So in addition to a Kaiju Movie Review (Hint: Honda + Minya) the Kaijumail section of Kaijumax includes these little tidbits… Now to figure out how to describe a kaiju that looks like me so I can show up in the background….
Accepted!
iamoutofideas
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KAIJUMAX #1 gets a monster-sized advance review from Famous Monsters of Filmland!
“This is it. The one you’ve been waiting for. The debut issue you absolutely cannot miss.”
Okay, folks, you got the comic, now here’s the commentary. In this lengthy (1hr48min) recording, I go through the comic page by page, talking about the creation process, illustration and writing technique, monster fandom, and comics in general. Put on your headphones, grab a copy of the comic (optional), kick back, and enjoy!
This is the author’s commentary track for KAIJUMAX #5 from Oni Press. Zander Cannon talks at great length about PTSD, inking techniques, prison stories, and generally being a cartoonist and making a comic book about monster prison. Put on your headphones, grab a copy of the comic (optional), kick back, and enjoy!
First Kaijumax con sketch: The Creature from Devil’s Creek getting high on smog.
Comicosity has a review up before the comic shops even open! Nice work!
“…
Kaijumax is something special and a comic everyone should be reading. It is rich in character and beautiful in design. Cannon’s passion and years of experience in comics comes together to create a world that is delightful. Kaijumax #2 (and the whole series) is for anyone that has ever enjoyed a giant monster movie. It is phenomenal in what Cannon creates.”
GOJIRA aka GODZILLA (1954)
Note: Due to an error, the full version of this review did not appear in KAIJUMAX Season 3 #2. Here it is:
Though not by any means the first giant monster movie, Gojira, directed by Ishiro Honda and featuring the monster creations of Eiji Tsuburaya, distinguished itself by moving away from the crisp stop-motion effects of The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms from the previous year and instead creating an emotional story not unlike that of 1933’s King Kong, now updated to the atomic age. Using Gojira’s attack as a reflection of the all-too-recent atomic warfare of WWII, as well as a not-subtle reference to the Lucky Dragon no. 5 fishing boat that was caught in the fallout of the Bikini Atoll nuclear tests, the film captured the paranoia and panic of disasters that humans should have seen coming.
A straightforward disaster-response movie in some respects, Gojira cleverly triangulates its characters around the titular monster: a soft-hearted biologist who wishes to spare Gojira and study him, his haunted colleague, Serizawa, who knows he has the weapon to kill the monster but fears what the governments of the world would do with it if they knew of its existence, Serizawa’s frequently terrified fiancee, a brave salvage fisherman, and, in the English version, an American newspaperman played by Raymond Burr who seems to know a lot of these characters’ body doubles. In a rare feat, the English Godzilla: King of the Monsters is a very different but almost as good counterpart to the classic original. Where Gojira has a great deal of political maneuvering, disaster coverup, musings on what science could make of such a creature, and a maudlin love triangle leading to Dr. Serizawa’s selfless sacrifice, King of the Monsters is more of a voyage of journalistic discovery, ending with a truncated and much more optimistic final scene in which the danger has been permanently eliminated and “the whole world could wake up and live again.”
Besides setting up what was to become one of the longest-running movie franchises of all time, Gojira was the first to make explicit its portrayal of a rampaging creature as representing vague existential threats to humanity (variously: nuclear war, ecological collapse, nature’s fury, etc.), and gave the human characters a darker undertone to what before had been largely a lot of running, screaming, and looking on in bafflement. Though the version westerners saw at the time was simpler and less dark, and let humanity off the hook for all of its war- and ecology-related missteps, it nevertheless gave a deep sense of menace that would continue in the series for about one film before they said “screw it, kids love Godzilla” and made him dance.
Though my tastes in monster movies typically run more to the absurd, Gojira is a undeniably beautiful film, with emotional dialogue scenes, lavishly shot miniatures, deliberate pacing, and an indelible new archetype: a monster who could become cinema’s catch-all metaphor for each decade’s deadliest new global threat.
Outright Geekery reviews Kaijumax #1!
“The biggest plus for this book is its utter lack of pretension. It does not try to be cooler, or deeper or more clever than what it is (so far at least) – which is basically a by-the-numbers prison story with a protagonist who “Really doesn’t belong in here!!”
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4/8 KAIJUMAX RELEASE SIGNING at THE SOURCE in ROSEVILLE, MN
From Facebook: MINNEAPOLIS/ST PAUL FRIENDS AND COMICS FANS: My monster prison comic KAIJUMAX releases its first issue this Wednesday, April 8! The SOURCE COMICS & GAMES on Snelling in Roseville will be having a signing all afternoon and selling three versions of the cover: the retail cover (by me), the Bryan Lee O'Malley “Kawaiijumax” variant cover, and my exclusive retailer cover available ONLY at the Source! I will be there from noon-7, so come at lunch! Come after work! Come and let me do a free sketch for you!
KAIJUMAX Critic’s Corner
“So simple it’s brilliant” – Comic Book Resources
“Superb” – Comics Bulletin
“Quite possibly the most bananas comic I have ever read in my life” – Rhymes with Geek
“Kaijumax is Cannon’s most approachable solo work to date” – Paste Magazine
“Ten stories of cute and awesome” – Overmental
“Surprisingly deep” – Loser City
“Weird and a little gross, but fun and very, very good.” – The Onion AV Club
“Legitimately great… Ferociously imaginative and well-crafted” – Front Toward Gamer
“Delivers on the concept completely” – HorrorTalk
“Really freaking good” – Comic Bastards
“Hilarious yet poignant” – Fangoria
“Masterful… Emotionally devastating” – IGN
“A love letter to monster movies” – Newsarama
“One of those really wonderful comics that needs no explanation” – Multiversity Comics
“Bright and a little cartoony, but the subject matter is also the right kind of serious.” – Henchman 4 Hire
“A prime example of how imaginative and entertaining the comics medium can be in the hands of the right creator” – All-Comic
“Fascinating and funny” – The Newest Rant
“So freaking good” – Coverless Reviews