Of all
the factual Godzilla books that have been published
in English in America, only one has the distinction
of Toho's backing: The Official Godzilla Compendium
by G-Fan founder J. D. Lees and Marc Cerasini,
author of the young adult Godzilla paperbacks. (Not
to be confused with Scott Ciencin's juvenile fiction
series published about the same time.) Released
during the Godzilla media deluge of 1998, the Compendium
filled a sorely needed niche for Godzilla fandom,
and for what it is, Lees' and Cerasini's book fills
that niche well, albeit with a few flaws that could
be improved.
The strength of official backing by Toho is immediately
apparent in this volume, as the pages are replete
with numerous photographs, stills, posters, and
promotional materials, as well as original art created
especially for the publication. The layout and design
of the pages is strong as well, with attractive
and consistent design elements utilized from page
to page, giving the book a clean, pleasant read.
Simply leafing through the pages provides a simple
pleasure, especially towards the end where the monster
profiles are located with excellent artwork samples
from Toho's files along with the fantastic, exacting
monster sketches by Arthur Adams, who also has a
beautiful full-color two-page spread showcasing
a group of popular daikaiju towards the center of
the book.
The Compendium covers the first 22 films
in the Japanese movie series, as well as some information
about the Dark Horse run of comics and Random House's
numerous other Godzilla-branded publications. The
short chapters about each movie sometimes include
interesting trivia about the production and special
effects processes, but usually limit themselves
to comments on storyline continuity and the evolution
of Godzilla's characterization and image. Usually,
little information is given about the human characters,
or the actors who portrayed them. Instead, the book
functions as a celebration of Godzilla himself,
and it's hard not to get pumped up about the character
via the enthusiastic prose, such as this piece describing
the Big G in Mothra
vs. Godzilla: "For the first time,
Godzilla was depicted as a destructive force of
nature, moving unstoppably across the country like
an ambulatory earthquake" (pg. 27). The love
that the authors have for the monster is consistently
and joyously present, and it shows from cover to
cover.
Even better than the prose about the movies are
the features on specifics of the Godzilla legend
and delightful guest essays. J. D. Lees, in his
Wardrobe! The Many Suits of Godzilla, provides
a somewhat brief but informative analysis on the
many Godzilla costumes employed throughout the series,
and psychologist Dr. Randall Osborne, in his essay
Godzilla as a Parenting Tool, gives Godzilla fans
who happen to have children ideas for how to incorporate
their fandom into their parenting—and excuses
for buying more Godzilla merchandise! My favorite
essay, however, has to be A Dinosaur Paleontologist's
View of Godzilla by Dr. Kenneth Carpenter, who
has written a gleeful, tongue-in-cheek analysis
of what Godzilla might be like if he were a real
dinosaur, employing his considerable experience
in analyzing dinosaur skeletons to scrutinize the
King of the Monsters with exacting, amusing detail.
Coming in at a close second is Inside Godzilla,
which gives numerous fascinating anecdotes describing
the rigors and dangers of performing as the Big
G. Curiously, this article, along with Godzilla's
Spare Parts which directly follows it, is not
listed in the contents, and presumably both of them
supposed to be part of the Wardrobe! article,
which is not clear from the design elements utilized
in laying out the pages, nor the content of the
writing. Randy Stradley, one of the founders of
Dark Horse comics, also gives a brief piece on the
process of taking Godzilla from the movies and transplanting
him to the comic book page, which proves at least
mildly interesting.
Of less success is the somewhat unconvincing Godzilla
Beyond the Atomic Age by science-fiction guru
John J. Pierce, who attempts to make the assertion
that the Godzilla character is so enduring due to
the beast's soul, and then goes on to argue
that Godzilla can be recreated and re-imagined for
every generation successfully while other monsters
like Frankenstein only have one story to tell before
falling into self-parody. But it's a strange sort
of soul that can be so readily manipulated and re-marketed
for the consumption of any new group of people,
if that really is the reason for the monster's longstanding
popularity; Pierce's essay simply isn't detailed
enough to satisfactorily address the issue. Random
House senior editor Alice Alfonsi's essay Godzilla
Invades Random House is also rather unfulfilling,
coming across mostly as an advertisement for the
publisher's other products rather than a truly informative
piece about the books themselves.
Which brings me to what might be called the main
weakness of a Godzilla book backed by Toho: The
entire manuscript could be labeled as an elaborate
advertisement for the studio. Nothing negative is
ever said about Godzilla or any of the movies; rather,
the book is almost constantly positive, with words
of praise for every movie no matter how arguably
poor that particular installment might be, and the
ubiquity of compliments comes across as a little
disingenuous after a while. On the other hand, the
authors can say they think some of the movies better
than others as long as they don't overtly criticize,
and thus Invasion
of Astro-Monster (1965) is said to be better
than Ghidorah,
the Three-Headed Monster (an assertion that
I would disagree with), and Godzilla
vs. Mechagodzilla II (1993) is called the
best of the Heisei series. Why such a severely limited
rating of the movies is included is a little strange,
however, as it is not very useful to the reader
when divorced from further productive analysis.
Coverage of films is highly uneven as well, with
some of the movies, most notably Son
of Godzilla (1967), having very short blurbs
devoted to them, and even the Son
of Godzilla suit is given short shrift in
Lees' article about the Goji-costumes. Whatever
the reason for this, the result is frustrating because
I'd like to hear more about some of these "lesser"
Godzilla films.
There are other scattered flaws throughout the
Compendium as well, including an odd description
of Godzilla
vs. Megalon's plot wherein it sounds like
Godzilla fights Gigan and Megalon alone until Jet
Jaguar shows up to save the day, rather than the
other way around (pg. 48): "Godzilla seems
over-matched—until Jet-Jaguar reveals a previously
unknown power. The robot grows to the size of Godzilla
and joins the battle." Also, as much as the
overall design of the book appeals, there are occasional
hiccups, such as the confusing page layout on page
47 and the abrupt inclusion of the collection of
color photos in the middle of the Godzilla
vs. King Ghidorah (1991) chapter. Some of
the color reproductions of the Japanese Godzilla
posters, too, just look lousy and are too dark to
make out much detail—again, oddly enough,
the Son
of Godzilla poster stands out particularly
in the mediocrity of its reproduction here, at least
in my copy. And while the monster profiles section
excels as far as illustrations go, the text is weaker,
completely overlooking several monsters' appearances
in Zone Fighter
and sometimes omitting or glossing over pertinent
monster information, such as Ebirah's sensitivity
to berry juice and the Heisei Mothra's origin story.
Just a bit more detail would have gone a long way.
The same could be said about the entire book.
The Compendium is true to its name and proves
woefully short, coming in at only 144 pages, and
much of that is taken up by the illustrations and
photos. No information is given about the Marvel
comics, the Hannah-Barbera cartoons, or the toys
and other products. When I received the book for
my birthday in 1998 or 1999, I read the entire book
that very day without meaning to, and felt sad that
it was over so quickly.
That's also a compliment, though. The Official
Godzilla Compendium is a delight for Godzilla
fans, with easy-flowing, well-written prose and
a wealth of illustrative content. Despite the book's
weaknesses, it remains a worthy addition to the
G-enthusiast's collection, but once again, much
like Steve Ryfle's much more exhaustive work Japan's
Favorite Mon-Star, the Compendium
could seriously use an update, if for no other reason
than as an excuse to publish Art Adams' renderings
of the Millenium series' monsters. Recommended.
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