Though there always seemed to be comics in our house growing
up, it was of the Archie / Richie Rich variety and it wasn’t until my friend
Jas living across the street introduced me to all the comics he was collecting
that I finally got to see what all the hubbub was with those mysterious MARVEL
and DC comics lining the racks at our corner candy store.
Up until then,
Marvel and DC comics were strictly for “big Kids”, and whenever I’d take a
glance inside one of the books, I was confused and overwhelmed by the pages of
seemingly never-ending dialog and utterly incomprehensible storylines. I mean,
sure, I’d heard of Spider-Man and Superman, but somehow the stuff I saw in
cartoons and television seemed so easy to understand, reading the actual comic
seemed like reading an encyclopedia!
He laid out some of his comics and explained to me that the
comics were part of an ongoing storyline that continued from issue to issue,
and that even though it might seem confusing at first, once you’d read a
couple, the story would start to make sense!
I understood. It made sense, and looking at Jas’ monthly
purchases, (among them HULK and CAPTAIN AMERICA as well as
BATMAN and his all time favorite, GREEN LANTERN) I thought it might be
interesting to try and begin collecting a title myself! But where to start? To
be truthful, I didn’t much care for costumed heroes at that point in my life. I
was more won over by my friend’s enthusiasm more that any actual comic hero…but
then my eyes spied a comic featuring Godzilla. GODZILLA? The famous Japanese
monster whose movies I stayed up many nights and endured many “Monster Weekends”
to catch? Now THAT sounded cool!
GODZILLA #12
The Godzilla issue that I picked up that fateful afternoon
was issue #12, and as luck would have it, happened to be the first chapter of a
new story! The story was a tale of Godzilla being abducted and asked to battle
on the behalf of an alien race against three deadly creatures called the
Mega-Monsters who were due to arrive on Earth! WOW! This story was everything
I’d HOPED it would be- big kaiju monsters slugging it out and even one of those
giant transformer robots (a la MAZINGER Z) that I loved so much- what more
could a kid ask for?! And this time, when I got to the end of the comic and it
said “TO BE CONTINUED NEXT ISSUE”, I knowingly nodded, feeling very mature now
that I was reading BIG KID comics, and even showed it to my mother, saying,
‘You See, unlike Richie Rich and Archie Comics, THESE comics are an ongoing series, and so they
continue from issue to issue…!”
But my Mom dismissed it with a wave of her hand, saying,
“Ahhh, they’re only trying to get you kids to buy more comics!” D’oh!
GODZILLA #13
Three or four weeks later, I happened to be in the candy store to buy some snacks after school, and was JOLTED
when I absent-mindedly glanced at the comic spinner and saw the new GODZILLA
issue on the rack! Honestly, I had forgotten all about Godzilla and collecting
comics, but taking one look at the cover of Godzilla fighting the Mega-Monsters
and the story and excitement came rushing back to me in a flash!
The previous
issue was merely a setup for the confrontation ahead. THIS issue was the BATTLE ITSELF and oh how it delivered! A city-leveling slugfest began with Godzilla
versus the three Mega Monsters all culminating in a devastating end where
Godzilla’s giant robot partner Red Ronin is beheaded by one of the alien
Beasts! This time when the comic went to “To Be Continued”, I FINALLY
understood what a “cliffhanger” was, and I was simply BESIDE myself with desire
to read what happened next!!!
GODZILLA #14
I couldn’t contain my excitement when I saw the NEW issue on
the stands! There on the cover stood Godzilla bravely trudging on solo against
the Mega Monsters, as Red Ronin’s severed head smoked in the foreground!
There was something special I felt seeing this cover. In a
way, it was like the first time I really knew that I was actually passionately
collecting this story, not because I wanted to be like my friend or because it
seemed cool, but because I truly loved the strip. There was a sort of sense of
pride I felt looking at that cover and already knowing EXACTLY what was going
on, I felt proud to say to my cousin, ‘Look, Godzilla is fighting Krollar from
the planet Mega- and that head is Red Ronin- he got his head sliced off by
Triax!!!”
Well, I ran home with THAT one, and it concluded with a big bang, with Godzilla systematically destroying all three Mega-Monsters and winning the praise of the dying Alien race who now knew their home planet would be forever safe from the evil Megs-Monsters! WOW! What a story!
It was here that comic collecting firmly took ahold of me
and has never let go!
GODZILLA #15-16
Back in these days, I wasn’t really COLLECTING comics so
much as readin’ them for enjoyment, so after I’d read the new issue, I’d just
toss it wherever happened to be convenient. Then, whenever a new issue would come in, I’d have to hunt
around the house and dig out the old issues.
One might be under the bed. One might be behind the
television. One might be in the entertainment center stuffed in the drawer with
the ‘45’s! When issue #15 came
out, I was able to find all three of them, but I wasn’t so lucky when issue #16
came out. Try as I might, only issue #12 and #13 turned up. After weeks of
searching, I realized my mother had probably thrown the tattered issue #14 out!
After that sobering lesson, I made a special place for my Godzilla comics- I
cleared out a space on the middle shelf right next to our encyclopedias, made a little stack, and
there each new issue would go, and be returned to!
Though issues #15 and 16 (story where Godzilla heads out to
cattle country and gets involved with rustlers!) weren’t as interesting as the
Mega Monsters arc, by then reading the latest Godzilla Comic was like stepping
into a pair of comfortable shows- a regular part of my life…little did I know
my favorite storyline of them all was coming up next!
GODZILLA #17
When I first laid eyes on the awesome cover to issue#17, I
didn’t give it too much thought. I simply thought the cover was being symbolic,
about how S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent Dum Dum Dugan was forever hounding Godzilla like
an ominous presence lording over his life.
But when I read the issue and they ACTUALLY SHRUNK GODZILLA,
you could have knocked me over with a feather! Holy Cow, Who came up with such
a NEAT story?! (Well, that would be writer Doug Moench and artist Herb Trimpe, but you know how kids are…they
think comic stories grow on trees!)
But when this issue concluded, Godzilla was INDEED shrunken,
about the size of a small chicken, and BOY! My mind raced with all the
possibilities that could happen in subsequent issues! So off they were to New
York, with a little Godzilla in tow!
GODZILLA #18
HOLY CRAP, when I saw this cover, I just about flipped!
While waiting that long, agonizing month for the next installment, my mind
raced at what the next issue’s cover would look like. All I knew was that Godzy
was shrunken and going to the Big City. Then Issue #18 came out, and right off, that cover just
ROCKED MY WORLD!
I remember taking this issue to Jason’s house to show it
off, I loved it so much. I remember babbling to him, “OF COURSE Godzilla would
be in the sewers fighting Rats! Now that he was reduced to their level, Rats
are the “monster” equivalents of the city right?!” Bonus was the fact that it
was “Battle Beneath Eight Avenue”…the name of the street that I lived
on! Why, I could imagine this going on right beneath me…!
Well, reading it we find out that Godzilla’s friend Rob
Takiguchi (the boy who’d controlled the robot Red Ronin before its’ demise) had
fiddled with the latch on the cage containing Godzilla, and when the cage was
accidentally dropped, the box sprung open and Godzilla had escaped into the bay!
He'd made his way into the sewers and battled off the rodent
vermin as the desperate crew split up and tried to recapture him before he could get into more mischief. Attracted by the familiar voice of Rob Takiguchi,
Godzilla emerged from the sewers, but just as Rob was about to approach him,
the gas stated to wear off, and Godzilla suddenly shot up to a
human-sized 7 feet!
GODZILLA #19
I remember when I saw this issue on the stands, I reached
into my pockets and came up with about 18¢, a far cry from the 37¢ needed to
buy the comic! Luckily for me, I lived right next to this empty lot where
people would toss their beer cans and trash, and I kicked up two 10¢ deposit
bottles and ran back to the store, turned in the bottles, got my dimes, and
with my grand total of 38¢ was able to purchase my GODZILLA comic!
After all that work, I took a well-deserved break to delve
into that new comic- and it didn’t disappoint! With Godzilla now a big 7 feet
tall, Rob tries to quietly get him back aboard the ship, but when Dum Dum and
the others see him, they panic and rush at him, and before you know it, the lot
of them are trading fists and kicks, before Godzilla gives a final solid punch
and runs off again.
GODZILLA #20
I think I made it clear above that at this time, I really
didn’t care much for costumed heroes, and was waiting for more villains like
the Mega-Monsters to show up. Instead, I got…The Fantastic Four?!
Yes, since Godzilla was loose in New York, somebody called
in the good guys, and so it was that the Fantastic Four came to crash
S.H.I.E.L.D.’s Godzilla hunting Party. I just didn’t like this invasion of my
favorite comic… it took the cat-and-mouse relationship between Godzilla and Dum
Dum out of their hands and basically turned it into the hot-headed Thing
wrestling and irritating Godzilla against the advice of everyone! Finally someone has the good idea to
use Doctor Doom’s time machine to send Godzilla back where he came from, and I
hoped that would be the end of the superheroes for awhile!!
GODZILLA #21-22
Sent back in
time, Godzilla teams up with Jack Kirby’s Devil Dinosaur. This comic obviously
meant to tie up loose ends of Devil Dinosaur’s canceled strip, and I felt like
I had come in halfway through a movie with all these new characters and
pre-existing storylines! Not only that, I didn’t care for Moon Boy taking Rob
Takiguchi’s place. I thought there was only ONE BOY who could befriend Godzilla
that way.
And it didn’t matter anyway, for once the task was done (and
all loose ends were tied up) Godzilla was bounced back to present time, (an
effect I NEVER saw happen in any of the prior (or Subsequent) “Doc Doom Time
Machine” stories) once again giving Dum Dum and gang the problem of what to do
with him.
Funny thing about issue #22- when I went up and paid for it,
I placed 37¢ on the counter, grabbed my comic, and started to leave, when the
lady behind the register stopped me and said, “That’s not enough. Your total is
42¢!” HUH? I hadn’t noticed that the price had finally gone up. Comics were no
longer 35¢, they were 40¢!! So I had to borrow the rest of the money from my
cousin, who insisted I pay her back that nickel later!
GODZILLA #23
Yag! More Marvel Heroes, this time Yellowjacket and the rest
of the freaking Avengers. Funny how much I loved Costumed Heroes later, at this time I
just couldn’t STAND them being in the Godzilla comic! But there they all were,
like gnats bothering an ox!
After being sent back to the Stone Age, you would have
thought we’d be through with New York super-beings, but it was not to be.
Pretty soon it seemed like all the heroes in the city showed up for the
punch-out. Using all their powers together, they use brute force to herd him to
the oceanfront, but all they end up doing is pissing him the hell off!
GODZILLA #24
And then in the summer of ’79, Godzilla came to a close,
though I did not know it.
Issue #24 was the final chapter in the “Godzilla Shrinks”
storyline, ending when young Rob Takiguchi finally gets the Avengers to buzz
off, and gently persuades Godzilla to return to the Sea. Rob gives a tearful
goodbye as Godzilla walks out to the ocean, and as the sun sets, the heroes
stand by silently as Godzilla growls a final farewell before departing for
good.
And for the first time, the comic didn’t say “To Be
Continued”…all it said was “Fin.”
“WOW!” I thought at the time. “What an Awesome ending!” I
wonder how they’ll top that in the NEXT issue! But there was to be no “Next
Issue”. Because of Toho’s hefty
licensing fee and lukewarm sales, Marvel had decided to cancel the book. But I
didn’t know about any of this, and after this, spent MONTHS waiting at the
candy store for a next issue that never came! It seemed ironic timing that just
as I was about to get into more “older” comics, my beloved Godzilla was coming
to a close.
When school began again that September, I ran across one of
my classmates from Elementary School. We got to talking about what we were up
to, and he said he was collecting comics, too! When I told him I collected
GODZILLA, he nodded, “The Marvel one? Yeah, I read some of those. Hey, I can give you my old issues!”
COOL! We made plans to go to his house after school, and walking home that
afternoon, I asked, “Say, Godzilla is my favorite comic, but what ‘s yours?”
“Ah, it’s this really cool comic called X-MEN! I gotta let you see some of
those!” And he did, but THAT’S a story for another time!
* * * * * * * * *
One thing we’d always loved back then were the HEMBECK
strips that appeared at the back of all the DC Comics in the “Daily Planet”
section, and what better way to celebrate my comic-reading childhood than to
have Fred Hembeck himself recreate one of my favorite Godzilla covers?! When
commissioning this piece from Mr. Hembeck, I was happy to find that HE was a
big fan of Godzilla, too, AND in particular, that same “Shrinking Godzilla”
that I loved!!! FANTASTIC!
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