Moratorium on Blurbs

Until I determine that I can manage the load again, I'm putting a moratorium on offering blurbs. I've had so many requests for them in recent days that I can't keep up. So, until further notice, I'm afraid I'll have to just say no. Thanks for your understanding, and I really do appreciate writers and editors thinking of me. Till then....

Ouch!, Riverbend Ramble, and a Bunch of Aged Geocachers

Yep, there's a geocache at that wreck you see above. I think I can safely say it's one of the most unusual settings for a cache I've seen in quite a while. It was placed by friend and fellow geocacher, Skyhawk63 (a.k.a. Tom), whose birthday happens to be today. To celebrate, he and his wife Punkins19 (a.k.a. Linda) hosted a caching event at the Freeway Dining Room in Reidsville. It was a fun event, with damn good food and quite a few cachers in attendance.

Afterward, I teamed up with friends David & Diana (a.k.a. David & Diana), Diefenbaker (a.k.a. Scott), Night-Hawk (a.k.a. Tom) and Rhodorooter (a.k.a. Dave), for a little ride up the road to Danville, where a few relatively new caches awaited our attention. Our primary target was Riverbend Ramble (GCB9J29), a six-stage multi on the Danville Riverwalk Trail, which both Night-Hawk and I had made some progress on a short while back, but we had failed to solve the clues to reach the final stage. This time, with invaluable assistance from David & Diana, we were able to decode the necessary keys and find the cache. It turned out to be great fun, all the more so because the temperature finally turned somewhat more tolerable (87℉ rather than triple digits, and there was an occasional almost-cool breeze).

 

We successfully hunted a couple of others nearby, and then I dragged my near-exhausted self back home. This evening, I'll be in my regular seat on the Sunday evening  Lovecraft eZine Podcast, which will feature John Langan talking about his new fiction collection. He will be appropriately heckled.

 

Laters.

Fortifications

WHEW! I've spent over a week playing concrete mason every morning, as so much of the old stuff around the house has broken away, some quite severely. A couple of buckets of Quikrete down and probably enough sweat to fill them both (it's not exactly chilly outside). It does feel like I've spent an awful lot of time heading back and forth to Lowe's lately...

 

I have a little more touching up to do, but I think the most extensive work is finished. And yes, I'm keeping myself very well hydrated, thank you so much.

 

Everything else out there is certainly keeping hydrated. Every day for almost a month now, we've had big rains, frequently with accompanying thunder and lightning storms, and all that water is washing away tons of the topsoil around our place. As a result, a couple of trees have fallen in the surrounding woods, one of which came down partially in the driveway. Thankfully, it didn't do any damage to the house, although there's still quite a few nearby that could...

 

To top it off, we need to have some gutter work done as well, as the existing ones haven't been able to keep up with these blasted deluges.

 

As they say, it's always something....

But It's a Dry Heat!

They're not very strange.

You know, as "dry" as the alien hive the space marines infiltrate in Aliens (1986); that kind of dry heat. The intrepid Two Old Farts (friend Diefenbaker—a.k.a. Scott—and I) got together this morning at Tanglewood Park, just southwest of Winston-Salem, NC, to hunt a few geocaches (sadly minus our favorite short women geocachers, Fishdownthestair—a.k.a. Natalie—and Cupdaisy—a.k.a. Debbie, for they were indisposed—a.k.a. chickened out). Scott and I put in well over six miles on the trail in temps that reached the very high 90s, with a heat index of 106℉, so I suspect we sweated off a few pounds of otherwise healthy brain cells. Whew! We found seven caches, all of them a lot of fun. And we both survived, at least until we parted company after lunch. I dunno about later.

Speaking of lunch, we found a mighty good one at Ma'Luz Mexcican Grill (formerly MiPueblo). Street tacos are one of my most profound weaknesses, and their brisket street tacos almost had me swooning. Or maybe that was the margarita.

Nah, it was the tacos.

Last night, we hosted our regular Supper Club, with friends Terry & Beth and Joe & Suzy in attendance. I made Thai Basil Chicken, one of my staple dishes. Since we don't have any Thai restaurants nearby anymore, when we want Thai food, I head for the kitchen...

T'was all good. Imma fall over now.

Brugger caught the Supper Club crowd in its native environment.

Happy Hedorah Day

1971 Hedorah vs. 2004 Hedorah

It's the Smog Monster's birthday, so here's a double-dose for you in the photo above. Godzilla vs. Hedorah (a.k.a. Godzilla vs. the Smog Monster) came out in Japan on this day in 1971 and was released in the United States in February 1972 (and I saw it at the drive-in theater on its opening night). The photo above is a Photoshop/diorama I put together a while back using a couple of the figures I've collected. I've been on a real daikaiju kick recently, mainly because I'm kind of on a daikaiju kick all the time. I guess I've had the fever a little more than usual due to the release of friends Ed & Steve's Godzilla: The First 70 Years, which I wrote about here just the other day.

I have not been a collector of much of anything for a few decades, but when I did collect things, it was daikaiju- and anime-related goodies, mostly back in the 1980s, during my days of living in Chicago. But two or three years back, for reasons unknown, I got monster figure fever, and so, little by little, I found myself collecting daikaiju again—mostly Toho monsters. Then I decided to create some dioramas, enhanced with Photoshop. Most of the ones I've done are quick, down-and-dirty efforts so that I don't waste valuable writing time playing around. However, I can't say that I haven't enjoyed the hell out of composing some of these beasties.

Therefore, I'm gonna post a bunch of them here, just for shits and giggles. If you like giant critters, then maybe you'll find these enjoyable.

My earliest diorama(s)—Godzilla and Anguirus (or Angilas, as I much prefer), which were Kayodo resin kits I built in 1985; in 1992, I built myself a miniature city out of cardboard, and these are a couple of the photos I took back then.

MechaGodzilla, Anguirus, King Seesar, Godzilla (sort of reproducing a publicity shot from Godzilla vs. MechGodzilla, 1974)

An S.H. MonsterArts figure of Gigan (Godzilla vs. Gigan, 1972)

Godzilla and Anguirus (Godzilla Raids Again, 1955)

Baragon, from Frankenstein Conquers the World, 1965), roaming about in my neighborhood!

MechaGodzilla 2, Titanosaurus, and Godzilla (Terror of MechaGodzilla, 1975)

Gorosaurus (from King Kong Escapes, 1968)

Godzilla vs. Hedorah (Godzilla vs. Hedorah, 1971)

Godzilla and MechaGodzilla II slugging it out at Ferrum College! (Godzilla vs. MechaGodzilla, 1993)

Shin Gomess (Shin Ultraman, 2022)

Godzilla meets Megalon for a serious talk (Godzilla vs. Megalon, 1973)

A hell of a thing to wake up to! (Godzilla vs. MechaGodzilla, 2002)

A diorama I created today, using 1:300-scale miniatures and some Photoshopping (Godzilla 2000, 1999)

And another one using the same miniatures as above (Godzilla 2000, 1999)

A Storm-Defying Cookout — HA!

Old Dude, Samaire, Bob, Brugger, & Yvonne

For at least the past month, our southern Virginia weather has been fucking insane. For most of my life, this has been a temperate area, rarely suffering extreme weather, but now it's absolutely tropical. 100% humidity and in the mid- to high-90°F range every morning, and powerful, oftentimes damaging storms later in the afternoon/evening. Rinse and repeat (literally) every single day. It's never been like this here in my lifetime, and though there's naught one can do about the weather (especially since the Orange Fuckturd has basically declared climate change a hoax), I'm absolutely over it. It's wreaking havoc on our house, and the constant, excessive water is eroding away all the topsoil, particularly around the trees that surround our lot (any one of which might take us out if it falls — and a lot of trees have fallen in the neighborhood in the past few weeks). Not to mention there have been several record-level, damaging floods in this region (though at least they haven't reached scale of the recent Texas disaster, which killed people and ruined livelihoods).

 

So, when friend, fellow writer, and publisher of Fugue Devil: Resurgence, Samaire Wynne, invited Brugger and me, as well as friends Bob & Yvonne, to an afternoon cookout at her place, we all wondered whether the weather would simply up and squash our plans. But we nonetheless decided to proceed, and — despite the weather's earnest efforts — we had a hell of a fine, fun gathering. Yep, it dumped rain, and it hit us with thunder and lightning, but we persevered. Samaire had a large stand-up canopy that we braced to keep the wind from sweeping it away, and, fortunately, it kept us — and our feast — safe from the rain and generally comfy (excepting, of course, the 90°F temps and 100% humidity). We had some fabulous burgers, chicken skewers, egg salad, pasta salad, drinks aplenty, and other goodies. It felt like a much-needed balm for the raw nerves we've all felt over the past days, weeks, and months.

 

It's going to be a busy week, with some serious home repair/maintenance to do as well as a fuck-ton of writing (I've got two novels in the works as we speak). I hope we don't get washed away or flattened before this most unloved season is over and done with.

Godzilla: The First 70 Years

I've written at length, on this blog and elsewhere, about my lifetime passion for Godzilla and daikaiju in general, particularly regarding my involvement in the very early days of giant monster–themed fanzine publishing (most recently with "Early Daikaiju Fandom Strikes," June 19, 2025). It was by way of creating Japanese Giants when I was a teenager, back in 1974, that I met lots of other daikaiju fans, most notably Bill Gudmundson and Ed Godziszewski, both of Chicago. We subsequently became good friends, and they took up the torch to keep Japanese Giants alive after I discovered I did not have the financial resources to keep it going on my own. When I moved to Chicago in 1983, we three Japanese Giants Guys became officially known as "THE Japanese Giants Guys," and Ed, bless him, financed and oversaw the magazine for many years, up through the early 2000s. It was during his proprietorship that he became well-acquainted with numerous executives and staff members at Toho Studios, and he not only traveled frequently to Japan for business, he trampled his way onto the studio set on numerous occasions, including during the filming of Godzilla vs. Mothra (1992) and others. (Okay, he didn't really "trample" anything, but he got there!)

Ed's passion for tokusatsu led him to become a bona fide giant monster film historian, and his scholarly approach became most evident in the last few issues of Japanese Giants. He and frequent collaborator Steve Ryfle became regular providers of commentaries on the DVD releases of numerous daikaiju films, and they also wrote the informative and downright fun documentary about the making of Godzilla, Bringing Godzilla Down to Size, which originally appeared in 2008 as a bonus feature on the Classic Media DVD release of Rodan/War of the Gargantuas. In 2017, they penned a comprehensive biography of frequent tokusatsu film director Ishiro Honda, titled Ishiro Honda: A Life in Film, from Godzilla to Kurosawa.

Godzilla: The First 70 Years is Ed and Steve's ultimate tribute to and study of the Godzilla films, from the 1954 original to 2023's Godzilla Minus One. This volume is truly Godzilla-sized—over 400 pages, weighing in at 6-plus pounds, featuring hundreds of rarer-than-rare photographs (many taken on the sets by consummate Godzilla fan, writer, and occasional actor Norman England), and exhaustively researched text. Director John Carpenter, a longtime Godzilla aficionado, and actress Megumi Odaka, who played psychic Miki Saegusa in six of the Heisei-era Godzilla films (1989–1995), provide forewords recounting their long experiences with Godzilla. Producer Shogo Tomiyama closes out the book with an insightful Afterword.

I have pored over the pages of this big volume, though I've barely scratched the surface of the text. It's going to take some serious time to read in detail, but I'm looking forward to it more than I've looked forward to reading anything for quite a long while. Knowing Ed and Steve and their writing styles—both informative and engaging—I can't imagine that I'll be anything other than thrilled.

 

The retail price is $75, but for the moment, it can be purchased on Amazon.com for $60. Right now, it's ranking as the #1 seller in numerous categories. For any Godzilla fan, THIS is the book for you. Get it. Get it now!

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Godzilla: The First 70 Years
at Amazon.com

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Riverbend Ramble or Bust

Well, for me, it was a bust, but at least it was a fun—if mercilessly hot and muggy—bust. A handful of new geocaches came out in Danville this week, and I'd picked up one of them the other day after taking Brugger to the airport for her latest trip to Michigan to look after her folks. My primary target was a new, six-stage multi called "Riverbend Ramble" (GCB9J29), out on the Danville Riverwalk Trail. I got out to the trail about 9:30 a.m., but the heat and humidity were already inching up toward a most uncomfortable high.

 

I found stage one, which was pretty clever and in plain sight, without any trouble. But at the very next stage, the trouble began in earnest. It involved sorting out a fairly complicated code, the description of which left me with more questions than answers. With the help of friend Tom (a.k.a. Night-Hawk), who had gotten through a portion of the multi yesterday, I figured out how to calculate the numbers I needed. However, at stage three, I couldn't locate the container that was supposed to be there. I found a magnet on what was clearly the host, but no container; however, the cache owner let me know that this was not where I would find the stage. So, after my unsuccessful search, I set out on the Riverwalk to get in my daily mileage on foot, which I did (although I'm not sure the oppressive heat did my health any real favors).

 

The same cache owner had a couple of other new ones around town, so I went after those and found them with no problem (the one at the driving range, pictured above, was quite fun). Not long after I got back to Martinsville, another cacher logged a find on the multi—so it's possible our paths crossed out there and we didn't even realize it. Alas! But that leaves me with a fairly involved cache to continue hunting on a later trip to Danville, so I'll be looking forward to that.

 

Kim will be back on Tuesday evening, so if the weather cooperates, I should be able to fit in some Greensboro caching before I go to pick her up. The cats and I will be very happy to see her back.

Old bridge over the river and trail, which is barely still standing

That old muddy river

EARLY KAIJU FANDOM and Other Hot Stuff

A week or so ago, I posted a blog ("Early Kaiju Fandom Strikes!", June 19, 2025) about Bradford Grant Boyle's work showcasing daikaiju-themed fanzines from the 1970s, aptly titled Early Kaiju Fandom. The latest edition—Volume Four—is now in the house! The cover art is a drawing I did sometime between 1981 and 1983 (I think) of Gaila, the green, carnivorous gargantua from Toho's 1966 monsterpiece, War of the Gargantuas.

 

This edition includes reproductions of every page of every issue of the fanzines Oriental Cinema, Nipponese Fantasy Films, Giant Japanese Monsters, Giantdom, Japanese Monsters, and Japan's Giant Monsters. Talk about a labor of love!

 

You can order this one, as well as the previous three volumes, from Amazon.com here. 

 

Also in today's mail delivery: a bottle of Frog's Point Honey's REAPER, made by friend, fellow author, and bee-wrangler Patrick Freivald. I've tried numerous varieties of the hot honey, and the reaper version is probably my favorite. It's hot, but not too hot. I'm told it's really good for drizzling onto the rim of a tumbler for an Old Fashioned, and since I love Old Fashioneds, that's gonna be my inaugural effort for this stuff!

 

Check out Frog's Point Honey here.

High Above the Cane Creek Mountains

Today was a geocaching day for me, and a hot one at that (the heat index hit over 100 degrees out there). I headed down early this morning to meet a couple of the No-Dead-Weight Irregulars—friends Debbie (a.k.a. Cupdaisy) and Scott (a.k.a. Diefenbaker)—at the Cane Creek Mountains Natural Area, a few miles south of Burlington, NC. There were six newish caches on the hiking trails, which range from moderate to rugged; we managed to find them all and put in a little over three miles on the trail.

For me, the highlight of the hike was reaching the relatively new Monadnock Observation Tower, which rises 80 feet above the treeline at the summit of the mountain, offering some stunning 360-degree views of Alamance County. At first sight, the tower doesn't look all that tall, but after a 1.5-mile, semi-strenuous hike, plodding up those hot metal stairs took some doing. I hung out up there taking pictures as long as I could stand it—about ten minutes—for that sun was blazing. At least below, we were mostly under tree cover.

 

Once done at Cane Creek, we drove up to Mebane to have lunch at Catrina's Tequila & Taco Bar, our favorite Mexican restaurant in the area. The steak and chorizo street tacos with diabla salsa are to die (or maybe even kill) for. And the margaritas are mighty good (unlike so many places, they have a decent amount of tequila in them).

 

After lunch, we went after a handful of nearby park & grab caches, and I finally headed home. And now I'm gonna sit back, have a beer, and wilt, for the heat is hot.

EARLY KAIJU FANDOM Strikes!

From the early 1960s, when I became acquainted with Godzilla and so many other giant Japanese monsters, I found myself not just enamored of the beasties but addicted to them and the movies they rode in on. I've written at length on this blog about my numerous memorable experiences with daikaiju, and it's probably common knowledge among my friends and acquaintances that, in 1974, inspired by the late Greg Shoemaker's legendary The Japanese Fantasy Film Journal, I launched a fanzine of my own: Japanese Giants, an 18-page offset-printed labor of love that featured a filmbook of the Toho blockbuster, Destroy All Monsters, articles on Ultraman and Johnny Sokko & His Flying Robot, a couple of editorials, and a bunch of photos and artwork. My intention was to continue the magazine for as long as I was able, and...as things turned out...that first issue was as long as I was able.

In stepped the right honorable Bradford Grant Boyle (known then as just Brad Boyle), who wanted to produce a daikaiju-themed fanzine of his own. Since I was no longer using it, he asked if he might carry the Japanese Giants brand forward, and I excitedly agreed. He published three issues before he, too, gave it up to go stomp on bigger cities. By then, I was in college and had made the acquaintance of Ed Godziszewski and Bill Gudmundson, both of Chicago, both of the daikaiju-loving persuasion. With the Japanese Giants title once again floating free, the three of us grabbed it and began producing it again as a collaborative effort.

After college, I moved to Chicago myself, where Ed, Bill, and I became officially known as "The Japanese Giants Guys." We collaborated on several more issues, though eventually, Ed became its sole proprietor (and got by with a little help from his friends). In 2001, Ed produced Japanese Giants #10, the final issue. (Ed has gone on to write several scholarly books about Godzilla, kith & kin, as well as provided commentaries on numerous Japanese film DVDs/BluRays.)

During the 1970s and early 1980s, fanzines devoted to giant Japanese monsters proliferated, running the gamut from the most primitive rags to professionally produced periodicals. In the years following, the world has seen no shortage of daikaiju-themed publications, but the products from those early, pioneering days pretty much went the way of the dinosaurs. Some of us who had collected them held on to as many of the old, decaying paper zines as we could (I've still got bins full of them) but a whole new generation of fans, writers, and artists had taken over the scene, and few remembered the glory days of typewritten (and sometimes even handwritten) text, oftentimes crude pen & ink illustrations, poorly reproduced photos, and the magic of pre-video age filmbooks, which told the stories of the movies, including dialogue, usually transcribed from tape-recorded soundtracks.

Again, enter Brad Boyle (yes, now known as Bradford Grant Boyle). A while back, Brad undertook the Herculean task of collecting every early Japanese monster movie fanzine that ever existed and publishing each in its entirety in a set of volumes titled Early Kaiju Fandom. To date, he has produced four volumes, the fourth having just been released (and it features one of my pen & ink monster renderings from forty-some years ago on the cover: Gaila, the green gargantua from War of the Gargantuas; see the last image in the row at the top of the page). In these volumes, you'll find complete reproductions of dozens of those old fanzines, so true to the originals that their visual flaws appear (again) in all their lack of glory. Of course, you'll find Japanese Giants, but also The Japanese Giants Fanletter, an almost, sort-of monthly publication that Brad produced. which offered the best and most comprehensive daikaiju-related material of its day; Monsters of Japan; Japanese Movie Sci-Fi; Giants From Japan; Godzillamania; Oriental Cinema; Giant Japanese Monsters; Giantdom; Japan's Giant Monsters (by now you may have noticed a theme); and many more.

I am in awe of the work that Brad has done with these volumes, and I've been happy to contribute to them with both articles and art. This may be a niche market, but hey, it's devoted to the BIGGEST niche monster that ever walked. You may just want to check these critters out.

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Early Kaiju Fandom by
Bradford Grant Boyle at Amazon.com

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