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!
