(2017)

One last piece to cap off the "20 Years a Godzilla Fan" theme...well, if you wanna get technical, this was actually FIVE.

I REALLY had to crunch to get this done in time for the con. I actually finished it the day before I had to leave for Rosemont for G-Fest that year. But by golly, I made it happen.

The reason for making it a panoramic scene was inspired by an old VHS box set I've had sine I was 7. The sides of the cases formed an image of Godzilla 1985, but laying them out flat, the fronts of the covers formed a big battle scene. Although I tried to take mine a little further by having it "wrap around"; you can see the piece of Mothra's wing next to Megalon. A lot of people joke about how I could have the piece on a lampshade or something, lol.

As for why I picked these five monsters:

• MOTHRA (1961) While GODZILLA VS COSMIC MONSTER was my first Godzilla movie, I actually saw MOTHRA before it (my first Godzilla film, by extension). Despite zero mention of Godzilla, my first Godzilla toys were a Trendmasters “Godzilla vs Mothra” 2-pack, so I knew the two had a connection of some sort. Absolutely fun movie, with its fun characters and amazing effects.

• GHIDRAH: THE THREE-HEADED MONSTER (1964) Between my love of dinosaurs and Godzilla, dragons bridged that gap. Naturally, I immediately took a liking to King Ghidorah. And seeing his 1964 debut (which was part of that aforementioned box set) immediately made me fall in love all over again with giant monster brawls.

• GODZILLA VS THE SMOG MONSTER (1971) While I didn’t see the movie until I got it on DVD, I remember seeing its American theatrical trailer on a video I rented from our local library called HOLLYWOOD DINOSAURS, which was actually what first introduced me to Godzilla movies. It certainly left an impact, because it actually gave me nightmares (I distinctly remember being on a school bus when a Hedorah was in the back, slowly devouring people as it moved toward the front). While many would say the film isn't scary - which, really, I think it's a combination of it being the '70s (seriously, what '70s movie WASN'T weird?) and an intentional injection of levity. Hedorah, in concept, is a very terrifying creature, as is what it represents. Creative...but terrifying.

• GODZILLA VS GIGAN (1972) From that same video were also clips of GODZILLA VS MEGALON, which is where I first saw the bizarre monster that is Gigan (and for Christmas ‘97, I got a Trendmasters figure). I thought he was a real cool guy, and you could imagine the look on my face when I noticed that he had his own movie (also part of the box set). And to boot, he was teamed up with King Ghidorah! The movie is kinda rough, what with an extremely tight budget of relying on stock footage and using a Godzilla suit that was literally falling apart, but for what it's worth, it's still a fun movie. There's something almost Hanna-Barbera-esque about the characters.

• GODZILLA VS MEGALON (1973) As I just said, I had first seen clips of this on HOLLYWOOD DINOSAURS, and I got my first copy of the movie itself as part of the box set. One thing I always liked was Godzilla doing the infamous tail-slide. I saw that, and I've wanted more Godzilla ever since. So it's not the dark and serious commentary '54 was (and it was featured on MST3K) - that doesn't mean it's BAD. Hell, I kinda wish we had gotten a Jet Jaguar series from it - it's the most Hanna-Barbera of the Godzilla films, short of being the actual HB Godzilla.