As readers of this blog know well, when I was a wee lad growing up, my favorite, favorite comic was Marvel Comics’ take on the Toho Productions Japanese monster series GODZILLA. Godzilla was the very first comic I started collecting, and it was through this strip that I was first introduced to the world of the Marvel Universe. It was here I first met Dum Dum Dugan, Gabe Jones and S.H.I.E.L.D., The Fantastic Four, The Avengers and even other monsters like Devil Dinosaur!
Out of the entire run of the strip, my all-time favorite story has to be the arc where Dum Dum and his gang get Henry Pym (AKA Yellowjacket) to create a gas that will shrink Godzilla to the more easy to handle size of a household pet! This epic storyline started in issue #17 and in fact ran the entire remainder of the series, which concluded with Issue #24.
I’ve always loved all the covers in that run, and even had fun illustrator Fred Hembeck recreate the cover of Issue #17 for me, and he did in true Hembeck flair! But the one thing I always wanted was a recreation of issue #18, my very favorite Godzilla cover of them all!
On this cover, a shrunken Godzilla is beneath the streets of New York and is battling one of the Big Apple’s own style of monster: that of a huge sewer rat! This to me was always the quintessential Godzilla Cover, and I knew who I wanted to recreate it for me: The man himself, Godzilla Artist Herb Trimpe!
I didn’t know quite how to go about getting this done, til I was directed by an original art collector to Jeff Jaworski’s site, COMICBOOK-ART.COM. Jeff hosts a BUNCH of artists from that magic time called the Bronze Age, including (among many others) Keith Pollard, Bob Budanski, Ron Wilson and YES!!! Herb Trimpe!
For only a modest fee I was able to request a Pencil reproduction of my favorite cover, and in less than a month, I had the AWESOME Godzilla #18 cover commission in my hands!!!! WOW!!! Will you look at that sketch!!! Ah, Truly a dream come true!!!
