Godzilla Gangsters and Goliaths #4 Rankings

The latest figures are also in for the Godzilla: Gangsters and Goliaths series, and boy has it taken a tumbling.

For reference issue #3 was at 162nd place with 11,611 issues sold.

Issue #4 now comes in at 194th place with 9,061 issues sold!

That's over a 20% drop! That's the kind of stuff that makes comic book publishers nervous because retailers are not keen on ordering more of something that is selling less.

Although luckily the series is going to end soon...so there's not much more to lose from here on out.

Which is again a huge shame as I still find this series to be far better than its more popular (and heavier advertised) sibling the Godzilla: Kingdom of Monsters series.

I am very interested in seeing what the final issue's numbers will be, as hopefully it ends up going out with a big bang in sales.

Godzilla Kingdom of Monsters #7 Rankings

Well it looks like sales are slipping for the Godzilla Kingdom of Monsters
series, but not by much.

The latest numbers are in for issue #7, and it came in at 171th place with 11,141 issues sold.

(For reference issue #6 was at 172nd place with 12,524 issues sold).

So as you can see it just faced one drop in rankings...with a little over 1,000 issues lost.

Again not too shabby for a series that's already past the "honeymoon" phase in things.

By this point of the game people are either interested or not, and it looks like more people are sticking by.

I gotta say the series keeps picking up momentum with each issue.

I loved the way MechaGodzilla was introduced in the last issue, and thought that Powell did a great job of mixing in his creation within Detroit as a way to spur jobs.

It should have seemed tacky...but it didn't. It actually worked.

Of course MechaGodzilla going crazy and then destroying cities is something else, but at least it was the thought that counts.

Apparently People Like Roland Emmerich Movies Better If They Have Godzilla Instead Of Shakespeare

Bad news for Roland Emmerich's newest movie "Anonymous".

Known of course for directing blockbuster films such as "Independence Day", "Stargate", "2012", and of course "Godzilla", Emmerich has traded in the special effects for a character-driven movie about Shakespeare.

The film is focused on the idea of whether or not Shakespeare truly wrote his writings, with some prominent character actors involved within the film.

So while Emmerich is all ready to switch filmmaking gears, apparently Sony Pictures (the same makers of the 1998 Godzilla film) think otherwise.

Originally geared to be released on 2,500+ screens, that number has now been sliced to 250 screens.

A 90% drop-off, wow!

The reasoning is that the studio wants better dollar-per-screen averages (which in essence makes the film look better) as initial previews have not been kind to it.

So they're opening it smaller to enjoy these higher averages, and if the film has some success they will broaden its screen numbers as the weeks progress.

The problem is that most theater chains will not allow such increases unless the film is really doing tremendous business...which this film is not expected to do. 

Tough break for Emmerich, who no doubt wanted more people to see what he can do outside of special effects.

Here's the original article for further info:

movies.yahoo.com: Apparently People Like Roland Emmerich Movies Better If They Have Godzilla Instead Of Shakespeare

Can you say 'Lawsuit' from Toho Studios?

*Special thanks to Caidema for this article*

What you're looking at is the cover for Robot Monster Army's soon to be released album "Monsterpiece".

Anybody who has seen my YouTube video on Toho's strict copyright and trademark practices (seen here), knows that they give immediate cease and desist orders to anybody looking to profit off of their Godzilla franchise without paying licensing/royalty fees.

This is usually followed by a lawsuit in order to obtain some kind of settlement.

Past examples have included Toho taking on Subway, Mozilla, a wine maker, various internet domain websites, and so forth.

So no doubt somebody from Toho may seek retribution from this band for utilizing an image of King Ghidorah without their permission.

Now I don't know for certain if such permission was already sought by the band, but I'm hoping that they have or they would have to change it pretty quickly.

It's a difficult thing to gauge when it comes to free speech vs. copyright/trademark infringements.

I've heard that altering images (such as this album cover has done) makes a copyrighted photo fall under the "parody" protection status, but I can't tell for certain.

In any case here's the original article for further info on this album:

Roadrunnerrecords.com: ROBOT MONSTER ARMY: Entire New Album Available For Streaming

Godzilla Image of the Day

(Credit for these images goes to the fantastic Godzilla 1998 website created by After Dusk Studios. Guys, you've really outdone yourself here. Here is their link for further reference. There you'll see so many great items about the film: Godzilla1998.org)

I had heard about this a long time ago, so it was great to be able to find something about it again.

What you're looking at are screenshots of the short-lived Godzilla 1998
virtual environment called "Godzilla: The Aftermath".

Essentially the concept was that (just like with any other SIMS game) you would create an avatar that would allow you to visit environments just destroyed by Godzilla.

Along the way you would meet other avatars/users from across the globe and get a chance to chat with them.

Huh? You can see why the idea was short lived.

While it was certainly innovative and intriguing (I mean it would be pretty cool to walk around areas that Godzilla just trounced, as the screenshots do look pretty cool), it's the jumble of an instant-chat medium that makes things so weird.

I feel that if this were instead a seek-and-play type of game (which other movie websites tend to do) it would have worked much better.

Imagine how cool it would have been to seek a very large portion of a Manhattan virtual environment for Godzilla's lost eggs, or help rescue Audrey Timmonds, or even locate Godzilla himself.

In any case I tried to see if anybody was still hosting this virtual world but alas it's gone.

Big kudos again to godzilla1998.org for finding at least some semblance of it.

Godzilla Artist wins an Austin Chronicle award

Popular Godzilla artist Matt Frank (pictured above) just won an award within the popular "Austin Chronicle" newspaper.

Calling him the winner of the "Best Kaiju King" award, the Chronicle has this to say about his work:

Talk about a monster-sized challenge. When IDW Publishing needed 100 variant covers for its new Godzilla comic, only one artist was up to the job: superfan-turned-superstar artist Matt Frank. The UT grad and expert in all rubber-suited monsters doesn't just know his Mothra from his Rodan. His daikaiju explosions helped put the crown back on the king of monsters.

Matt is of course noted for his fantastic cover work on the Godzilla: Kingdom of Monsters series, which has allowed him to make a big mark within a relatively short amount of time.

I mean this time one year ago nobody knew who he was.

Now he's enjoying tremendous success off of his Godzilla work, enough to frequently be requested at Comic Cons and other appearances.

Plus there was that recent announcement of his own one-shot Transformers, so it won't be long until he gets his own series.

It's good to see Matt enjoy such success.

He truly places a great amount of work on his art, so I always enjoy when talented artists get their deserved rewards.

NEW Destroy All Monsters and Godzilla vs. Megalon DVD / CD Art

What you're looking at is the DVD cover for the Godzilla Vs Megalon film, and the CD soundtrack cover for the Destroy All Monsters music release.

Both (along with several other related releases) are set to debut in a consecutive time period that is as follows:

Destroy All Monsters [Blu-ray]
: October 25, 2011
Destroy All Monsters [DVD]
: November 8, 2011
Destroy All Monsters [Soundtrack]
: November 8, 2011
Godzilla Vs Megalon [Soundtrack]
: November 8, 2011
Godzilla Vs Megalon [DVD]
: November 22, 2011
Godzilla Vs Megalon [Blu-ray]
: November 22, 2011

Whew...you got all that?

Tokyo Shock/Media Blasters went all out when they obtained these two film licenses, so there's everything a fan wants here.

The curious thing is the way they chose to space out each release over several dates.

Why not do them all at once, particualrly on a date geared towards the upcoming Christmas season?

In the business world it's always best to obtain the most purchases from customers at one time. This is why the term "impulse buying" comes into play. It's far better (and easier) to do this all at once...as opposed to hoping the clients come back over periodic times.

In any case you'll find links to all of the above items here, which are great items for any Godzilla fan out there!

Godzilla Video of the Day

This is a fantastic making of video of the 1998 Godzilla movie that someone has so kindly posted on YouTube.

(I'm a huge sucker for making-of videos, so what a joy it was to come across this one, especially since a proper making-of doesn't seem to exist on this film).

Say what you will about that movie, but there's no doubting that a tremendous amount of talented special effects people helped create this amazing looking film.

To this day many of the special effects still hold up, particularly the scene where Godzilla first eats the fish bait, the scene where Godzilla enters the second fish trap in Central Park, and the final Brooklyn Bridge attack scene.

A lot of people put a lot of work into this film.

Just look at what's shown starting 07:00 to 07:15.

It's a great compilation of all of the effect shots created just to showcase Godzilla's foot stomping on the character "Animal".

In any case take a look at this video if you have a chance. You'll be amazed to see the work put into the film.

Terror of Godzilla motion comic...part 4

Here's part 4 of the great motion comic that YouTube user "metalmonkey666" made, all based on the Dark Horse Godzilla 1985 comic.

The Super X makes its fantastic debut (still one of the best ship designs I have ever seen) and soundly defeats Godzilla utilizing cadmium missiles.

Godzilla is down and dead...or is he?

Still an epic battle and comic and movie, and I highly recommend everybody to take a look.

Enjoy!

Will Godzilla Battle Biollante in Gareth Edwards' American Version?

I don't think so, but the author of this article does.

Really it's more conjecture, as the author is basing this off of the fact that the artist who sculpted the rumored Godzilla-design statue (Hecter Arce) also showcases a redesigned Biollante
sculpture on his website.

But if one were to inspect the rest of Hecter's website, one would also see sculptures of Venom, Spider-Man, some werewolves, and so on.

Does this mean that all of those heroes/villains will be in the Godzilla film too?

Of course not, but one can see where this conjecture comes from.

Personally I strongly feel that Legendary Pictures will not use a Toho villain within the movie.

While it's inspirational to consider Biollante (it'd be interesting to see how an environmental message would be linked) Toho licenses each monster for the same price as Godzilla.

In other words it would be very expensive to get MechaGodzilla, Rodan, Mothra, etc., in these movies.

This is one of the main reasons why the 1998 Godzilla did not feature any other kaiju.

Rather I fully believe that they will create an all new monster in order to a) not pay further fees, and b) have the monster vs monster fight we've all been clamoring for.

In any case here's the original article for further reference:

movies.yahoo.com: Will Godzilla Battle Biollante in Gareth Edwards' American Version?

Godzilla Toy of the Day

What an amazing looking toy!

If you're a Mothra fan this is definitely one toy for you.

Showcasing Mothra in all of its glory, it stands perched on the Eiffel-looking tower as it guards its nest, ready to fight with its powerful wings.

What's amazing about this toy is the level of detail involved!

Like a beautiful diorama, every major piece of this toy has an intricate level of detail.

Just look at the wings. They're almost as real looking as a butterfly's wings, and they're completely poseable.

In fact Mothra's mouth, legs, wings, and head are completely poseable, so you can literally make Mothra move just like in the movies.

Toy designer Revoltech has really outdone themselves with this toy, as this fantastic looking Mothra is a great buy for any fan out there.

Was there really a gigantic sea monster living here on Earth?

What you're looking at are the apparent marks created by long-lost GIGANTIC creature thought to have lived here on Earth millions of years ago.

Scientists have discovered these marks on the bones of other large sea dinosaurs, which denotes that an even larger creature was attacking and killing them.

The presumed method would have been for this beast to grab hold of its prey and drag it down to the bottom of the ocean (perhaps even snapping its neck), as large amounts of dinosaur bones have been found in these "nest" areas.

Such a creature (based on the size of the markings) is tentatively described as being 300 feet long, which would place it right at Godzilla's height at his peak!

But all of this is pure speculation considering no remains, not even any bones, have been found of this gigantic creature.

Very fascinating if you ask me, as I'm wholly interested in topics like this.

So little of our oceans are actually mapped that there's still a plethora of unknown deep-sea areas out there.

Who knows, this Kraken Godzilla-size creature could still be around, which would be amazing to see in person!

In any case here's the original article for further info:

news.yahoo.com: Lair of an ancient Kraken sea monster possibly discovered

Godzilla Movie News: More Godzilla "What Could have Been"s, vs Batman, the Devil and Ghost Godzilla

Here I go over more past failed projects within the Godzilla franchise, such as "Godzilla vs Batman", "Godzilla vs the Devil" and "Godzilla vs Ghost Godzilla".

Here's the original link for further info on this and other failed projects: theglobalcafe.org: Godzilla, the Films that never were