Todd Tennant is a long-time kaiju artist who has contributed art to G-Fan magazine as well as worked closely together with monster-author Mike Bogue (author of Apocalypse Then: American and Japanese Atomic Cinema, 1951-1967), who wrote the script for Tennant’s unfinished King Kong vs. Godzilla graphic novel, and dinosaur expert Allen Debus, for whom Tennant created book cover artwork, specifically for Dinosaur Memories II: Pop-Cultural Reflections on Dino-Daikaiju & Paleoimagery. Tennant has created a number of his own kaiju creations, perhaps most notably King Komodo, but Godzilla fans might know him as the man behind the graphic novelization of the 1994 unmade Godzilla film. Tennant recently agreed to an interview about the project and its release.

ND: Thank you so much for agreeing to this interview, Mr. Tennant! First I want to get a few standard fan questions out of the way. What are your favorite movie monsters?

TT: You’re very welcome and Godzilla, (of course), King Kong ’33, the Beast from 20,000 fathoms, the Giant Behemoth and Gorgo.

 

ND: What was your first Godzilla movie?

TT: I saw Godzilla (1954) for the first time on TV one Saturday afternoon in the early sixties.

 

ND: Favorite Godzilla movie? Favorite Gamera movie?

TT: Shusuke Kaneko’s Godzilla, Mothra and King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack (2001) and Kaneko’s Gamera 2: Advent of Legion (1996), though his Gamera: Guardian of the Universe (1995) and Gamera 3: Revenge of Iris (1999) are also favorites.

 

ND: Favorite Godzilla suit?

TT: GODZILLA 2000.

 

ND: Who would win, Jet Jaguar or Red Ronin (the robot from the Marvel Godzilla comics)?

TT: I’m not familiar enough with them to make a fair assessment on that question for either character.

 

ND: How did you get into doing kaiju comics?

TT: I’ve been making my own monster comics since the early 60’s. My biggest influence and inspiration for those are from the 1960’s (pre-super-hero) giant monster comics of Jack the King Kirby.

 

ND: Can you give us a little history of your Godzilla comics?

TT: When the TriStar GODZILLA film was released in 1998, my kids developed an interest in the Toho GODZILLA series, and my childhood love of the 60’s GODZILLA films was rekindled. My first Kaiju-art piece was my version of KING KONG vs. GODZILLA, which went on to be the cover-art for G-FAN #64. I also did artwork for SCARY MONSTERS magazine, where I met writer Mike Bogue. We began a King Kong vs. Godzilla comics series for G-FAN (#58), which lasted for that one and only issue before Toho contacted J.D. Lees & asked him to “cease and desist”.

In 2006, I began the very difficult-but-enjoyable task of illustrating the first 1994 screenplay for what should have been SONY/Tri-Star’s GODZILLA movie, written by Terry Rossio and Ted Elliott.

 

 

ND: So your Godzilla 94 comic is being revamped and will be published on Thanksgiving Day!

TT:  Actually, the GODZILLA ’94 graphic novel was fully-completed a few years ago, with the help of fellow Kaiju-artist Elden Ardiente. Yes, the first 10 pages will be released at Kaijuphile.com on November, 22, Thanksgiving Day.

 

ND: How did you get the official go ahead from the screenwriters for your comic version of their work?

TT: Well, as said, I started out totally on my own. I sent the pages to Kaijuphile webmaster Brandon Waggle, who put the first 78 graphic novel pages up on my American Kaiju website there.

Later on, Terry Rossio contacted me via an email. He asked and commissioned me to finish the GODZILLA ’94 graphic novel.

 

ND: I understand you have made some changes to the script, right? Can you give us some insight behind that?

TT: From the time I began illustrating the ’94 GODZILLA screenplay onward, I got multiple emails from G-fans, asking if I was aware of the complete destruction of one of the World Trade Center towers, and the half destruction of the second WTC tower that occurs during the NYC battle between Godzilla and his nemesis the Gryphon. They then asked, “how are you going to handle that?”. Because of 9-11, I asked Terry if I could alter this part of the story, feeling that if we destroyed the WTC towers, we would end up “dead in the water” as far as any favorable public sentiments for the G’94 graphic novel. Terry agreed, and I made changes to that part of the story. I won’t go into details, but suffice it to say, the Twin Towers are damaged, but both stay standing.

 

 

ND: Any chance that the King Kong vs. Godzilla comic will get finished?

TT: I think about that from time to time. If Mike Bogue is still interested in that comic story, maybe someday.

 

ND: Could you tell us about your original kaiju creations, King Komodo and Gigante? Also, any plans to do more with them?

TT: KING KOMODO & GIGANTE are Dai-Kaiju characters I created/designed in the early 2000’s.

Mike Bogue wrote several KK stories back then. We tried but failed to find a publisher for KK. If you go to americankaiju.kaijuphile.com/main.shtml, you can see art for both KK & GIGANTE.

I’m also currently working on an AMERICAN KAIJU graphic novel that includes KING KOMODO, GIGANTE, and much more.

 

ND: How do you pronounce “Gigante”?

TT: “Ja-gan-tay”.

 

ND: What future projects do we have to look forward to from you?

TT: I’m sticking with the AMERICAN KAIJU graphic novel for now.

 

ND: Thank you so much for taking the time to do this interview!

TT: Thank you for asking me. It was my pleasure:).