#the official godzilla compendium

[astoundingbeyondbelief]

Kaiju Week in Review (November 6-12, 2022)

Print-heavy update this week!

Godzilla: Monsters and Protectors - All Hail the King #2 again confines the monsters to dreams and flashbacks, but the Gabara/Ghidorah team-up is worth the price of admission. The Shobijin have a fun scene too, a bit overwhelmed by their customary role as exposition machines. It looks like it's going to come down to Godzilla and King Seesar teaming up to stop the three-headed monster—once the kids they commune with stop bickering.

IDW also published the trade paperback for Godzilla vs. The Mighty Morphin Power Rangers. That was a fun read, even if it was basically one giant fight scene. Godzilla's a little hamstrung when it comes to crossovers because he doesn't talk and Toho seems extremely reluctant to let IDW use any of the human characters from the films.

One of the wonders of the Kaiju Renaissance is the sheer number of original comics that have come out of it—more than I can even keep track of! I at least learned about the five-issue miniseries We Ride Titans when the trade paperback hit. It's set in a world of mechs and monsters, focusing on a dysfunctional family who've been piloting the legendary Nexus for at least four generations. It wasn't spectacular, but I'm not going to turn down a queer kaiju story, and the robot designs are neat.

Alex Gayhart (@mekagojira3k) is turning his own novel, All Your Ruins, into a comic next month. If you've been on Kaiju Tumblr (or Twitter, for that matter) for a bit, you know he's a hell of an artist, with an eye for the grotesque... and the post-apocalyptic world of All Your Ruins is plenty grotesque. (I haven't read the book yet; shame on me.)

Graham Skipper's Godzilla: The Official Guide to the King of the Monsters debuted in print in the States this week. The first Toho-approved informational Godzilla book since the Compendium in 1998, it's... beset with errors and inconsistencies big and small. Friends who have it say the photo selection is solid, but I'll pass.

More interesting to me is the The Art of Pacific Rim: The Black by Andrew Osmond, in part because I had no clue it was coming out. The sample pages weren't super inspiring, but what the hell, I have every other kaiju coffee table book except the one for Uprising (yes, even Turning Red).

Crew t-shirts and hats for the mysterious fifth MonsterVerse film are calling it Godzilla & Kong (or Godzilla and Kong). If that's not just a new placeholder, it's pretty uninspired... at least tack on The Battle for Hollow Earth! A water bottle on offer has a neat Easter egg—Hollow Earth Advance Team forms the same acronym as the Humanitarian Environmental Analysis Team in Godzilla: The Series. So Ian Ziering's coming back, right? Who else will rally the troops to GO GO GO?

[chernobog13]

THE GODZILLA PROGRESSION

I really wish that I had been able to scan this as a single image, but it was just too big for my scanner.

From The Official Godzilla Compendium, this is a beautifully rendered drawing showing the size progression of Godzilla through the Showa and Heisei eras.

I hope that someone is able to convince artist Art Adams to update this drawing by including the three versions of Godzilla from the Millennium era, Godzilla Earth, and his various stages from Shin Godzilla and Godzilla Singular Point.

[kenro199x]

I found my Godzilla compendium book from way back. Figure I’d scan some pages. 

[tyrantisterror]

It’s hard for me to think about Godzilla vs. SpaceGodzilla without also thinking about the hype that was accidentally built up for it by my childhood.  I first found out about it when I wrote a letter to Trendmasters asking if they would make more Godzilla toys (I was desperate for official Godzilla toys as a kid, ok?), and they wrote me back to say that, yes, they were, and they’d have a bunch of new monsters too, including names I recognized (Anguirus, Megalon, Gigan, etc.) and some I didn’t, like SPACEGODZILLA.

What the fuck was SpaceGodzilla?

Well, eventually the Trendmasters SpaceGodzilla toy came to a store near me, and I got a partial answer: SpaceGodzilla was a weird blue alien Godzilla.  But, like, that just raised further questions that child me wanted answered, and the movie hadn’t been imported here yet.

A few years later The Official Godzilla Compendium would be released, and I’d get most of the answers I wanted, but again they just raised further questions.  SpaceGodzilla came from a black hole?  A fairy Mothra was involved?  This movie sounded so strange and interesting, it was wild!  My imagination ran with it, and for a long time it was one of the Godzilla movies I most wanted to see.

And... well...

When I talk about how this movie ranks low on my list of favorite Godzilla movies, you (and I) should take that with a grain of salt.  It had to compete with the version my child mind imagined based on a bunch of sparse details.   I don’t think a GOOD movie could win against that, much less a mediocre one.

[virovac]

Bagan

Revealed: Bagan's Hidden Abilities! A Monster Compendium

For years, books have circulated in the Japanese market featuring Godzilla and his foes, but few contained details regarding the elusive monster, Bagan. Finally, in 2011, a much closer look at the anatomy of the beast was released in the "Mothra Movie Anniversary Chronicles", as well as additional information the following year in "Heisei Godzilla Perfection". And after several months of digging around, purchasing, writing, and translating, I'm ready to at last share the results of this collection!

* Wings of Light Bagan has the capability to create massive wings of pure energy from the sides of his body, which enable him to fly. The Wings of Light are formed from his large shoulder protrusions, specifically from the orbs on certain designs. He is also capable of forming the wings underwater.

* Extendable Claws When in melee combat, Bagan can increase his hand claws to over double their length instantaneously. Strangely, it appears that all but his thumb claw can increase in length.

* Quick Tail Bagan's tail is very flexible, able to bend and crack like a massive whip. A majority of his designs have some sort of talon or multiple spires at the end of it, which makes this especially painful! On the subject of his tail, it was also intended to be made even longer than some official artwork depicts, only increasing its effectiveness.

* Movable Head Horns While this quirk is never gone into full detail, Bagan can move the three horns on his head: his signature nasal horn can move upwards and downwards about 40° like a lever, while his two other horns can adjust themselves about 25° forward, backward, upward, or downward. It's assumed this makes arcing the electricity between his horns easier to manipulate, or for other offensive reasons.

* Body Armor Bagan's entire body is covered with an "outer shell" made of an extremely durable bone-like armor. This makes him highly resilient to physical attacks. Small details include natural dents and cracks on the armor.

* Electric Amplification Bagan uses electricity to amplify the power of his attacks. Small electric bolts surge over his body while this occurs. The electricity can course between his head horns, down his arms to his claws, or over nearly the entirety of his body. This is showcased best in his premiere video game appearance "Super Godzilla" (1993) for the Super Nintendo.

* Land, Sea, and Air Already formidable on land, Bagan can fly, and is an adept swimmer. These abilities are likely a reference to his old concept from the canned "The Reawakening of Godzilla" (1980) film, where he was intended to be three separate creatures (a land beast, a sea beast, and a dragon beast) that could combine into one. This totem appearance was considered to return for "Mothra vs. Bagan" (1991), but the new movie's script ended up being a major influence for the design of the singular titan known today.

* Poison Weakness Despite being a physical juggernaut, Bagan responds poorly to poison, specifically Mothra's yellow scales. In the script for the unmade "Mothra vs. Bagan" (1991), Bagan retreats to the sea after being enveloped by Mothra's scales, which exhausts the former and kills the latter. However, after resting for a time, Bagan ends up returning to the surface somehow becoming even more powerful.

Other trivia!

* Title In Japanese, Bagan is almost always referred to with the title 「魔獣バガン」 - "Magical" or "Devil Beast Bagan".

* Creation & Personality A Chinese dragon from ancient times, Bagan is connected to the aliens responsible for the Nazca Lines in southern Peru. Despite being a guardian of the forests and smaller creatures, he is referred to as a "god of darkness," and is as ruthless as he is strong. In "Mothra vs. Bagan" (1991), he was sealed by Mothra in the Himalayas long ago. Bagan is eventually awakened by an avalanche, and the relentless deforestation of the planet is what drives him to cull humanity.

* Team Player Despite his brutal personality, Bagan was intended to fight alongside a revived Orochi against Yamato Takeru in the canned movie "Yamato Takeru II" (1997).

* Tomoyuki Tanaka's Troublesome Child Regardless of his form, Bagan was one of Tomoyuki Tanaka's favorite monsters, Tomoyuki Tanaka being the man credited for the creation of Godzilla, the person who kickstarted the Godzilla franchise, and an ex-president of Toho. Not too surprising, given Mr. Tanaka had a hand in the original script featuring the demon beast all the way back in 1980! Mr. Tanaka was also the biggest influence for trying to push Bagan into various projects during the Heisei era - all the way up to his passing in 1997.

* Chinese & Japanese Mythology The Druk, also known as the Thunder Dragon, is a Chinese dragon and national symbol in the country of Bhutan, a country at the eastern end of the Himalayas. It is said the founder of the Drukpa Lineage entered a valley, searching for a location to build a monastery, when a violent storm brewed. There, he heard three peals of thunder - a "cloud-voice" - and took it as an omen of the Druk. From his imprisonment in the Himalayas to his storm-based attacks and rumbling roar, Bagan was very likely influenced by this mythical creature. On the Japanese side, powerful mythical dragons are drawn with having three toes, with the Chinese variants having up to four or five. In both cultures, traditional dragons are drawn either holding or guarding round jewels, which symbolize luck or some sort of elemental power. In pre-"Super Godzilla" (1993) concepts of Bagan, round objects similar to these jewels can be seen incorporated into his design.

* Network of Artists A number of familiar Japanese designers have had a hand in the molding of Bagan's appearance since his conception, including: Shinji Nishikawa; Yasushi Nirasawa; Hiroshi Aragaki; and Takashi Sonoyama. But the canonical signature design is credited to Minoru Yoshida, who was also responsible for the monster designs of Super Godzilla, SpaceGodzilla, Destoroyah, Moguera (1994), Battra, Mechagodzilla (1993), and Super Mechagodzilla. A very large number of concepts for Bagan exist, but only a handful have been shown in books.

* Creative Influence Though never appearing in anything outside of video games, many aspects of Bagan were split into a variety of monsters in other media, including: Destoroyah [Godzilla vs. Destoroyah] (design); Battra [Godzilla & Mothra: The Battle for Earth] (personality); Desghidorah [Rebirth of Mothra] (early designs, origin); Balkzardan [Godzilla Trading Battle] (design); Kilazee [Ultraman: Towards the Future] (concept design); and Regenerated Birugamera [Ultraman: ウルトラ作戦 科特隊出動せよ!] (concept design). [Note: It is highly likely the monster "Reizaus" from Super Star Fleet Sazer-X (超星艦隊セイザーX) was also heavily inspired by Bagan. "Godzilla Heisei Perfection" notes that many Toho monster designs were used as the bases for enemy monsters in the Chouseishin series, such as Hedorah, Megalon, Mecha-King Ghidorah, Kiryu, and Biollante. However, Reizaus is never mentioned specifically.]

On the outside, Bagan appears to simply be a large powermonger with signature Heisei features and a lack of personality. But it turns out this couldn't be further from the truth, as his rich background is rooted deeply in mythology and Toho history. For now, this is all I've been able to find. But who knows what other details could surface in the future? Either way, I sincerely hope you enjoyed this read, and have become even just a little more enlightened on the abilities and history of Toho's most famous non-movie monster - the Demon Beast, Bagan! 魔獣バガン!! :)

~References~ Mothra Movie Anniversary Chronicles 『モスラ映画大全』 Heisei Godzilla Perfection 『平成ゴジラパーフェクション』 『B-CLUB 83』(模型雑誌) octobr 1992 Super Godzilla Instruction Booklet 『超ゴジラ取扱説明書』 Rodan's Roost (Kaijuphile)  Toho Kingdom

Some terrible

but some other stuff in here is interesting

[chernobog13]

KAIJU STATS

From The Official Godzilla Compendium:

These numbers were correct in 1998 when the charts were first published,  However, there have been several changes and additions in the last 23 years.

Godzilla Earth, from the Netflix animated trilogy, is definitely the tallest monster now, and he probably weighs more than the entire top ten list combined!

[chernobog13]

THE USUAL SUSPECTS: KAIJU EDITION

Absolutely beautiful color centerpiece from The Official Godzilla Compendium.

I couldn’t scan it so, but it’s so pretty I had to find a way to share it with everyone.

Art Adams is the absolute master when it comes to drawing kaiju (no offense, Matt Frank; love your work, too!).

I’m glad someone at Criterion had the good sense to commission Art to do the “cover” for King Kong vs Godzilla for the Godzilla: The Show Era Films collection.  Heck, I would’ve commissioned him to do all 15 covers!

I have never seen this drawing offered anywhere as a print or poster, but if I did you can bet your Aunt Tilly I’d snatch it up in a second, have it framed, and displayed prominently!

Heck, I’d even buy multiple copies so I could hang one in every room of the house!

[chernobog13]

SPACE GODZILLA

The Space Godzilla entry from The Official Godzilla Compendium.

If you’ll note, Space Godzilla is drawn by one of my absolute favorite artists, Art Adams!

He did several drawings exclusively for this book.

[chernobog13]

GODZILLA AS A PARENTING TOOL

This article is to be incorporated into all future editions of What to Expect When You’re Expecting.

From The Official Godzilla Compendium.

[chernobog13]

TOHO KING KONG

Art Adams’ rendition of King Kong as her appeared in King Kong vs Godzilla (1962).

Seen uncolored like this the body resembles an orangutan more than a gorilla.  That actually makes sense, as this guy is found in the South Pacific instead of Africa

From The Official Godzilla Compendium.

[chernobog13]

KING CAESAR

This is the entry for our favorite Okinawan kaiju from The Official Godzilla Compendium.

The book was published in 1998.  Since then, many people have begun spelling this kaiju’s name as “Seesar,” which is closer to the the word shisa.  Shisa are guardian lion dogs from Okinawa mythology, similar to the Chinese guardian lions and Japanese komainu.

Frankly, this guy doesn’t care what you call him, along as it’s not “Darlene” (the name of the girl he liked in 8th grade who broke his heart).

The drawing is by the great Art Adams!

[chernobog13]

GODZILLA COMPENDIUM

Found this gem while spelunking through my storage unit.

J.D. may not be happy to learn that I’ve had this beauty boxed up for the last 20+ years, but it might soften the blow by stating that it’s still in near-mint condition, and now proudly lives on my bookshelf!

This was published to coincide with the release of Tri-Star’s 1998 Godzilla film (about which the less said the better) when interest about the Big G was at a peak in the West.  

The book designed as a primer for someone with little or no knowledge of the real Godzilla, and his film series.  However, that’s not to say it’s not packed with information, photographs, and illustrations that true fans wouldn’t appreciate as well; we did and we do!

Heck, there are even a bunch of kaiju drawings by Arthur Adams done just for this compendium!  I’ll post some as soon as I can figure out a way to scan them without ruining the book.

The Official Godzilla Compendium is 144 pages of fun, science, fun, history, fun, and a whole lotta Godzilla! 

[tyrantisterror]

How many sculptures do you have made?

Too many to accurately count.

Of the foam rubber and pipe cleaner ones, I made one for every monster in The Official Godzilla Compendium that didn’t have a big toy from Trendmasters (and some that did, as I never managed to track down an adequately sized Mothra), as well as many of the kaiju from the Random House Scott Ciencin young adult Godzilla books, and more than a few monsters I made up on my own (including Tyrantis, Hydra, and a proto-Ahuul that was also my take on the Kongamatu).  Most of them broke, and eventually I realized I could do better and pitched them.

Around the same time, I was also making Pompom (the craft supply, not the cheerleader equipment) and Pipe cleaner Digimon.  I had a pretty big collection of them too, including a MetalGreymon who had working chest doors to release his Giga Blaster missiles.  These, too, were eventually thrown away.

Eventually I moved onto more complex sculptures with pipe cleaner skeletons that had felt skins hot glued onto them.  This “era” of sculpture had two parts - the big sculptures, and the little ones.

The Big Series technically began as reproductions of the creatures from a book about the fauna of Star Wars (of all things), but switched to being Tyrantis related two entries in.  Kraydi got his start there - he was originally a Canyon Krayt Dragon (hence the name), but didn’t look too much like the picture, and eventually became Tyrantis’s pal.  I made Tyrantis, Tyranta, Hydra, Hydra’s archenemy Basilisk, Kongamatu/Proto Ahuul, and a good number of other monsters I don’t remember that well.  For a size reference: Tyrantis’s sculpture was roughly a foot tall and maybe two and a half feet long, so these guys were PRETTY BIG.  They took up a lot of space and weren’t particularly good, so eventually I scrapped most of them - the only one that didn’t get thrown out was Tyrantis, because I had given him to a girl I had a crush on (it didn’t work out).

I then started over at a smaller scale, aiming to hone my skills while also conserving space.  The Small Series was more action figure size - most monsters were three to five inches tall.  I made at least one of every monster in the Godzilla series up to that point (i.e. all the way to Megaguirus), most of the monsters from Gamera, several non-Japanese giant monsters, and then of course many of the original kaiju I had come up with.  I made a really grisly pathogen by adding excess hot glue and smushing it with my finger so it got opaque and crusty looking, then coloring it red with permanent marker, so he looked like chunks of him had been ripped off.  I also put some fun features in the Mechas - my Mecha King Ghidorah had a capture claw hand in its chest that could pop out and everything!

I made these guys around the same time I went to my first (and only) G-Fest, and quickly sculpted a Kiilak base from Destroy All Monsters so I could make a little diarama with some of them and hopefully enter it into the model contest.  Sadly, we couldn’t stay for the day the contest would be judged, so I didn’t get to enter it - but I was holding it in a hallway when Jun Fukuda was passing through, and I swear to god he looked at my model and smiled, so that was nice.

(also during this era I ran a small business of sculpting and selling Audrey IIs of various sizes to my friends in high school theater.  I built up demand by giving free small or “Feed Me” sized ones to the graduating Seniors, and then pitched the larger ones to the other kids who wanted one of their own.)

These guys also got thrown away - I was heading off the college and was in a sort of “destroy my old life as a way to cope with how terrified I am that I have to leave all my friends after finally feeling like I belong” mood, and even though they were small, they took up a LOT of space.

My sculpting then focused on Stop Motion Models for a bit, using Lego Technic pieces (mostly from Bionicles) for armatures, and a mix of felt, Crayola Model Magic, and pipe cleaner for the skins.

Nowadays I’ve upgraded to non-felt fabrics - you have to wait to get them cut at the fabric store, but it allows you to make, say, a long snake monster whose body doesn’t have obvious seams where the separate 12-inch pieces of felt had to be glued together.  I’ve got a bunch of Lego Technic skeletons of almost all the ATOM kaiju waiting for skins, while folks like the No Sympathies demons, homemade Halloween decorations, and the yet-unused Horror Flora mascots are making due with pipe cleaner and wire skeletons.

Sculpting is fun.

[tyrantisterror]

Off the topic of pseudo-science, and onto the topic of Kaiju, did you know that up until like a year ago I didn't know King Ghidorah's attack was supposed to be "Gravity Beams?" I always thought he breathed lightning.

That’s what I thought as a kid until I got The Official Godzilla Compendium.  It doesn’t really matter though - a lot of kaiju attacks have names that don’t really mean anything.

[kenro199x]

Some more scans from the Godzilla Compendium. 

[kenro199x]

Found my old Official Godzilla Compendium from years back, so I decided to scan some of these pages. I haven’t laid eyes on this Art Adams drawings for a minute. 

The book is more or less in good shape.