Dark Horse Preview Book (Dark Horse Comics, 1992)

 

In 1992, Dark Horse sent out a preview book to retailers, and inadvertently created one of the rarest Godzilla comics that exists.  It's virtually unknown on many lists and databases, but here is the lowdown.

The book itself is unique; it's black and white with pages that are 8.5 x 11-inches, but the oversized outer cover adds an 1/8 of an inch all the way around, meaning it won't fit into any standard magazine bags.  Inside are 4-page previews of all of their titles for 1992, meaning the Arthur Adams GODZILLA COLOR SPECIAL for our purposes here, because that's the only Godzilla item Dark Horse made that year (other than a pin-up in a comic distributed at San Diego Comic Con that year, which we will see in a moment).

Apologies for the photos; the weird binding makes it so that it would have to be destroyed to get decent scans of, so this was unfortunately the only way:

The artwork above was used as the cover to the GODZILLA COLOR SPECIAL that year.

And here is the pin-up that ended up in SAN DIEGO COMIC CON COMICS #1 (which I believe was given out for free at that show, even).

Is anything FREE at a Comic Con? Ever?

This preview book is an interesting footnote in the Dark Horse Godzilla output, which lasted from 1987 to 1999! To see a checklist of all of it, consult our Chronological American Godzilla Comics page.  A PDF guide showing every cover is in the works as we speak, so stay tuned!