Wednesday Comics on Thursday - Godzilla: Kingdom of Monsters - March 31, 2011

Yesterday I picked up the comic I have been waiting for since I heard about it last year. If you've read The Qwillery for a while you'll know that I am a HUGE Godzilla fan. I like all kaiju, but Godzilla is truely King of the Monsters for me. IDW Publishing released Godzilla: Kingdom of Monsters #1 yesterday. The comic is being produced in partnership with Toho Ltd. so we'll see quite a range of kaiju!

There are a lot of covers for Issue 1. Retailers could buy a special cover (after buying 500 copies of Issue 1) showing their store be stomped by Godzilla. A lot of retailers did just that and there are nearly 100 of these covers. Bleeding Cool shows them here and here. I'm tempted to buy at least one from a comic shop that I shop at regularly.

Here are the covers (excluding the retailer special covers - go to Bleeding Cool to see those).

Cover A - Art by Alex Ross

Cover B - Art by Eric Powell

Cover B folds open

Cover RI-A - Art by Eric Powell

Dynamic Forces Cover

(different than the other retailer special covers)

There are additional covers. I have on order a 1-in-50 variant, which I'll add to the post when I see the actual cover. There is also a very nice Wondercon variant that I hope to get.

The "Quick Overview:"

The King of the Monsters rises again, and for the first time in comics, he’s bringing lots of other beloved Toho monsters with him in one destructive saga, and The Goon’s Eric Powell is sounding the alarm. Powell will also paint covers for each issue of this new ongoing series, including a wraparound cover to kick things off! IDW Publishing

I think that the cover art is fantastic. Really! I could look at the covers for hours (if I didn't have a lot of other things to do).

Writers:  Eric Powell and Tracy Marsh
Pencils:   Phil Hester
Inks:       Bruce McCorkindale
Colors:   Ronda Pattison
Letters:   Chris Mowry

The story is set in the present. Godzilla comes from the sea near a Japanese island and stomps around while being shot at by the Japanese military. It's a sparsely populated island, but there is still destruction and death. Godzilla heads back into the sea. When it appears that Godzilla is heading for Tokyo, the Japanese government decides to fire a nuclear weapon at him. This may not be a good idea. You'll have to read the comic to see what happens next.

There is really not much to the first issue. It's being used to set up the remainder of the story so I'm looking forward to seeing what happens next. Do I mind? No. Godzilla has stomped, the military has attacked, a bomb went off, and there will be more trouble. It's Godzilla! I can't wait to see King Ghidorah, Mothra, Rhodan, and the other Toho kaiju.