I’ve been a giant monster fanboy for a very long time, just about all of my life. I can still can remember that day I was walking through a Toys R Us store as a three-year-old with my parents, and my eyes were eventually drawn to a VHS copy of King Kong vs. Godzilla. When I watched it with my family back home later that night, and we watched Godzilla’s introduction where he emerges triumphantly from an iceberg, it was love at first sight.

Something about that big, atomic fire breathing lizard just resonated with me as a youngster. Kong was pretty cool to me, too, as were so many of the other giant monsters I would go on to see in films and television, primarily those of the Japanese variety (Kaiju). They came in such a wide array of sizes, shapes, colors, abilities, and personalities, but all fearsome and awe inspiring in their own unique ways. I didn’t really follow superheroes or DC/Marvel comics until my high school years, so as a kid I didn’t have much interest in Batman, Superman, Spider-Man, or Wonder Woman―my heroes were Godzilla, Kong, Gamera, and Mothra.

Continue reading “The Influence of Kaiju, and Other Giant Monsters On The Legend of Light” →