IDW Publishing’s press tour for the Kai-Sei era of Godzilla comics is truly ramping up, especially with the incoming debut of Starship Godzilla this October. Within each interview, there’s small tidbits of fun anecdotes about this mysterious new universe that are revealed by either the man in charge, Jake Williams, or one of the series’ writers or artists. With the revelation of King Ghidorah appearing in Issue 2 of Starship Godzilla, fans are clamoring to find out more, since this marks the first appearance of one of Godzilla’s “Big 5.”
For those unaware, the “Big 5” in our community is a roster of well-known and heavily used monsters in the franchise consisting of Ghidorah, Rodan, Mothra, and Mechagodzilla alongside Big G. Of course, we’ve already seen Godzilla’s mechanical doppelganger in Starship Godzilla, with the titan serving as the ship for our crew of ragtag aliens, but this marks the very first time that another one of the “Big 5” has shown up in the Kai-Sei era. We’ve seen Anguirus, Baragon (see the cover of the upcoming Deadzone Issue #5), and Jet Jaguar, and have had soft confirmations of King Ceasar and Rodan, but until now, the Kai-Sei world has not seen the appearance of Godzilla’s greatest adversary.
Legendary comic book site Comics Beat got to sit down with a majority of the Kai-Sei team – editor Jake Williams, writers Tim Seeley (Godzilla), Ethan S. Parker (Escape the Deadzone), and Chris Gooch (Starship Godzilla), as well as Starship artist Oliver Ono – for a chat about what to expect next from this vast, unfolding world of beasts. The prime subjects in this talk seemed to be various inspirations, cut material, and fan-favorite kaiju & where to expect them. Our community is eager to find out when these classic and beloved creatures will pop up in this new world, so we’ve got the full rundown on the various Toho kaiju teases below.
Art by Oliver Ono
TM & ©Toho Co., Ltd.
When asked about revitalizing some of Toho’s classic kaiju for the new universe, the Kai-Sei team commented on keeping the classic traits of some of the more iconic and definitively-characterized monsters, such as King Ghidorah, while also having some ability to rework others, such as Anguirus. Jake Williams added to this, remarking upon maintaining the great mysteries behind the classic characters:
“In general with the kaiju, even Ghidorah, we’re showcasing an encounter with a god. We’re being pretty soft on when we give a full origin. Starship Godzilla shows an encounter with Ghidorah but it’s not setting a flag on where Ghidorah has been for the last thousand years. Overall, we’re doing that with Godzilla and the other kaiju. It’s tough because you only have so many of them and you want to make their interactions feel important. Part of the job is obfuscating stuff like that until you’re ready to stake your claim.”
Tim Seeley (Godzilla) added to this, softly confirming another fan-favorite by name dropping the space-dwelling monster, Gigan. He continues, adding that the character is a bit more malleable compared to the more reoccurring creatures in Godzilla’s library.
“A lot of those cinema versions of those kaiju are canon and important [like] King Ghidorah, Mothra, and Rodan. Then there’s a lot of them that are crazy one-off monster movie stuff. The way we try to approach it is establish the ones that have to be there. Others like Anguirus or Gigan, there are new ways to do them. I don’t think we feel as constrained that they have to follow every previously established continuity. But we have to make sure when they appear they are impactful. They have to serve a function to our story. Our job is to make you feel something that doesn’t need to make you feel that you need to check Wikipedia. We have to make you feel awe and fear.”
Lastly, Chris Gooch (Starship Godzilla) commented on the prep work in bringing in such a familiar face, while also putting his own twist on things. Jake Williams asked if he had watched how the kaiju was done in past movies, with Gooch remarking:
“I Googled and watched a bunch of old movies. I pretty much had an idea how I wanted the kaiju to come across which is huge roaming extraterrestrial planet-sized monsters. Part of making the world feel organic is having people stumble upon these creatures and have them embedded in the everyday workings of the spaceside of the universe. I remember [you said] the key thing for an artist with Godzilla is being able to do the scale otherwise the threat and scenario is never properly communicated. The kaiju you’re alluding to I want to be old and ancient. This is like being in the depths of the ocean and you cross paths with something and move on.”
Art by Oliver Ono
TM & ©Toho Co., Ltd.
For more fun details, we encourage you to check out the full interview with Comics Beat, which includes some cutting room floor ideas, the initial pitch of a man transforming into Godzilla, and more. Godzilla is now ongoing, with the second issue releasing next month on September 10th. Deadzone will have its second issue drop on September 17th, with Starship Godzilla rounding out the books on October 2nd. Stay tuned for more details on all things Kai-Sei.
