One of the four books Random House released in the mid-1990's that were aimed to a very young audience, Godzilla vs. Gigan and the Smog Monster is, admittedly, surprisingly entertaining. The writing, handled by Alice Alfonsi, is, expectedly given the target age group, very simple. The plot of the book sees Hedorah and Gigan assaulting Los Angeles, before Rodan appears to take them on and is finally joined by Godzilla who sends the two alien creatures into retreat. So the premise is simple, but what makes the book stand out is the excellent art done by Motown Animation, who were responsible for the short lived Casual Heroes released by Image Comics. The amount of detail placed into a lot of the pictures, which sometimes span across both pages, definitely maintains the readers' interest through the book. Granted, it's an uneven effort, with a few of the drawings failing to entice, but the vast majority of the art in the book is pretty well done. The pictures give the publication a more serious outlook on the proceedings then one might have expected, and don't "dumb down" the material like the other four books of this nature that the company produced. However, a valid complaint related to this could be that, in doing so, the book missed its mark. It has a slight dark tone to it, with images such as this, that might be unsettling to younger children. It's tame compared to what's found in the movies, particularly the related Godzilla vs. Hedorah (1971), but something concerned parents might want to take into consideration none the same.