here pictures of some satisfied customers!
Check out the website for a wealth of fantastic information, including a Bestiary of the Cosmos, a multitude of rayguns and the adventures of Lord Cockswain.
Artist Malcolm McClinton has sent Backbrain a sneak preview of his cover art for the first in a graphic novel series featuring Hiram Grange, who is an agent for the Bureau of Supernatural Affairs — a secret organisation run by the Freemasons.
This first book is called Village of the Damned and the series is coming out through Shroud Publishing. McClinton describes it as “visual, raw, grittily violent, more than a little seedy, with supernatural monsters, hot chicks … and very very cool”.
Publisher Timothy Deal describes Hiram Grange as an anti-hero — “an awkward and gangly unlikely hero who suffers addictions to absinthe, opium, and sex. A man as flawed and complex as he is capable and deadly.”
Our primary goal was to create a five-novella series for Hiram, each detailing a separate but connected supernatural adventure. In each novella, Hiram investigates areas of confluence–geographic regions that are hotbeds of supernatural activity. In an area of confluence, Hiram may encounter the undead, lycanthropes, vampires, or any number of otherworldly entities.
The five books in the first “season” of the Hiram Grange Chronicles are:
Book One: Hiram Grange and the Village of the Damned, Tim Deal
Book Two: Hiram Grange and the Hitler Gene, Scott Carr
Book Three: Hiram Grange and the Digital Eucharist, Robert Davies
Book Four: Hiram Grange and the Chosen One, Kevin Lucia
Book Five: Hiram Grange and the Nymphs of Krakow, Richard Wright
• Malcolm McClinton’s blog
• More information on Shroud Publishing and the Hiram Grange series
Author Steve Niles and artist Nat Jones let loose a comic a while back under the title Giant Monster. Fortunately for us, the title is completely accurate according to Truth-In-Advertising guidelines and you get what you might expect to get from the series.
The good news is two-fold. Firstly, Boom! Studios has recently produced a trade version of the graphic novel. Not only that, in their generosity they have allowed CBR (Comic Book Resources) website to put the entire thing online! CBR are putting up one page per day and there are currently 90 pages available — in full colour and large-size. This is one to bookmark and to check out each morning before breakfast! For free!
If you want to know what it’s about — apart from the obvious — author Niles described it this way in a 2005 interview for CBR News:
“The story’s about a shuttle pilot, Colonel Don Maggert, who’s going on his first solo mission to the JFK International Space Station. When he left for his mission he was having a few marital problems, a few drinking problems, basically he’s having problems with his life in general. This flight is really a big turning point that allows him to get his life together and to get back out there. While he’s flying back, he’s attacked by a space parasite! It devours his body, he crashes into the ocean and our story begins.”
Below are a couple of pages — pages featuring giant monster “business” — to whet your appetite and encourage you to check it out. I’ll certainly be doing so… at least until I acquire a copy of Giant Monster’s non-virtual book form. Click on the images to see them bigger (though not as big as on CBR).
This is by way of an introduction to what comic artist and writer Alan Brooks considers to be his magnum opus, Ret Romanne.
Ret Romanne is a Time Dignitary who lives and works on the Off World “Cloud City” of Earth - UNtopia. The comic series, both written and illustrated by Brooks, will be released in August 2008 from Bluewater Productions. It is a time-twisty tale of a “dead” man desperate to work out the mystery of his own very strange fate while engaged in an ongoing struggle to maintain something resembling a life.
Says Brooks, “Ret Romanne has it all — surveillance, time travel and Nazis. Just like real life! It’s a Time Travel adventure that makes all other Time Travel adventures look out of date!”
Stay tuned for exclusive updates as the release approaches!
As previously reported in the Backbrain, Doug TenNapel’s upcoming graphic novel series, Monster Zoo, has been optioned by Sam Raimi to go into production as a feature film. The Comic Book Resources site has been talking to TenNapel and finding out more about his plans. Here’s the artist on How To Create A Monster:
Indeed, one of the things that excited TenNapel most about working on Monster Zoo was simply “Drawing monsters! I was so hungry to make this book because as I drew these mutated zoo animals, I just loved the idea of them turning into these abominations.”
So, how does one turn a cute little zoo critter into an abomination? From the artist’s telling of it, it doesn’t sound as though he struggled with this task at all. “I have studied animals my whole life, and part of what I love about them is their amazing design,” he said. “They are the ultimate in form follows function — what I call ‘natural-looking’ things. So the Ungabe idol was like this pagan abomination that would assault the natural look of animals.
“The Ungabe curse transforms the animals that betray their form to take on a new evil function. So the body will just split open and expose teeth, the tail becomes the head, and the head becomes the tail. I came up with them by just drawing the source animal first, and then thought of a way to really insult the beautiful form. The monster versions of the animals look scary and tragic all at once.”
Read the whole article here. The prospect of a feature film version of this is still sounding great!
Here’s a page that gives us an archetypal giant monster crowd panic scene, child in peril and all — albeit without showing the actual monster. But I want to know what’s making the crowds flee, don’t you?
