Flash from the Past: A sampler of the first Godzilla design sketches done for Dark Horse Comics editor Randy Stradley back in January 1987.
Since Gojira/Godzilla looks strikingly different from film to film in the original Toho movies, it was up to me to satisfy Randy, Dark Horse and Toho Studios reps with “our” version of the Big G.
There were a lot of design variations done, and nobody was ever satisfied, even after a design had been officially accepted by the end of February, 1987.
Right through the ink stage, modifications were being made — meaning Godzilla ended up looking different page to page, panel to panel in that initial Dark Horse special.
Still, my initial pencil pages (especially the double-page splash) helped Dark Horse land the Aliens license with 20th Century Fox, so despite the clusterfuck Godzilla ended up becoming in short order, some good came of it all for the publisher.
What a sexy beast!
“for the publisher”. ARGH!
I’ve heard of such clusterfucks at DH when other artists were doing books based on properties that were being licensed.
I knew of one artist who intentionally screwed up an entire multi-issue saga. He was paid for the work, but because of what he did, it never saw print! LOL!
Ok, SO…when are you selling either of these babies or pages from the Godzilla book????
I just thought it was great that Godzilla looked like Godzilla. However much I might have enjoyed the Marvel series poor Godzilla didn’t look much like himself there.
Wow, great to see this, Steve. And, yes, your Godzilla special for DH still’s the best!
A cluster f@ck at DH…never!!!!!
Thanks, all — and alas, Jason, I’ve held on to precious few originals from this project, and those I didn’t sell back in ‘87-’88 are staying put. Once the major project of sorting my 35+ years of original art is underway, that could change — if I find I’ve indeed kept something I’ve forgotten about and can part with. Keep your eye on the MYRANT gallery; I’m now posting art for sale every two days, like clockwork.