Last year, writer/editor/kaiju fan Bradford Grant Boyle put together an
omnibus of the fanzines he had published in the 1970s, titled
Early Kaiju Fandom, Volume One. A great big book, it included reproductions of the original pages of his projects, including
issue #s 2, 3, and 4 of Japanese Giants, the fanzine I created in 1974 and that he took over in 1975. He published
Early Kaiju Fandom, Volume Two
a few months ago, which included several fanzines he published that predated
JG. And now,
Early Kaiju Fandom, Volume Three
is in the house, with reproductions of essentially all the rest of the
1970s/80s-era kaiju-themed fanzines, including JG issue #1, and a
foreword by the Old Dude. Excerpt as follows:
“As far back as early childhood and as recently as just now, anyone who’s made my acquaintance, even briefly, would know me as a diehard daikaiju nut. I caught both Godzilla – King of the Monsters (1956) and Gigantis – The Fire Monster (a.k.a. Godzilla Raids Again, 1959) when I was around kindergarten age, and if ever a kid were smitten with city-stomping monsters, that kid was me. I was already keen on dinosaurs, and Godzilla elevated my fondness for oversized reptilian critters to a whole new level.”
These volumes by Mr. Boyle are the culmination of countless hours of tracking down copies of literally every page of every fanzine from those glory days (excepting Greg Shoemaker’s Japanese Fantasy Film Journal, which kicked off this whole shebang and will be featured in yet another volume), and compiling them in a series of high-quality publications. In addition to Japanese Giants #1, the fanzines in this one include Richard Campbell’s Godzilla Mania, Barry Kaufman’s Monsters of Japan, Damon Foster’s Japanese Movie Sci-Fi, and Mike Martin’s Giants From Japan. Granted, after so many years, some of the old pages were in a condition barely fit to read, and the reproductions reflect that fact — not to mention that many of the original page designs scarcely reached the level of “crude.” But for those of us who were active in those days (and whose devotion to all things kaiju continues to this day), these volumes represent a most welcome labor of love on Mr. Boyle's part. To be sure, this endeavor isn't one to make anyone rich, but to their target audience, the contents of these are enriching beyond words.
“As far back as early childhood and as recently as just now, anyone who’s made my acquaintance, even briefly, would know me as a diehard daikaiju nut. I caught both Godzilla – King of the Monsters (1956) and Gigantis – The Fire Monster (a.k.a. Godzilla Raids Again, 1959) when I was around kindergarten age, and if ever a kid were smitten with city-stomping monsters, that kid was me. I was already keen on dinosaurs, and Godzilla elevated my fondness for oversized reptilian critters to a whole new level.”
These volumes by Mr. Boyle are the culmination of countless hours of tracking down copies of literally every page of every fanzine from those glory days (excepting Greg Shoemaker’s Japanese Fantasy Film Journal, which kicked off this whole shebang and will be featured in yet another volume), and compiling them in a series of high-quality publications. In addition to Japanese Giants #1, the fanzines in this one include Richard Campbell’s Godzilla Mania, Barry Kaufman’s Monsters of Japan, Damon Foster’s Japanese Movie Sci-Fi, and Mike Martin’s Giants From Japan. Granted, after so many years, some of the old pages were in a condition barely fit to read, and the reproductions reflect that fact — not to mention that many of the original page designs scarcely reached the level of “crude.” But for those of us who were active in those days (and whose devotion to all things kaiju continues to this day), these volumes represent a most welcome labor of love on Mr. Boyle's part. To be sure, this endeavor isn't one to make anyone rich, but to their target audience, the contents of these are enriching beyond words.
