A few years ago, Bradford Grant Boyle, the second editor/publisher of the fanzine, Japanese Giants (which I originated in 1974 and published one whopping issue), began compiling a number of massive volumes, titled Early Kaiju Fandom, featuring reprints of the full runs of almost every kaiju-themed fanzine published in the 1970s (and some beyond). My late, lamented friend and mentor, Greg Shoemaker, kicked off the daikaiju fanzine craze in the US in 1968 with his long-running classic, The Japanese Fantasy Film Journal. JFFJ ran until 1985, starting as a 16-page, ditto-printed solo effort and ending as a fully pro-quality, highly respected fixture in fan publishing. Greg died in 2019, but he had provided an informative interview about JFFJ for fan Brett Homenick's Vantage Point Interviews, which you may read here.
And now, with Early Kaiju Fandom Volume 5, Bradford Grant Boyle compiles all 15 issues of The Japanese Fantasy Film Journalin a massive, 600-page tome. The volume also includes interviews, photographs, and essays by participants in early kaiju fandom, documenting how films, information, and discussion circulated in the pre-internet era. This has been a year-long effort for Mr. Boyle, and I expect this massive volume will become a landmark in the world of kaiju fandom.
