"It's been a long time, I shouldn't have left you / Without a strong rhyme to step to."
– Eric B. & Rakim
It's been quite the year, let me tell you. And while I haven't been writing much on YKFS, the cyber-foot traffic still manages to be impressive. I thank everyone who's stumbled upon this humble blog, and I sincerely appreciate all o' yous' who decide to return from time to see what's new.
Oh, and I have been writing. Just not here.
As the views on this site began creeping up to 100,000 back in June of this year (a milestone I'd forgotten to even acknowledge, doh!), I realized that it was finally time to start branching out as a writer and to expand my influence as an...influencer.
Damn skippy, I got influence. And sooomebody owes me some shoes. Uh huh, I see you, Onitsuka. I see you. *Side eye*
Anywho, in a remarkably short amount of time it all came together. After years of mostly giving away mah creative jewels for free-ninety-nine, as of today yours truly is a freelance writer for two different websites, MoviePilot/Creators and Comic Book Resources. Cool, huh?
And no, I'm not exactly making Eric B. & Rakim money (see: Paid in Full), but whatever I'm making will cover the cost of an out-of-control comic book habit. So if you haven't seen anything new posted to YKFS, feel free to check me out from time to time here and here.
Samuel L. Jackson is no stranger to singing on the silver screen, despite the fact that he has never made a frequent thing of it. Whenever he does decide it's time once again to croon a tune (or several tunes), Jackson invariably sings good old fashioned southern blues. This will be no different in his upcoming film The Hitman's Bodyguard, but having Sam singing wasn't originally part of the plan. Before we get into how this turn of events came about, let's take a brief glance back at Jackson's surprising track record of singing the blues. The Blues And Sam Go Back Like Rocking Chairs
In the 1996 action film Long Kiss Goodnight (in which he stars with a proto-Atomic Blonde Geena Davis), Jackson plays Mitch Henessey, a blues-loving private eye. Throughout the film, Mitch croons Bo Diddly's "I'm A Man," with hilariously improvised lyrics that help him feel confident in times of self doubt:
"Ba-da-da-da-dun, got me a handgun / Ba-da-da-da-dun, got a rifle too / Ba-da-da-da-dun, anybody #%&$ with Mitch / He knows just what to do, cuz I'm a bad mother#$%^er."
(Side note: He's not.)
On the more serious side of things, in the 2006 drama Black Snake Moan, Jackson plays Lazarus Redd, a man on a mission from God. Redd is a fanatically religious farmer and a former blues guitarist who believes he's been called to intervene in the life of a promiscuous young woman (Christina Ricci) who's on the road to ruin. To ready himself for the role, Jackson actually spent half a year studying for six or seven hours a day to learn to play blues guitar for his performances with the instrument, which are layered throughout the film.
In keeping with what's shaped up to be about an every 10-year average, Jackson is singing on screen once again. This time it's for The Hitman's Bodyguard, his 2018 action comedy with co-star Ryan Reynolds. Here, Jackson takes on the role of Darius, a notorious hitman who is scheduled testify at the International Court of Justice, and it's the job of his mortal enemy (Reynolds), the world's top bodyguard, to get him there alive. That is, of course, if they don't kill each other first!
'The Hitman's Bodyguard' [Credit: Lionsgate]
A Hitman With A Hit Song?
On the morning of Friday, August 4, the movie hitman himself fired off a tweet to announce to fans on Twitter the release of "Nobody Gets Out Alive," Jackson’s new song on the soundtrack for The Hitmans' Bodyguard. A link to Spotify and iTunes accompanying the Tweet leads listeners to the track, which features the actor’s trademark tenor. It's a song that bubbles with the classic notes of a good blues ditty, complete with stretched slide guitar licks, a bottoming bass groove, and soulful sopranos on the backing vocals. All combined, it creates a sweet marriage of southern blues and southern gospel spiced up with curse words.
Surprisingly, “Nobody Gets Out Alive” wasn't originally planned for the film. It wasn't even a song at all, but just grew organically out of a scene in which Jackson's high-strung hitman is sitting in a car with Reynolds's boring bodyguard. The song's creation was mostly the result of in-the-moment improvisation, but director Patrick Hughes liked what he heard and asked Jackson to keep fleshing the song out.
To make sure that the song lived up to its potential, the director also shared what had been captured on film with Atli Örvarsson the film's soundtrack composer. Örvarsson then worked with Jackson to help mold it into the song heard on the soundtrack today, complete with wisdom-filled but R-rated lyrics written by Jackson himself. Raised In The Land Of Blues Legends
Considering Jackson's past, his cinematic brushes with the blues over the course of his storied career make perfect sense. Although born in Washington, D.C., Jackson was actually raised by his grandparents in Chattanooga, Tennessee, the birthplace of the blues music queen Bessie Smith. Tennessee at large was also the birthplace and the home of several blues music legends like John Lee Hooker, Memphis Minnie, B.B. King, Ike Turner and too many others to name.
Ironically, whenever asked about his preferences in music, Jackson has professed an appreciation for hip-hop, but the man clearly has blues music in his soul, too. With all hope, between now and sometime around 2027, we’ll get yet another chance to hear his inner bluesman crooning once again.
Also starring Salma Hayek, Gary Oldman and Elodie Young, The Hitman’s Bodyguard opens on August 18.
Yup, I see what you did there, Lionsgate. Getting 'down and dirty' with the posters for The Hitman's Bodyguard. I have to say that when I saw 'em, it really, really –wait for it–made my day.
Starring Ryan Reynolds and Samuel L. Jackson, The Hitman’s Bodyguard opens on August 18.
Enter the Dragon and His Allies is the semi-clunky title used for the one-sheet comic strip that was packed into the press kit for the 1973 Bruce Lee film Enter the Dragon. I always wanted to have this in my collection, but could never find a reasonably priced copy in good condition, or a good scan of the page. When I got over it and wasn't looking for it anymore though, I happened across a great scan that some super cool soul uploaded to the interwebs. If you've never seen or heard of Enter the Dragon and His Allies before – or if you too have wanted to have a decent digital copy for your archive, here it is. Click the image below to download and enjoy.
Believe it or not, it's really much closer to 45 years that Nubia — DC Comics' shamefully underused Amazon warrior — has existed. For more than half that time, I myself have viewed the character as being the biggest missed opportunity in the history of DC, a publisher that once lagged noticeably behind its rival Marvel Comics, in terms of a racially diverse roster of heroes.
It's somewhat dumbfounding when you consider the fact that Nubia was one of the very first black super-powered characters when introduced into Wonder Woman, Issue 204 in 1973. This was two years after the first appearance of the Green Lantern John Stewart, and two years before Storm of the X-Men. Today, those latter two characters are among fandom's most popular superheroes.
[Credit: DC Comics]
With so early an introduction into the pantheon of the super-powered, Nubia was perfectly positioned to someday ascend to a place of prominence in comics history. But sadly, in a country where the two big "isms" still rear their puss-filled heads almost as much today as when the character was created, that was never to be. Nubia wasn't given much of a chance at all, really.
And Yet She Persisted
WonderWoman's fraternal twin, formed of dark of clay by her mother Queen Hippolyta — in contrast to the light clay from which Diana was formed — essentially vanished after the three-issue story arc in which she was introduced. In 1974, the year after her creation, she had a small role in Supergirl Issue 9, but was then quietly ushered into the blank pages of obscurity.
Nubia's lasting place in the minds of many fans is more largely owed to a doll made by the Mego Corporation in 1977, when the Wonder Woman TV show was at the height of its popularity. The 12-inch Nubia action doll, outfitted in silver armor and a purple skirt, with a sword and shield accessories, looked as if it had sprung right from comics and into the toy isle.
Meet Mel Milton
In the first week of June, I had the pleasure of wrting about the internet-breaking fan art of Marcus Williams. Today, I am just as pleased to introduce you to the gorgeous, Nubia-centric illustrations of artist Mel Milton, who has been producing a variety of Wonder Woman drawings that every fan just needs to gawk at.
Milton, by the way, is a former artist/animator for Disney — and it shows. His vivacious cartoon women echo many of the distinctive style elements that one might associate with the protagonists of modern-day animated Disney classics, like Mulan, Atlantis, Lilo & Stitch, and The Princess and the Frog.
On June 6, 2017, in anticipation of seeing the justifiably much-hyped film about the amazing Amazon, Milton sketched out a portrait of Wonder Woman. The next day he produced another sketch of the character, and over subsequent days, the work expanded into a series of wonderful art pieces dedicated to the heroic princess of Paradise Island.
Milton has described the series as his "personal Wonder Woman challenge." Along with an assortment of drawings of Diana, the fifth, 13th, 16th and 22nd sketches are illustrations offering the artist's wondrous interpretations of the Amazon warrior Nubia. I won't waste a single keystroke trying to describe 'em. The pictures themselves paint a thousand words.
Fans of Milton's work have been understandably wonderstruck by the full series of Wonder Woman illustrations. So much so that they've been requesting the opportunity to purchase the original drawings, prints — anything at all. And fortunately for us, Mr. Milton has decided to collect them into a keepsake sketchbook that, when ready, should take our collective breath away.
For those who don't follow comics much, it's worth mentioning that in recent months, DC has introduced an "all-new and all-different" fraternal twin for Diana who's not brown-skinned, but white and male. That's right, as if there's anything out of the ordinary about a character fitting that description anywhere at all in the nearly 80-year history of comic books.
Nevertheless, it was the true uniqueness of a character in comics like Nubia — and with some extra help from a groundbreaking toy — that DC's other Wonder Woman made an impression on geek culture that has resonated out of the old school of Generation X and into the new school of the millennial. And if nothing else, Nubia's enduring (and still expanding) fandom just goes to show that you can't keep a good character down.
Chadwick Boseman's enthroned image pays homage more to legendary African rulers than the Black Panther Party's Huey P. Newton.
It wasn't long after the release of the new teaser poster for next year's MCU film Black Panther that the internet was set ablaze. Keyboard conspiracy theorists were ringing the alarm that the white genocide was a-coming, and the latest sign of the racial apocalypse was a superhero movie poster.
Credit: Marvel
According to critics the image composition for the poster appeared startlingly similar to an iconic image of the Black Panther Party co-founder Huey P. Newton sitting confidently in a wicker chair––holding an African spear and a rifle. And aside from the fact that Black Panther actor Chadwick Boseman holds no weapons, there are some uncanny similarities.
For instance, both men are seated with their arms resting atop the armrests of their respective chairs. Both are dressed in stylish black outfits and – maybe most remarkably – both men are African-American. But despite those senses-shattering similarities, the film poster takes its cues from another image that, like the Newton photo, has deep historical significance.
Credit: Blair Stapp, 1967
The image in question is a 1959 photograph of the Nigerian King Olateru Olagbegi II (1910–1998). Olateru was the ruler of the ancient city of Owo, which was once the capital of the Eastern Yoruban city-state. In the photograph, which was taken outside his palace, the king sits under the shade of a velour umbrella, framed between two ornately engraved elephant tusks.
Oba Olateru Olagbegi II, the Olowo of Owo
And it is this regal image of Olateru to whom homage is paid with the poster of the enthroned T'Challa, the superhero king of Wakanda. An image that is most apparent in the tusk-like structural design elements jutting from the left and right sides of his throne. In the mid-1970s, the photo of Olateru had a similar influencing effect on another promotional print image.
In 1975, the Anheuser-Busch Company began commissioning artists for a series of prints created to bring awareness to various African leaders throughout history. The series was called The Great Kings and Queens of Africa, and one of the 28 prints in the series featured an iconic image of the great Hannibal (247-183 BC), ruler of the ancient North African city of Carthage.
Credit: The Anheuser-Busch Company / Artist: Charles Lilly
Released in 1977, the Hannibal image was painted by artist Charles Lilly, but shows the unmistakable influence of the photo of the Nigerian king Olateru. In the print, the celebrated military strategist – whose soldiers were famed for riding elephants into war – sits on a high-backed wooden chair framed by two large elephant tusks whose tips are adorned with gold rings.
Sold in sets of four, ads for Anheuser-Busch's The Great Kings and Queens of Africa print series were carried in the pages of publications like Ebony, Jet magazine for decades––and the prints themselves were subsequently found adorning the walls of classrooms across America. And in the process, the print images forged an indelible impression on several generations of African-Americans.
Now, while it is certainly possible that the teaser poster for Ryan Coogler's eagerly-awaited Black Panther shares a slight resemblance with iconic photograph of Huey P. Newton, the influence of the photograph of the Nigerian king Olateru cannot be denied. But let's leave it to those uber-paranoid keyboard conspiracy theorists to give it another try.
Speaking of conspiracies, are you also equally disturned by the fact that we have to wait until friggin' February to see Black Panther?
As the hit DCEU movie Wonder Woman was in its fourth day of breaking the US box office this past weekend, Atlanta-based illustrator Marcus Williams (Tuskegee Heirs) started breaking the internet — or Facebook and Twitter, at least — by posting a spine-tingling tribute to WonderWoman and her largely forgotten fraternal twin sister, Nubia.
On June 2, a pulse-pounding preview of this now full-color work was shared in the form of a pencil sketch of Nubia and Diana. That piece showed off the pure form of fine line work for which Williams is becoming well known, especially due to his remarkable renditions of fan favorite comic book heroines like Storm, Captain Marvel, Psylocke, and too many others to name.
At the time the sketch was posted, Williams was just showing his enthusiastic support of the then-upcoming Wonder Woman film. Fans of the artist's work were quick to show their enthusiastic support of his enthusiastic support!
Yet, there were also many new school comic book fans who weren't aware that Diana had ever had a sister, aside from Donna Troy of the Teen Titans, let alone a black fraternal twin. But, once upon a time, she did indeed have one.
In February of 1973, during the rise in popularity of blaxploitation films like Shaft, Coffy, Black Caesar and many others, DC Comics showed themselves as "hip to the times" by introducing the Amazon warrior Nubia, with whom Diana duels in issue #204 of Wonder Woman. But Diana — who'd just recovered from amnesia — had no idea who her tall, dark and lovely adversary actually was. The same was also true of her book's readers.
By way of a flashback in Wonder Woman #206, it was revealed that Nubia and Diana were twin sisters, formed as babes from dark and light clay by their mother Queen Hippolyta, and animated into life by the breath of the Goddess Aphrodite. After their miraculous creation however, the God of War Mars appeared and stole Nubia away from her mother and sister.
[Credit: DC Comics]
In the mid-1980s, DC Comics released the popular but also controversial series, Crisis on Infinite Earths. This complex story would serve as a reset button of sorts for the publisher's then-sprawling, multi-dimensional universe. Many of the plot twists that came about in the ensuing years since Wonder Woman and her peers were first created in the 1940s and onward were erased.
Among those countless casualties was Nubia's audacious origin, which left the character being just one of many Amazons on Paradise Island with no special relation to Diana and Hippolyta. The ripple in Wonder Woman's continuity created in 1973 by writer Cary Bates and artist Don Heck never faded, and the appreciation of this little known Amazon warrior endures.
In fitting tribute to that now classic tale of the "Wonder Women," Nubia and her fraternal twin sister Diana — as they forever remain in the minds of many old school comic book collectors — have been given a picture perfect family reunion in a gorgeous work of fan art by Marcus Williams.
[Credit: @marcusthevisual]
Though Nubia has never really had the place in comics that her character deserves, the vision of this talented artist from Atlanta makes you realize that it would be some kind of wonderful to see the separated twin sisters together again on the silver screen in Patty Jenkins' senses-shattering sequel to Wonder Woman — even if only for a moment.
What say you, Patty J? Do you wanna break the box office again?
BLADE: BLOOD WAR I (Final Version) :: Click to enlarge
I'd found it somewhat curious back in October of this year when Kate Beckinsale of Underworld film franchise fame commented publicly that Marvel had another Blade film in the works.
In the months since that statement was made, the story hasn't gained any measurable traction beyond the initial, tantalizing the sound bite. But the question that was very on heavy on my mind at the time was, how would Beckinsale even know?
The remark was made by the actor during a panel at the 2016 New York Comic-Con. An enthusiastic fan inquired about the eventual possibility of a crossover between Beckinsale's Selene character and Blade, Marvel's half-breed vampire slayer played by Wesley Snipes. Beckinsale replied in the negative, but revealed that such a crossover had indeed been considered. It was shot down by Marvel:
"No. We had that idea. No. They're busy. They're doing something with Blade."
Whether or not Beckinsale's comment is accurate with regard to Marvel's fanged famed Daywalker, I cannot say. And its veracity isn't even the point. The point here is that yours truly posted the semi-final version of his Blade: Blood War I fake movie poster on this very humble blog in April of this year and at this very moment, TV and print ads for Underworld: Blood Wars are making the rounds.
It was while trying to catch up on a few more episodes of Atlanta on FX last night (super behind, I know), that I saw the commercial for the latest Underworld entry. Admittedly, I've only seen maybe two films from this long running franchise, but both watches were enjoyed. And so, it was with measured interest that I watched the TV promo for the new film. But when the TV spot ended and I noticed "Blood Wars" as part of the film's title, Beckinsale's Blade related comment rushed to mind and I shouted excitedly, "Those Underworld fuckers bit my shit!!"
Okay, I think that I should prolly be sharing my (largely speculative) credit. A recent Google search reveals that a rough, fan made video montage of the Underworld and Blade film properties called, as fate would have it, "Blood Wars," has been posted to Youtube since 2007. My decision, however, to use that phrase for my fake Blade film poster had a wholly organic origin.
In the beginning of the project, I was heavily leaning towards using "Winter Wars," a nod to the classic Ghostface Killah song "Winter Warz," found on the Wu-tang general's debut solo joint, Ironman. But, soon after placing all of the red blood splatters that appear over a section of the white, winter inspired background, the trajectory of the title changed to what appears in the final.
Also a factor in my title choice were echoes of a phrase once used by the notorious graffiti writer Cap, a controversial figure profiled in the book Subway Art and in the cult classic documentary Style Wars. In the film, Cap describes his destructive motivation to write or "bomb" his tag all over the more developed art of his rivals. Menacingly, Cap describes the competition for street notoriety as a "blood war," and the layered subtext offered by this graffiti connection cemented my title choice.
However it was that the Underworld: Blood Wars title actually and factually came about, I will gleefully continue to tell myself that both my fake Blade mini poster and the Underworld/Blade fan film on YouTube were contributing factors in the film's naming. Something done in the way of a wink and nod toward the geeky tradition of fan made pop culture. It all makes for a pretty cool story that way.
The legendary Ken Swift (Rock Steady Crew) and DJ Darrell D
The homie DJ Darrell D made his annual pilgrimage to the Crotona Park Jams in NY, and once again rubbed shoulders with many of the old school legends and luminaries of hip-hop. But he did it while also rocking a couple of t-shirts made by yours truly, including the "Brown" mash-up pictured above. While many of the fellas at the jam were silently 'checking his fresh', he reports that an unexpected number of compliments actually came from the ladies. And when the godfather of hip-hop Kool DJ Herc saw the JB tribute, he loudly shouted out, "That's my man (JB)!" four or five times. Pret-ty dope, right?
Anyway, to see who else Darrell D (and the Brown shirt) rubbed shoulders with, check out his killer recap of the 2016 Crotona Jams by clicking here (for part 1) and here (for part 2).
I wanted badly to have the instrumental track of Pharoahe Monch's "Simon Says" featured in a playlist that I've put together for an upcoming project. As monstrous as the vocal version of this rap track is, the instrumental–much to my surprise–was somewhat on the...repetitive side. If I was gonna use it, the track was gonna need some variations in its sound. So, I imported the track into Garage Band™, grabbed all of my Godzilla and related Toho film soundtracks, and worked a wee bit of magic; my first proper remix, made especially for hip-hop and kaiju film soundtrack lovers like me (and you).
On June 28, Australia-based artist BossLogic shared to his Facebook and Twitter pages a pulse-pounding new piece of fan art, in which Jamie Foxx is depicted in the role of Marvel's super-cool vampire slayer Blade. The faux teaser poster features a monochromatic and red-accented portrait of Foxx with Blade's trademark haircut, tribal tattoos, tactical vest, Ray-Bans, and his distinctive samurai sword. Check it out below:
First brought to life on the silver screen by Wesley Snipes in 1998, Blade, a once-little-known 1970s comic book character, was recently acknowledged by Marvel's Kevin Feige to have been the House of M's first successful film franchise. Longtime fans of the character are still starving to know if and when the Daywalker will again see the light of day.
Meanwhile, the BossLogic teaser poster has made mouths water by offering an unexpected taste of what a new Blade film could look like with someone like Jamie Foxx in the role. On the morning of July 1, Snipes saw the artwork in his Twitter feed and quickly responded with a playful (and so far unanswered) tweet to Foxx, asking why he isn't invited to the party:
Twitter: A Place For Cinematic Dreams To Come True
If Foxx does respond, it will be interesting to see what he says. Magical things happen on Twitter, you know.
In May of 2017, a photo of Rihanna and Lupita Nyong'o sparked the imaginations of their fans, who basically crowdsourced the plot for a make-believe buddy movie. It was an idea that Rihanna and Nyong'o playfully indulged in, but it quickly snowballed until the fan fantasy became a soon-to-be very real heist film, staring the aforementioned dynamic duo. With Ava DuVernay now on board to direct, the Netflix series is aiming to start production in 2018.
I don't know about the rest of you Blade fans, but BossLogic has me thinking now that the only thing cooler than a new Blade movie — with Wesley Snipes, of course, returning to the role that he first sunk his fangs into — is a Blade film with Jamie Foxx sharing the screen as a fellow vampire slayer. With the right budget, the right director, the right script, and the right super-villain, a Blade buddy movie would take a ginormous bite out of the box office and leave audiences thirsty for more.
Is the big screen big enough for two super cool vampire slayers? Feel free to lemme know with a comment below.
I'm certain that I'm not the only one who's still sad about the passing of Prince. I wanted to post one of his videos, but I elected to go another route: the very fitting and fantastic hit cover of "I Feel For You" by his dear friend Chaka Khan, posted here with Prince Rogers Nelson firmly mind. Still so hard to believe he's gone.
Despite being a big fan of Marvel's Blade films – the first two – (as mentioned here) I was never sure that I'd make an actual Blade piece for my Marvel Blaxploitation series. As inspiration would have it, though, a vague poster concept hit from out the blue yesterday afternoon, and this morning I have a finished piece that I like quite a bit.
Michael "Boogaloo Shrimp" Chambers, one of the stars of the 1984 cult hit Breakin', has never received the recognition he deserves for a great number of things, among them being credit for actually being the man who taught Michael Jackson to moonwalk.
In addition to that fairly seismic slight, Chambers also never really got the credit he deserved for being a major style icon for kids across the planet in the 1980s. But his pop art Godzilla muscle shirt, Banzai headband, camouflage khakis, and white Nike high-tops set a trailblazing fashion trend for many others to follow.
In addition to his mind-blowing dance moves on screen in Breakin', it was his very unique sense of style, coupled with serious skinny kid swag, that left a deep impression whose echoes still reverberate in the present.
And if there's any justice in the world, somebody (me) will attempt to right at least one of the great wrongs of pop culture history, and post to their blog a retrospective tribute to the cross-cultural fashion sense in 1984 of the legendary Boogaloo Shrimp.
Did this post get you hyped up for more? Well, click here to learn how Boogaloo Shrimp met and mentored MJ, the reasons why he has a ton of fans in Asia, and much more in a very revealing 2008 interview.
My Cooley High/blaxploitation-infused article "Godzilla vs. Pooter: A Tribute to American International Pictures" was featured in issue #110 of G-Fan magazine (which boasts a gorgeous cover painting by artist Bob Eggleton). If you're lucky, you may still be able to snag a minty fresh copy from your local comic book shop. If not, the ever reliable Oldies.com still has 'em in stock. Updated: Youcan also orderyour copy direct from the publisher who, amazingly,offers cheaper shipping rates than Oldies.com–even with it comin' from Canada.
Historically speaking, the Toho Master Collection DVD series (blogged about here) wasn't the first time that the Godzilla films of Japan's Toho Studios were given the serious home video treatment in America. A decade earlier, a shelf stomping collection of six Godzilla films was unleashed upon an unsuspecting marketplace by Anchor Bay Entertainment in 1997.
It was in wide-reaching association with home video license holders StarMaker Video, R&G Video, Golden Books and New World Video that Anchor Bay released its very handsomely packaged Godzilla film collection on VHS cassette. The films included in the series were Son of Godzilla (1967), Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla (1974), Ghidorah: The Three-Headed Monster (1964), Godzilla 1985 (aka The Return of Godzilla, 1984), Godzilla vs. Gigan (1972), and Godzilla vs. Megalon (1973).
At the tail end of the 1980s, several releases of the aforementioned films had already been made for the home video rental and retail markets by various distributors, including StarMaker. These regularly appeared on shelves at Blockbuster Video and in home entertainment specialty shops like Suncoast. But the presentment quality there often varied greatly. While some of the films came packaged in slipcases that were expertly designed using images lifted from the original Japanese promotional posters or production stills, others boasted amateurishly illustrated images that, while maybe having a kind of "shlock cinema" charm, only poured petrol on the pyre of associations made by people who equated Godzilla films with low quality Japanese movies made for children...and adults of dubious intellect.
The graphic treatment of Godzilla films in the Anchor Bay VHS releases, however, raised the bar to suggest that these imaginative and richly detailed sci-fi films made in Japan––yes, that featured actors in rubber suits, romping around on miniature landscapes––should be taken a bit more seriously. Perhaps to the point of simply seeing Godzilla films for what they were: an enduring global pop culture phenomenon and the longest running film franchise in history.
But there was a sizable profit incentive for Anchor Bay in making this series too. The release of this VHS tape collection hit the domestic marketplace the year before a new Godzilla film by New Line Cinema was scheduled for release in the summer of 1998. Anchor Bay's set was timed perfectly to coincide with the rekindled interest amongst old school Godzilla movie lovers, and the newly sparked interest in the next generation of "Big G" fans.
In light of this timing, the Anchor Bay Godzilla film collection wasn't planned to be anything in the way of a definitive or chronologically sequenced set. But what the collection offered was a thoughtful, although somewhat random sampler, showcasing six of the fourteen Godzilla films made in Japan over a twenty-year span. The period in question streched from 1964––the middle of the Showa era of Godzilla films, which began in 1954––to 1984, the beginning of the Heisei era. And the effort put into this set by Anchor Bay made for an appealing collection that grabbed both the eyes and the retail dollars of home video shoppers.
The fronts of the slipcases in Anchor Bay's Godzilla film collection boasted across the top portions of each "Gojira's" Americanized name, rendered in a style suggestive of the beautiful forms of Japanese brush writing. In the background appeared a recurring motif, comprised of a faded composite of Godzilla's head and torso and snippets of a Tokyo skyline culled from The Return of Godzilla production stills.Superimposed over the composite image on two of the six slipcases were two different images of Godzilla in the foreground, one of which also included Minilla (aka Son of Godzilla) for the film in which this character appeared. And superimposed over the composite on the covers of the other four releases were images of rival monsters Ghidorah, Megalon, Gigan, and Mechagodzilla.
Another motif worth focusing on in the slipcase design was the possibly overlooked phalanx of orange and red flames coming from the open mouth of the Godzilla figure on the cover of the Godzilla 1985 release. The flames were cleverly made to extend outwardly in east and west directions, along the bottoms of all six boxes, binding them together graphically with yet one more unifying design element. Appearing in a white typewriter font at the bottom of each slipcase was the title of each film.
As is standard in slipcase design, the left side of the box prominently featured the title of each respective film. But the right side of the slipcase was reserved for something special. The right side of each box featured a de facto puzzle piece that, when lined up front to back with the other VHS tapes in the series, combined to form an impressive Godzilla 1985 poster-related display.
With the advances in home entertainment since the late 1990s, when the Anchor Bay Godzilla movie collection was made, these films have since been released again in DVD format, all variously issued by different film license holders. But only one of the films included in the Anchor Bay collection, Ghidorah: The Three-Headed Monster, was also featured in Sony's 2008 Toho Master Collection DVD series. The overall absence of duplication by Sony benefited the owners the older Anchor Bay collection that may prefer still having at least some of their Godzilla flicks in analog format. Especially when, on the shelf to this day, they still make a rather smashing display.
