King Komodo: The Trailer

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.

The Footprint

The Barn

The Storyboard

• For more on King Komodo, visit Todd’s website