4/28/14

Godzilla KOTM Trendmasters Comic (1994, part 1)

Today, a very special look at an often-overlooked Godzilla item.  This pack-in mini-comic measured 5 x 7" and was included with the 10" action figures made by Trendmasters in 1994.  While they produced at least 53 different trading cards over the course of their different Godzilla lines, this was the only comic they made.

And, it's not at all bad.  The art is actually very decent (just look at IDW's last couple of varied years, and you will quickly come to the conclusion that not every artist is cut out to draw kaiju*), and there is a lot of focus on the monster action, which is as it should be.
The story is titled "Monster Island Unleashed" (oddly, Monster Island is also given the name of Ogasawara, which is a real group of islands).  It seems there is a Lex Luthor-type business mogul from "Genco" (sister company of "Biloba"), who has somehow taken possession of Godzilla's....egg.  Therefore, Godzilla enlists Rodan and Mothra to get it back, and make the humans pay.
This is all well and good, but it might have made more sense to use Mothra as the parent of the egg (especially since, besides the weirdness associated here, Trendmasters never made an attempt at Minya...which is fine, of course).  But then again, 1994 was the year of GODZILLA vs. SPACEGODZILLA, so maybe working with Toho gave Trendmasters a little inside information regarding the new Babyzilla, so that might be the reason for Godzilla laying, or finding, as it were, another egg.
Not that the artist and writer weren't familiar with the movies--because later you will see they even have Mecha-King Ghidorah shoot out clamps--so they had obviously seen GODZILLA vs. KING GHIDORAH, which was no small feat in 1994!
You will notice a "Skreeongk" here, which makes me wonder how that exact spelling of the sound effect for Godzilla's roar got started.  I know it appeared in Dark Horse's Godzilla comics, but I'm not sure if it goes back any earlier than that. Another sound effect that appears more than once is the comical "SH-BOOM," which puts the song in my head every time ("Life could be a dream...")!


Anyhow, I have seen scanned pages before, but never the complete story, and when I purchased a lot recently that included a well-read copy, I figured it was time to do some scanning.  Next time, we will conclude the comic, and see if Godzilla is reunited with his egg!
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*conversely, it should be pointed out, Matt Frank is some sort of deity when it comes to drawing kaiju.

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