Godzilla - Epilogue: Arizona Bay - R.A. Wonsowski (the American Zombie)

Layout:
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Panel 1:  Wide shot.  Monument Valley, Arizona.  Looking West.  Between the monolithic rocks, we can see the Pacific Ocean beyond.  Thanks to Godzilla's rampage fighting magma giants along the San Andreas fault, all of California and Baja California is gone.  The sky is clear and blue.

CAPTION:  ONE YEAR LATER...

CAPTION:  You would think after something like this, we'd be a little smarter.  A little wiser. 

Panel 2:  On a city street, Westboro Church protesters are holding picket signs, mouths open in some chant.  Some picket signs read: "Godzilla Hates Fags", "You Can't Spell GODZILLA Without GOD", "'Zilla 1, L.A. 0".

CAPTION:  Instead, we just crank up the stupid, blind to what history tries to teach us.

Panel 3:  In a boardroom, Japanese businessmen are bowing and shaking hands over contracts with three American lawyers, who look a lot like Gene Hackman, Ned Beatty, and Valerie Perrine from Richard Donner's Superman movie.  Everyone is smiling billion-dollar smiles.

CAPTION:  We're blind, even if we're not looking in the right direction.  And we never suspect who the one-eyed kings are.

Panel 4:  On the new Arizona beach, Monument Valley in the distant background, mourners of all ages and races stand on red rocks, tossing roses, orchids, and lilies into the ocean in rememberance.  The sky is orange from sunset.

CAPTION:  And we choose to be blind.  Blinded by grief, by confusion and anger.  By remembered smoke and ash.

Panel 5:  Starry night, long shot.  A campfire reflects off a cliff-face wall.  People are sitting and standing around it.

CAPTION:  We never see the warning signs.  Abused child becomes abusive parent.  Tiger turns on the tamer.

Panel 6:  Zoom in.  We see the Hopi natives around the campfire, listening intently to their chief, who wears a wide-brimmed black hat, and holds his arms wide.  Behind the chief, an old man paints figures on the cliff wall with a slender brush.

CAPTION:  We create our own monsters, and we're surprised when they turn on us, hungry for our bones.

Panel 7:  Zoom in.  We see that the old man has crudely painted Godzilla stomping through fire and rubble on the cliff wall.  He is just finishing the tail.

CAPTION:  We have only ourselves to blame if we refuse to read the writing on the wall.

FIN

(tip of the hat to Bill Hicks (1961-1994), who inspired this piece...it's just a ride.)

Godzilla: Tournament Of The Immortals - Niel Jacoby

Panel 1: Godzilla, Mechagodzilla, Mecha-King Ghidorah, and a masked giant gorilla are in position in a wrestling ring slapdashed from debris, with bridges as turnbuckles, power lines as ropes, that sort of thing, with Godzilla and the unnamed gorilla in one corner and Mecha-King Ghidorah and Mechagodzilla in the other.

There should be identification captions identifying the combatants as:

Godzilla, Reigning King Of Monsters

King Kaiser, Mysterious Masked Monkey

Mechagodzilla, Revenge-driven Robo-Kaiju

Mecha-King Ghidorah, the Hydraulic Hydra from Hell

Inset panel: 2 commentators are looking up at the ring from a table. One, Exalted Master Thunder Mask, is an aged, spectral masked wrestler still wearing his mask, even when called by the unholy forces of The Futurians to commentate one last match. The other, Gregory Walker, is a straightlaced, besuited type.

Thunder: IN ALL MY YEARS IN PROFESSIONAL WRESTLING, IN THIS REALM AND THE NEXT, I HAVE NEVER SEEN A COLLECTION OF COMPETITORS SO FULL OF FIGHTING SPIRIT! ANY OF THESE FINE FELLOWS COULD SINGLEHANDEDLY DESTROY THIS CITY, AND, IN THE TRUE SPIRIT OF WRESTLING, THEY HAVE CHOSEN TO SETTLE THEIR AFFAIRS IN THE ONLY CIVILIZED WAY!*

Caption: *Translated from the ghostly Japanese

Greg: YES, INDEED! THIS RING, CONSTRUCTED FROM THE RUINS OF TOKYO, SHALL PAY HOST TO THE GREATEST BATTLE NOT ONLY IN THE HISTORY OF WRESTLING, BUT PERHAPS EARTH ITSELF!**

Caption: **Translated from the halting half-remembered high-school Japanese

Panels 2 & 3 should be in a horizontal tier across the page.

Panel 2: The referee straddles his motorcycle on the top of a turnbuckle, tiny in comparison to the kaiju that are about to battle. He is incredibly nervous.

Ref: UH... I WANT A FAIR FIGHT HERE. NO HITS TO... WHATEVER YOU BIG THINGS MIGHT HAVE BELOW YOUR BELTS, NO FOREIGN OBJECTS, NO... INSULTING MOTHERS.***

Caption: Translated from... you get the point.

Panel 3: Back to the announcers.

Thunder: FROM HIS VANTAGE POINT, THE REFEREE WILL MOST LIKELY HAVE NO IDEA WHAT IS HAPPENING IN THE RING, DUE TO HIS TINY, TINY HUMAN EYES! THANKFULLY, HE HAS BEEN PROVIDED WITH A SMALL PORTABLE TELEVISION THAT SHOULD BE ABLE TO PICK UP THE FEED FROM OUR CAMERA HELICOPTERS!

Greg: THAT'S RIGHT, EXALTED MASTER THUNDER MASK!

Thunder: PLEASE, JUST CALL ME THUNDER, EXALTED MASTER THUNDER MASK WAS MY FATHER! A-HA-HA-HA!

Greg: OK!

Greg: AS I WAS SAYING, WITH COMBATANTS LIKE THESE, IT IS ABSOLUTELY CRUCIAL TO ADHERE TO THE RULES OF PROPER SPORTSMANSHIP!

Ryu: INDEED!

Panel 4: We see the whole ring from the viewpoint of the referee, with Godzilla and Mechagodzilla in the ring, and the unseen gorilla and Mecha-King Ghidorah in their teammates' corners.

Ref(OP): AAAAAAND...

Ref(OP): FIGHT!

SFX: DINGDINGDING!

Panel 5: Godzilla Tiger-suplexes Mechagodzilla into the mat.

(Reference: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suplex#Tiger_suplex)

SFX: THPPOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOTTTCCCHHH!

Inset panel: Announcers table. Exalted Master Thunder Mask is just flipping out, while Greg is still stunned, but just wide-eyed, slack-jawed stunned.

Ryu: AND THE MATCH BEGINS WITH A BRUTAL TIGER SUPLEX BY GODZILLA!

Yep, could not resist that closing line.

Godzilla - The Ultimate WMD - J.D. Coughlan

Three regular panels across the top, one large panel dominating the page.


Panel 1: The Oval Office. The President looks tired, beaten. He half-reads some files while listening to his advisors.

ADVISOR 1: The entire west coast has been seized, as well as most of the farm belt. And they're still advancing.

ADVISOR 2: This is an enemy the likes of which we have never faced before. We need to take drastic measures.

Panel 2: The President looks out his window. He is lost.

NO DIALOGUE

Panel 3: The President, from behind, still looking out the window.

PRESIDENT: Very well. We have no other option...

Panel 4: Large. Godzilla is suspended in a gigantic glass tank full of liquid, connected to various tubes. Walkways circle the tank, which many scientists going about their dark business.

PRESIDENT (CAP): Unleash Godzilla.

END OF PAGE.


END OF ISSUE.

Godzilla – One Giant Step – Shaun Richens.

PAGE ONE

1,2,3 Are the top row. 4 makes up half the page and 5 is a page wide panel at the bottom.

1. A MAN stands in the middle of the road. It is late at night and the streetlights are the only source of lighting. In his hand the MAN is holding his cell phone up recording something.

NO COPY

2. We pull back slightly. We can now see the MAN is stood in the middle of a crater in the middle of the main road, he is still filming something but as yet we cannot see what it is.

         NO COPY

3. We have pulled back far enough now to see the MAN is stood in a crater made by some giant foot. The footprint is massive; the MAN seems tiny compared to it. The print is reptilian with three long toes. He is holding his cell phone up to film still.

         NO COPY

4. A half page splash. We are now positioned in the footprint crater with the MAN. We are positioned behind him, finally looking at whatever it is he is filming. Dominating the panel is the huge form of GODZILLA towering over the city around him. (He is in London so it would be great to have one of the big landmarks in the background somewhere) On the MANs phone screen we can see he is zoomed in on GOZILLAs head, his huge jaw wide open.

         GODZILLA

         Skreeonnnk!

5. A page wide panel. We are on a youtube like video site. The image from the young mans camera phone makes up the image in the video box out. The video is titled. Godzilla In London. It has a five star rating and 9,723,231 Views, under which it says uploaded 2 minutes 33 seconds ago. 

Godzilla – Godzilla: Tales of Destruction – MK Stangeland Jr.

(DR. FRY and PROFESSOR YAMAMOTO, two scientists working on solving the ‘Godzilla problem’, are in San Francisco when Godzilla attacks the City. DR. FRY hast just unveiled his plan for dealing with the monster – a GODZILLA clone.)

(5 Panels)

Panel 1: DR. FRY looks through a binoculars at GODZILLA and GODZILLA II try to make sense of meeting one another. PROFESSOR YAMAMOTO, standing nearby, is hysterical over this discovery.

PROFESSOR YAMAMOTO: YOU CLONE GODZILLA?! WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT?!

Panel 2: Panel is instead behind DR. FRY and PROFESSOR YAMAMOTO, allowing GODZILLA and GODZILLA II to be seen in the background charging towards one another.

DR. FRY looks to PROFESSOR YAMAMOTO and raises his arm in the air triumphantly. He has a smile on his face that is filled with an absolutely ridiculous level of glee.

DR. FRY (1): Why else?

DR. FRY (2): FOR SCIENCE!

Panel 3: Panel faces inwards again. PROFESSOR YAMAMOTO delivers a massive dope slap to the back of DR. FRY’s head, causing his eyes to go wide and the binoculars to fly out of his hands.

PROFESSOR YAMAMOTO (1): You are SO STUPID!

PROFESSOR YAMAMOTO (2): That is TERRIBLE REASON!

Panel 4: Interior panel looking out. PROFESSOR YAMAMOTO shouts at DR. FRY.

In the background, both GODZILLA and GODZILLA II can be seen powering up their atomic breath.

PROFESSOR YAMAMOTO: You have any idea how much destruction they will cause?!

DR. FRY: But in the process, they’ll either kill each other or the one left standing will be so weak we can kill it with ease!

Panel 5: Both DR. FRY and PROFESSOR YAMAMOTO look out as they hear both GODZILLA and GODZILLA II firing their atomic breath at one another.

SFX: GuiZZZZZZZZ!

(END PAGE)

Godzilla - Continuity Be Damned - Grant McLaughlin

1 - Han Solo comes out of a clearing of a lush jungle, running towards the Millennium Falcon.

HAN SOLO: Chewie!  Start the engines!  Get it up!  Start the engines!

2 - Pull out.  Godzilla is above the tree tops and seems intent on getting the small figure racing towards his ship.

GODZILLA: HHRRRWWWRR!

3 - Move back down to in front of Han.  He wears pure panic on his face.  Godzilla is behind him in the background and is spewing some wicked fire from his mouth.  Things look pretty bad.

HAN SOLO : If only I'd brushed my teeth like my parents had asked!

CAPTION (KID): Dad...

4 - Change scenes to a father and his young son in the son's bedroom.  The son sits in bed; the father sits beside him.  The father has two toys in his hands: Godzilla and Han Solo.  The former is positioned so as to be chasing the latter.  The father looks surprised.  The son looks unimpressed.

DAD: What?

KID: Godzilla doesn't chase people who don't brush their teeth.

5 - The father looks puzzled.  His son is not buying his act and rolls his eyes in irritation.

DAD: Are you su--

KID (interrupting): Yes.

6 - The kid is hoping out of bed, and heading towards the washroom.  He is still somewhat irritated by his goofy father.  The father wears a pleased expression.

DAD (1): Well, could you brush them anyways?

DAD (2): Just in case.

KID: Okay, Dad...

Godzilla - ゴジラ - Ben Rosenthal

1. A man sleeps next to his wife in the dead of night. All is peaceful in the world. Out of the window we can see tall buildings, the ocean spanning out behind them. This room is on a higher level of the building.  As such, some buildings rise above the window, whilst others are lower.


2. Same as Panel 1, however the man has shot straight up in bed, as if woken from a nightmare. He is in shock.  Outside of the window we can see some of the buildings vibrating.


3. Same as Panel 1, with the man frantically shaking his wife to wake her up. He is panicked.

MAN
妻。 妻、目を覚ました。 

CAPTION
"Wife. Wife, wake up".


4. Same as Panel 1, with the wife sitting up in bed, rubbing her eyes.  The Man is out of bed, reaching for his dressing gown as he stares out of the window.  Out of the window, some of the buildings are crumbling to the ground.

MAN
私たちは逃げなければならない ! 

CAPTION
We must flee!

WIFE
なぜ、それは何であるか。 

CAPTION
Why, what is it?


5. A close up of the man's eye. In it we can see the reflection of the city, crumbling around a large, dark image which can just be made out to be Godzilla.

MAN
ゴジラ。 

CAPTION
Godzilla.

Godzilla- Blowback -Dan Hill

I grew up watching the zanier entries in the Godzilla franchise (Vs. King Kong, his son, Monster Island, etc) but it’s the original that sticks in my mind now.

It’s black and white, moody, tense and builds suspense slowly. Not only that but it raises important questions (some of which are still pertinent today) about the use of nuclear power and weapons.

I implore all of you to give it a watch at some point. It might just surprise you. To that end, I attempted to put a ‘message’ in my strip this week and make something straight faced. The metaphor is a bit on the nose, but it speaks to what I love most about that original film.

Panel One

Wide panel. We OPEN inside the USS Arizona memorial structure in Hawaii. It’s early morning and there’s not a cloud in the powder blue sky.

Tourists go about their business looking at the plaques and displays and peering over the sides at the submerged, rusting hulk below.

Reference: http://wikitravel.org/upload/shared/e/e5/Uss_arizona_memorial.jpg

CAPTION:  I thought I knew the way the world worked.

CAPTION:  I believed in truth, justice... all that jazz.

Panel Two

We CUT TO a CLOSE UP of the wall in the memorial listing the names of the dead.

Reference: /wp-content/plugins/rss-poster/cache/c95f2_111230095844-obama-pearl-harbor-story-top.webp

CAPTION:  I never questioned things.

Panel Three

CUT TO a CLOSE UP on STAFF SERGEANT FREDERICK BURR looking at CAMERA. He’s in his mid thirties with sandy coloured hair and cold, almost grey, eyes. He’s wearing civilian clothes-- a loose fitting white cotton shirt and a pair of knee length khaki shorts and a pair of sandals.

CAPTION:  Especially authority.

Panel Four

Wide panel. We’re looking at the back of Burr as he turns slightly at the commotion. He’s trying to maintain his balance as the entire structure shakes. A few tourists run past him towards the openings at the side to get a better glimpse of whatever's causing the ruckus.

CAPTION:  But that before that tiny town outside Kandahar.

SFX:  PTOOOM!

CAPTION:  Before it all changed.

Panel Five

Wide panel. CUT TO a shot looking up at Burr slightly as he clings to one of the railings, peering out across the water. Next to him other tourists stop, stare and point. Some click pictures on camera’s, others hold up iPhone’s.

TOURIST 1:  --an earthquake?

TOURIST 2:  You filming this?

TOURIST 3:  -- no, there. Can’t you see it?

    CAPTION:  Now the world doesn’t make sense to me.

CAPTION:  All I know is that we made it this way.

Panel Six (Inset of Panel Five)

CLOSE UP on Burr, mouth slightly agape.

VOICE (OFF):  What is that?

Panel Seven

Wide panel. In the background of the panel we see the USS Arizona Memorial. Around it we are several other U.S Navy ships in dock, an aircraft carrier and a cruiser.

In the foreground of the panel we can see several of GODZILLA’s spines emerge from the surface of the ocean.

CAPTION:  Where’s the justice in that?

Why Godzilla?

Because size matters.

Wait, come back!

I'm not referring to the tagline of the Matthew Broderick starring stinker, but the the character of Godzilla himself. Most people when they think of Godzilla think of the goofy suit and crazy monsters battling it out, destroying Tokyo in their wake. The original film picked up the baton wielded by early American films like King Kong and Mighty Joe Young. But, like it's American counterparts, if you scratch the surface you begin to find real world issues at the centre of the narrative. The original, underrated, Godzilla (1954) opens with the fishing boat The Bingo Maru being attacked by Godzilla, the fishermen aboard receiving radiation burns as a result. This sequence has its roots in the real life fishing vessel Lucky Dragon 5 whose crew were exposed to radioactive fallout in the wake of U.S atomic testing at Bikini Atoll in March 1954. The entire film is a slow burn full with tension and noir-esque cinematography.

Here Godzilla is the collective fear of the burgeoning nuclear age made flesh, with hints that nuclear testing has either woken or created our scaly friend.  The film deals strongly with the idea of science out of control,  the notion that if we let ourselves, we will be the parents of our own destruction. The films finale features Godzilla running amok through Tokyo in a facsimile of a rolling nuclear attack (director Ishiro Honda had seen the damage in Nagasaki and Hiroshima firsthand). The films closing moments also feature the main character taking his potentially destructive technology to the grave after he has used it to defeat Godzilla, lest it fall into the wrong hands (he falls short of saying "Now we are all sons of bitches"). It was only with the sequel Godzilla Raids Again in 1955, and the arrival of Anguirus,  that the films began to settle into the routine of pitting monster vs monster (King Kong Vs Godzilla, Mothra Vs Godzilla, Ghidorah the Three Headed Monster).

Godzilla made his way into comics right from his birth in 1954. Indeed, every single film from the original up to Godzilla 2000 has been adapted into comic book form. From 1977-79 Godzilla also made his appearance in Marvel comics, written by Doug Moench and drawn by Herb Trimpe, facing everyone from The Avengers to Devil Dinosaur. A few of these comics also took a leaf from the later films, depicting Godzilla as a lesser of two evils, an antihero of sorts who would stop a more savage creature in his wake-- thus saving mankind.

Through the late 80's and 90's Dark Horse picked up the license for the character publishing him in a number of stories and even sending him hurtling back through time. Recently, IDW have acquired the license publishing a number of mini-series that range in genre and scope with Godzilla: Gangsters and Goliath's straddling both the monster and crime genres, and Duane Swiercyzinski's recent #1 pitting a Statham-esque special forces guy against Godzilla.

So, Godzilla then-- a metaphor for the dangers of science gone wrong,  antihero, destroyer, saviour. The scope is there for them all.*

See?

Size matters.

*Or you could just smash things.