Godzilla’s been on a resurgent streak, from the MonsterVerse franchise and “Godzilla Minus One” in theaters to “Monarch” on Apple TV+. Now, TheWrap can exclusively share that acclaimed writer and artist Tom Scioli is delivering comic book “Godzilla’s Monsterpiece Theatre” from IDW, with the giant lizard taking on figures from throughout literary history — including the Great Gatsby, Sherlock Holmes, H.G. Wells’ Time Traveller and a mystery man with vampiric fingers and a “D” on the back of his cape (want to take a guess?).
The three-issue series is set in 1922, with one of Jay Gatsby’s legendary parties luring the attention of the giant lizard himself. Rather than being able to woo Daisy Buchanan, he has to deal with Godzilla absolutely demolishing his estate. Gatsby follows up on the destruction by teaming with the aforementioned 20th century literary icons to take his revenge.
View more art, including alternate covers and exclusive preview pages from the comic, below.
Scioli mocked the hack headline that mainstream comic book stories often receive, telling TheWrap, “Bang! POW! Comics aren’t just for kids anymore,” before noting that he’s delivering “F. Scott Fitzgerald meets Ishirō Honda” — the “Great Gatsby” author and the original 1954 “Godzilla” director.
“Imagine if Godzilla thundered into the great American novel,” Scioli said. “It’s an epic. It’s a grand, globe-spanning adventure, but it’s also an intimate story of love and heartbreak.”
It’s the realization of a bit of a dream for Scioli, who’s made a name for himself with his graphic novel biography of comic book legend Jack Kirby, cocreator of major comic characters from Captain America to the Fantastic Four, in “Jack Kirby: The Epic Life of the King of Comics.” He also wrote and illustrated a beautiful overview of the history of the Fantastic Four as fans anxiously await the new movie, “Fantastic Four: Grand Design.”
“I’ve been wanting to make a Godzilla comic since forever,” Scioli noted. “Some of my earliest memories are Godzilla. I always wanted to wear the Godzilla suit and knock over buildings, step on toy tanks. The first time I went to the natural history museum, I was disappointed by how small the dinosaurs were. I thought they were bigger than skyscrapers like Godzilla.”
Showing that this comic clearly isn’t taking itself overly seriously, but in a completely epic way, he added of what to expect in this book: “This might be the ultimate comic. Godzilla attacks a dance contest. There’s a speedboat chase. Car chases. Wild Horses. Submarines. Detectives. All while Godzilla is on a global path of destruction.”
Offering some insight into how he approached this story, Scioli said, “The creative process is a mysterious and beautiful thing. I try to engage with it from every direction. This is a very special and very important project that I spent a lot of time, effort and love on and I’m happy to share it with you. To prepare for making this comic, I made an entire Godzilla graphic novel just for practice. That’s how pumped I am for this! If you know me or follow my career, you might know how much I’ve been wanting to tell this story.”
“If you want to read a comic and nobody’s making it, you’ve got to make it yourself,” he explained. “This is the kind of comic I’ve been wanting to read, so I made it.”
Scioli also praised the famed Japanese company behind the Godzilla franchise, Toho, describing it as “an honor” to work with them: “When I think about Godzilla, I get happy. Just the word ‘Godzilla’ makes me happy.”
The book’s first issue feaures a throwback cover with a style reminiscent of the 1960s “Fantastic Four #1,” with Godzilla as the monster and the other four literary characters as our heroes. An alternate cover for the book, also illustrated by Scioli, is in the style of the cover of “The Great Gatsby” — with the haunting image of Daisy replaced by Godzilla, the Gatsby estate burning down below with a title along the bottom reading, “Godzilla vs. Gatsby.”
Each issue will be 40 pages long, with other characters set to appear along the way, including Jules Verne. It remains to be seen what clues Sherlock Holmes will pick up to solve the Lizard of the Baskervilles (or what have you).
You can read two preview pages from the forthcoming series, below:
Alternate covers for the series from artists Jim Rugg and Jim Mahfood, also courtesy IDW Publishing:
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