Thursday, March 21, 2024

Book Review: Godzilla - Here There Be Dragons


Before humanity had successfully traveled the entire globe, it was believed that monsters ruled the oceans just beyond the horizon. “Here there be dragons…” was written on maps to denote the areas people dared not go.That is, until Sir Francis Drake circumnavigated the seas, visiting foreign lands and collecting treasure. That’s what history tells us, at least, but history does not have the full tale.

Monsters did lurk yonder, living on an island that still doesn’t appear on any map, and among them was the king of them all… Godzilla! From Frank Tieri and Inaki Miranda, the incredible team behind Old Lady Harley, comes a Godzilla adventure like no other. Collects the five-issue series.

Godzilla: Here Be Dragons will be published April 9, 2024. IDW Publishing provided an early galley for review.

I grew up on Godzilla movies being shown on a local syndicated channel on Saturday afternoons. Something about a giant monster wrecking havoc on humanity appealed to me. His popularity has not diminished since those days; my grown son raved about the recent Godzilla Minus One film from 2023. So, why not present a story where the giant lizard encounters historical explorers from the 1500's?

The artwork by Miranda is gorgeous, with colors by Eva de la Cruz that give it even more vibrancy. Tieri's story has the right mix of swashbuckling pirates and giant kaiju to bring back the childhood excitement and imagination in every reader. Clearly, the creative team are very much fans of this franchise as they draw deep into the catalog and lore to craft this rousing tale.

I also appreciated the inclusion of the variant covers. There were several nice pieces in the bunch.

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