Well, I gave it a good effort. I don’t know much about the King Kong Escapes manga adaptation. The movie itself, released in 1967, was Toho’s 35th anniversary celebration film, and was loosely based on The King Kong Show animated series released around the same time—the history behind the movie is fascinating and worthy of a deep dive all on its own. But as for the manga, I don’t know who wrote it, who drew it, or even for certain where it was sold. Actually, it apparently was not sold anywhere, as the cover (which itself is just a repurposing of the poster) includes the text “not for sale.” Most likely it was a free promotional item handed out at the movie theater—some online auction listings indicated as much, though it wasn’t clear to me if the sellers really knew. At least one admitted that he was guessing, but it seems a good guess. The extra mystery adds to the manga’s allure, and the style of the manga is unique, far different from other adaptations from the period. I will take another look at its origins later in the review, but first let’s look at the story.
The tale opens with Commander Nelson, Jiro, and Susan arriving on Mondo Island to investigate whether the rumors of a giant ape are true. Jiro gives Susan a rifle, but he warns her to shoot any rare animals with her camera before drilling them with bullets. She soon gets her chance as the two men leave go on ahead of her and she soon comes under the predations of a theropod dinosaur, the Gorosaurus. Before Nelson or Jiro can do anything to rescue her, King Kong appears and quickly knocks out the flesh-eating dinosaur. During the fight, Susan runs like the dickens out of there. The trio of adventurers make it back to their ship, and Susan stops the sailors from firing their shipboard cannon at Kong. They escape, with Kong looking on in confusion. Back in New York, Nelson and the others announce their discovery of the monsters on Mondo island at a news conference. A reporter asks why Susan was able to calm down Kong (when did she do that?), and Nelson comments on the fact Susan is female. The villainous Madam Piranha is in attendance and moves away to report to the evil genius scientist Dr. Who.
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Meanwhile, at the North Pole, Dr. Who is using Mechani-Kong (a fantastic robot modeled after King Kong) to excavate Element X, an ingredient used to create nuclear weapons of devastating power. However, Mechani-Kong cannot endure the radiation from the miracle element. Dr. Who receives word from Madam Piranha about the existence of King Kong and Susan’s ability to tame the beast, and so dispatches a team to capture Kong, and another to bring Nelson and crew. On the next page, the work is done, Kong is sedated, and Dr. Who explains to Nelson his plans to take over the world using Kong to extract Element X. Unfortunately for Who, the sedation wears off and Kong goes on the rampage, smashing up part of the laboratory. Who and crew manage to battle off Kong with Mechani-Kong’s impressive array of abilities, subduing the ape with a “beast-slayer ray.” However, Susan gives Kong some tips on how to fight back, and the primate takes her advice, soon reducing the robot to scrap and seems to kill Who and his cronies. Nelson and Susan take Kong back to Mondo Island on a big ship and leave him there, which upsets the giant ape. The end!
Now obviously with only around eighteen pages (a stricture imposed likely because the manga was given out for free), the story from the film had to be cut down considerably—even more than the average manga adaptation from the period. While some manga adaptations were afforded a generous page count (such as Ghidorah the Three-Headed Monster and one of the adaptations of Ebirah Horror from the Deep), a frequent pattern seems to have been around thirty pages (see Mothra vs. Godzilla, Big Adventure Science Manga: Suspicious Star Gorath, and Battle in Outer Space). Those manga adaptations suffered from such abbreviated storytelling, and King Kong Escapes fares even worse, with many key sequences pared down to almost nothing or cut entirely. We never see Kong’s capture, nor his escape to Tokyo, nor even the most iconic sequence in the film—the battle atop Tokyo Tower. We also don’t get Kong’s hypnosis, nor do we see him mining for Element X, let alone less important encounters such as Kong’s embroilment with the sea serpent. But because we don’t see the ape fight the serpent, we also don’t see Susan work to calm down Kong, making Who’s entire mission to retrieve Susan to control Kong nonsensical.
Everything is simplified, almost to the point of parody, and characters and backstory are all shaved to near nothing. While we find out Who and Nelson worked together in the past, we don’t know on what. Madam Piranha no longer represents the financial backing of a mysterious foreign power, and we never see her verbal sparring with Who, nor her eventual betrayal, nor Who’s threats against Jiro and Susan, let alone Piranha’s death at Who’s hands or Who’s bloody demise. Even the battles we do get (Kong beating down Gorosaurus, King vs. Mechani-Kong) are heavily narrated to avoid long visual depictions of extended battles, unlike Hisamatsu’s Mothra vs. Godzilla manga which had ample on-page monster fights.
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| The narrated battle with Gorosaurus |
On the other hand, at times, the manga displays a surprising integrity to the original screenplay. The conversation about why Susan can calm down Kong is so similar it feels almost word-for-word from the script. The manga also does not change main cast members. There is a deep irony here. In many manga adaptations of Toho’s early tokusatsu efforts, the female lead is replaced with a heroic young male. You can see it in Big Adventure Science Manga: Suspicious Star Gorath and Battle in Outer Space and to a certain extent in Rodan (which I haven’t reviewed as of this writing). With King Kong Escapes the movie, Susan is replacing the brave and heroic boy, Bobby Bond, in order to match the usual King Kong interest in women. In the one case where it would have been most understandable should a young male be used to swap out the female lead given the source material, the original cast is retained. This situation probably reflects the nature of the individual manga adaptations as much as anything. While most kaiju manga adaptations were published in (or as supplements to) boys’ manga manga-zines, King Kong Escapes was (most likely) published as a freebie promotional distributed at theaters or through some other giveaway. It makes sense in this case that the publication pressures would be different and there wouldn’t be the pressure to make something more kid-centric (regardless of the fact that The King Kong Show itself is much more child-friendly than the movie!!!). [i]
This change in publication may also be why the art is so distinct from other Toho manga adaptations from the time. While most of the adaptations from the 50s and 60s feature cartoonish or even childish aesthetics with simplified or clean lines and huge heads/eyes, King Kong Escapes bucks the trend with finely detailed art and more of a gekiga style. [ii] The humans are depicted with more realistic proportions and less-exaggerated expressions. They look like adults. The monsters, too, feature impressive levels of detail, particularly kong and his finely-rendered matted fur. Backgrounds, when they appear (which is rare), are not particularly detailed, however, and feel sketchy and loose. The manga, too, is not as violent as the film, with none of the blood and no on-page deaths. While the visual style may mimic emerging gekiga standards, the content certainly does not.
Also, even if the monster illustrations in the comic may have a higher degree of detail than most from this era, whoever the artist was, he imbues his creatures with a lot of humor. Kong especially is constantly pulling exaggerated, ridiculous faces—dopey grins, disoriented confusion, even outright weepy panic when Susan leaves him on Mondo island at the end (a reversion of what happens in the movie). This choice may have been due to Kong’s drunken uncle depiction from King Kong vs. Godzilla (1962) and the equally shaggy and dopey King Kong Escapes (1967) costume, though it isn’t so far removed from Daiji Kazumine’s manga adaptation of The King Kong Show either (Kong is extremely expressive in that manga series, playful, sometimes downright ridiculous). Still, with the stark, goofy black-and-white art here, I sometimes felt I was reading an old Mad Magazine parody comic instead of a direct adaptation. [iii] As for Mechani-Kong (bizarrely called “Mechaning Kong” twice in the book), though his goggly eyes are a bit comical, he seems pretty on-point, and he falls apart real good. The odd-duck by far is Gorosaurus, here drawn as more of a bipedal and blood-thirsty stegosaurus. This may be a reference to Akio Ito’s manga adaptation of the cartoon show, as Kong saves Bobby from a sharp-toothed stego in their first encounter, even breaking its jaw. Daiji Kazumine’s manga adaptation also introduces a sharp-toothed stegosaurus early on, though it turns out to be a robot constructed by Dr. Who—and Kong rips it in half in one of the most memorable sequences from Kazumine’s run. [iv]
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| Akio Ito's manga adaptation of the cartoon show on the left; Daiji Kazumine's manga adaptation on the right |
As a story, King Kong Escapes the manga adaptation is certainly a lesser version of the film. While the movie, too, is arguably not of the highest caliber story-wise, it has richer character dynamics and international drama than the awkward, crunched-down manga version. Like many manga adaptations, King Kong Escapes is more of a curiosity piece than a strong, standalone experience… but the curiosity is stronger with this one.
Who the heck drew it? How the heck was it distributed? I went to some lengths to uncover these mysteries, and the first one is especially galling to me. The book needs attribution, dang it! The artist needs the shout-out! I purchased the Godzilla & Toho Tokusatsu Official Mook vol. 35, which was all about King Kong Escapes, and it includes an account by Asato Izumi about going to see the film in 1967 and receiving some images from the film that were on display, but no reference to the manga. I also purchased the Godzilla All Movie DVD Collectors Box Vol. 45, which includes reproductions of contemporary magazine articles as well as a complete reproduction of the movie pamphlet sold at the theater at the time. None of them include any mention of the manga or a promotion to get a special prize by sending in (say) ten bottle caps and a sample of DNA or whatever. The pamphlet has some great images, a summary of the story, a letter from Eiji Tsuburaya to a fan about how to break into the business, even a collection of photos promoting the movie version of Ultraman (1967) that was being shown at the same time. Nothing about the manga.
Theater extras are common in Japan today and are often handed out (while they last) with new releases. Many of them are handed out when you enter the theater with your ticket, even when films are rereleased. I have received dozens of them, from a Spider-Man: No Way Home calendar, to a post card for Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust, to a little Godzilla figure astride a globe for Godzilla: Final Wars (2004). I know that manga are sometimes handed out as theater extras, too—I received one when I went to a Doraemon movie some years ago, or a little character guide for My Hero Academia characters (including Godzillo). When Godzilla X Kong: The New Empire (2024) was released in Japan, a very short comic/cross-promotion was also published and distributed along with the regular flyers you can pick up at every movie theater for upcoming and currently playing releases—you didn’t even have to buy a ticket to grab that one. There are also freebies you can get for purchasing advance tickets, though I have rarely taken advantage of them except with Gamera the Brave (another small figure which I have since misplaced). These are all modern examples, however, and I don’t know how such promotions worked back in the 1960s. Did lucky viewers get the King Kong Escapes manga when they bought an advance ticket? Upon entry into the theater with a same-day ticket purchase? As a free giveaway in the theaters? As a write-in promotion? I still don’t know. Maybe in the future I can dig up more details, but for now, it remains a mystery (like the real identity of the artist behind the similar Godzilla vs. Megalon four-page comic adaptation in the USA, who simply went by “Swiftspear” in the comic itself). If any reader knows anything, please pass on what you know—I’d love to figure out this mystery!
Still, even without knowing all the background details, King Kong Escapes the manga is a diverting little side adventure with unique art, a supremely goofy Kong interpretation, a bizarre alternate version of Gorosaurus, and some surprising alterations to the story. Certainly not an amazing piece of art or storytelling on its own, the book remains a surprising and overlooked little treasure in the annals of monster manga adaptations that deserves more attention (like the 2005 King Kong manga adaptation, or all those “Gekiga Roadshow” movie manga adaptations back in the day). Here’s hoping for more information soon.
[i] It’s probably worth mentioning that some other manga adaptations in the latter half of the 1960s also retained their female leads, including both manga adaptations of Ebirah, Horror of the Deep and the adaptations of Son of Godzilla.
[ii] Gekiga was a movement that began in the late 1950s, and a term coined by artist Yoshihiro Tatsumi, and refers to manga made with a more mature audience in mind. These manga have more realistic art styles and generally more violence, sex, or themes for adult audiences. Early examples were published in manga meant for rental stores, not the manga magazines; the first gekiga published in a boys’ manga magazine was a series of adaptations of James Bond novels drawn by Takao Saito, creator of Golgo 13—but even these adaptations were significantly toned down, removing most of the romance/sex.
[iii] One shot of Kong, in which he has just defeated Gorosaurus and is pounding his chest, looks (to me) eerily similar to the Bumble from Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer… which would be appropriate, given that Rankin-Bass (the company behind The King Kong Show) also made that classic holiday special.
[iv] Curiously enough, as far as I know, while Mechani-Kong does appear in the original cartoon show, he doesn’t make any appearances in the manga adaptations, perhaps as a stipulation from Toho (like how occasionally if there were superhero films in theaters that featured particular villains in the USA, those villains were forbidden to appear in their respective television series). However, in the April 16 issue of Weekly Shonen Magazine (the one with the striking painting of King Kong rescuing Bobby from a Pteranodon on the cover, obviously referencing a popular promo photo from the 1933 film), there is an article introducing various “secrets” about King Kong and Dr. Who which also includes an illustration of a black Mechani-Kong rendered by Takashi Minamimura. The same article also shows Kong under mind-control via a helmet device created by Who. Given that Who never mind controls Kong in the tv series, perhaps the creators of this article had access to the movie script?
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The King Kong Escapes manga is something of a curiosity, a relic from the film's original 1967 release that's equal parts fascinating and uneven. The cover art mirrors the movie's main poster, complete with text calling out its three headline monsters: King Kong, Mechani-Kong and Gorosaurus. Most of the other text, however, is devoted to the film's cast and crew rather than the manga's creators. In fact, the artist and writer go entirely uncredited, a thankless omission likely explained by this publication's purpose. Marked "not for resale," the manga was probably created as a promotional tie-in, prioritizing the movie's marketing over the comic's creative talent.
As for the manga itself, running just 18 pages, this publication naturally condenses the film's plot. That includes trimming several sequences and rearranging key events to streamline the narrative. The Giant Sea Snake scene is omitted entirely, and Dr. Hu captures Kong off-panel here. Interestingly, Mechani-Kong's mission to retrieve Element X, which was the movie's opening sequence, is shifted to the midpoint here, right before the villains abduct Kong and the human protagonists.
Despite these cuts, the manga's condensed pacing sometimes improves on the film's logic. For instance, the climactic battle between Kong and Mechani-Kong takes place at the North Pole instead of Tokyo, avoiding the film's questionable geography that had Kong inexplicably swimming from the Arctic to Japan. The downside, though, is that the ending feels rushed. After Mechani-Kong's destruction, Dr. Hu and his crew are said to meet a "cruel fate," but this is described only in narration, not shown.
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| Rather than flee, Kong instead hunts Hu in tha Arctic |
What truly sets this adaptation apart is its ending. Rather than swimming off into the sunset, as in the movie, Kong is transported back to Mondo Island by ship. The scene takes a surprisingly emotional turn: Kong excitedly hops on the deck, then grows somber as Jiro and Susan depart by helicopter, tears forming in his eyes as he watches them disappear into the sky. It's an unexpectedly bittersweet note that makes the reader feel sad for Kong.
Now artistically, this manga delivers a mixed experience. The opening page that features a close-up of a rather goofy-looking King Kong doesn't inspire much confidence, and the composition that follows, showing Madam Piranha and Jiro awkwardly positioned in Kong's hands, feels off-balance. Kong himself is arguably the weakest element throughout, resembling a cartoonish version of the character (and no, not resembling the Rankin Bass animated Kong which inspired the film). Gorosaurus fares even worse, rendered as a generic dinosaur with none of his movie's recognizable features, while Mechani-Kong lands somewhere in the middle: serviceable but uninspired. Surprisingly, the human characters and backgrounds are handled far better. The artist captures the likeness and energy of the human cast with more success, and the environments feel grounded and cinematic. Even the action, particularly during Kong's battle with Mechani-Kong, shines in places. The fight scenes are dynamic and brutal, with Kong visibly damaging the mechanical doppelganger in ways that feel kinetic. If only the monster designs had matched that same level of skill, the art could have been truly memorable.
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| King Kong thrasing Mechani-Kong |
Overall, this King Kong Escapes manga may not be a masterpiece, but it's a fascinating artifact for kaiju fans. The art wavers between awkward and impressive, the monsters don't always look right, and the story races through key moments... yet it offers intriguing variations on familiar material, particularly in its reworked climax and touching conclusion. For collectors or curious fans of Toho's 1960s era, it's worth seeking out as a glimpse into how King Kong Escapes was reimagined in manga form.
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