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Giant Monster Fans All-Out Attack: My Recap of G-Fest XXIX

From July 11-14, I attended one of my favorite conventions, G-Fest, in Rosemont, Illinois. Godzilla and kaiju fans from all over the world converge here for three (well, technically four) days of monster-sized fun. As usual, I was a panelist, including serving as a co-moderator for the Kaiju Writers Panel with Daniel DiManna of the Godzilla Novelization Project. While I discussed the convention on a livestream with Ryan “The Omni Viewer” Collins July 20 and will do so at least a bit on my podcasts, The Monster Island Film Vault and Henshin Power V3, in the coming weeks, here’s a rundown on what went down at that con.

Day “Minus One”

The lead up to the con was a bit stressful. I wasn’t able to save up as much money for it as I wanted, and my attempts to get a fourth roommate for me, my brother Jarod, and my friend/HPV3 co-host, Jake Hambrick, fell through—until my friend/MIFV patron Matt Walsh (no, not that Matt Walsh) called me a few days beforehand to say his friends had booked different rooms without him, and he needed a new place to stay. So, he joined us. That made the math easy: we’d each pay for a night at the Hyatt Regency O’Hare, where the con was held.

After an early morning plasma donation for some extra cash and a quick trip to the bank, Jarod and I piled into my car and made the three-and-a-half hour drive from Fort Wayne to Rosemont. We had only one minor snag, which was that I put “Hyatt Rosemont” and not “Hyatt Regency” into my phone’s GPS, so we were slightly delayed arriving. After meeting up with a few friends like Elijah Thomas (Kaiju Conversation), Kaiju Kim, Daniel DiManna, and others, we rushed to the Pickwick Theater for the first of G-Fest’s trademark double features: Mothra vs. Godzilla and Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla (1974). Thankfully, unlike years past, there wasn’t an event happening at the local park, so finding parking was easy. Afterward, we went to Giordanno’s for some true Chicago-style pizza. It’s a little less special because there’s a Giordanno’s in Fort Wayne now, but it’s my G-Fest tradition. We had a charismatic waiter (whose name I wish I could remember, because he was my favorite in my years at G-Fest), which made it an even better experience. Then we rushed back to the Pickwick to see the second double feature, albeit late, which included The Return of Godzilla and Godzilla vs. SpaceGodzilla. I won’t get into much here, but SpaceGodzilla is a lesser entry in the franchise, to say the least, but I did gain a little more appreciation seeing it on the big screen. I’d forgotten the blu-ray, which is what was used to screen it, had dreaded “dubtitles,” though. I and a couple friends kept correcting the subtitles as we watched.

Then we checked in at the hotel, unloaded my car, and turned in for the night.

Day 1

With maybe six hours of sleep and 200 milligrams of caffeine to fuel me, I got up bright and early, ate breakfast, and then Jake and I jumped into the kaiju-sized snake of a line for registration. Seriously, it went all the way down the hallway into the main lobby and around this huge dining room. Thankfully, it moved fast, and we got our badges and programs inside of 15 minutes. Sadly, it was while standing in line that we learned how terrible the Hyatt’s wifi was. I know, “first world problems,” but it hindered some communication. It’s the main reason, aside from sheer busyness, why I didn’t post much on social media about the event.

At 10AM, I helped kick off the convention with one of its first two panels: The 40th Anniversary of Return of Godzilla. This was organized by Autistic Lizard Pro and included several great friends. It, like most of my panels, was stacked. Here’s the video:

The MIFV upload of the panel video.
Autistic Lizard Productions’ upload of the panel video.

I attempted to enter the dealer hall afterward. Keyword: attempted. The dealer hall is one of the con’s biggest attractions since it always has exclusive merchandise. It was so crowded, it needed “bouncers” to monitor how many could enter. I just did a quick survey to locate my favorite vendors, which included Seismic Toys, Beast from the East, and Toku Toy Town, with the latter two being next to each other, which was great.

Speaking of Seismic, Alex Rushdy, who helps run the shop, gave a panel at noon about every Godzilla video game ever. I love his video game panels, because he knows more about kaiju video games than anyone else.

I then returned to the dealer hall to actually talk with some people, like Jay Key from Toku Toy Town, and do some networking. I say that because I met Jeff Gomez from Ultraman Connection. I’ve had him on MIFV a couple times, and he’s a big fan of my podcasts. I got some inside info from him about a “lost” American-made Ultraman movie from the 1980s that was being screen as part of the film festival at the con as well as learn that his website is looking for writers, so hopefully I’ll have a freelance gig with him.

I then hit up a couple panels that featured some friends: namely 50 Years of Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla and Godzilla Minus One. I’d have loved to be a part of either, but it was great being there and seeing the love the fandom has for Minus One.

Next up, I and a few friends, including Ryan Collins, got an early dinner at the hotel restaurant, the Red Bar, so we could go downstairs and watch the premiere of crowdfunded indie film Kaiju Glam Metal Shark Attack. Yes, that’s a real movie made by SRS Cinema. It was…something. If and when it gets released on blu-ray, it may end up on MIFV.

Following this, we all gathered in three ballrooms for the customary opening ceremony, which introduced the special guests, among other things. What surprised me was I bumped into none other than Linda Jo Miller, one of the stars of King Kong Escapes! She was there “secretly” as an attendee and not a guest! We had a nice chat about the article I published in Kaiju United and Kaiju Ramen about her and the other leading ladies in Kong films, and I confirmed I could interview her for the show. (Score!) Anyway, the opening ceremonies were shorter than I expected. I chitchatted with one of the other guests, Dr. Jeffrey Angles, who translated the first two Godzilla novelizations by Shigeru Kayama into English. We’d been corresponding for a bit, but I was able to solidify an interview with him for MIFV. I could talk to him for hours about literature, teaching, and Godzilla.

The day concluded with an epic screening of Godzilla: Final Wars. I’ve never seen the Pickwick so full before. They had to usher people in to find seats. There were rumors that the screening would sell out. I don’t know if it did, but it was so crowded that it started 30 minutes late. (I got tired of seeing the same trailers for Twisters and Deadpool and Wolverine all weekend). If ever there was a Godzilla film where the crowd could get rowdy, it was this one. And they certainly did! I’ve always unabashedly loved that film, and seeing it on the big screen was one of the highlights of all my G-Fests. I hope someone sends a photo and/or video of that crowd to the film’s director, Ryuhei Kitamura, for some validation, since it was popular to hate Final Wars for a while.

Day 2

Saturday, like with any multi-day con, was the biggest and busiest day. I went downstairs to the Film Festival room to at least watch the first 30 minutes or so of Ultraman: The Adventure Begins with its “new dub.” All I’ll say for now is these actors do work hard to sound “of the era.” I wish I could’ve stayed longer, but I had a panel at 11AM, and I always work hard to keep my commitments.

The Kaiju Writers panel was great, as always. We had a bit of a snag because the previous panel went over, and one of our panelists was a bit late, which seems to be tradition. It was the first year where Daniel DiManna and I were the official co-moderators. The original moderator, Neil Riebe, was still on it, though. This year we included poet Donny Winter and Goryo author Dane Kroll. You can watch the video taken by my brother Jarod below.

Most of my afternoon was spent attending panels. First was the Rie Ota interview. She famously played Baragon in Godzilla, Mothra, and King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack. She’s a rare female kaiju suit actor. Sadly, the panel was a bit of a mess. Only one interviewer asked decent questions, and the interpreter struggled a bit. I’ll leave it at that. Next, I went to the Creating Original Kaiju panel. It was okay. I didn’t get as much out of it as I expected. But I wanted to support Dane. I missed out on Jeffrey Anglers’ interview and him reading a passage from his translation of Luminous Fairies and Motha (the source material for the 1961 film). Darn. After a stint in the dealer room, I went to Allan Henry’s interview panel. He’s a mocap actor who, among other things, played Kong in the last two MonsterVerse movies. This interview was much better than Ota’s. It helped he didn’t need an interpreter despite his Kiwi accent. 😛

After this, I started organizing a big get-together for dinner at Caddyshack, a restaurant at the Crowne Plaza hotel down the street, where G-Fest took place before outgrowing it in 2020. There was a bit of a misunderstanding, which hurt someone’s feelings, but thankfully it was resolved by the next day.

Following this was the traditional award ceremony and always-popular costume parade. The fabled Mangled Skyscraper Award went to Toshio Miike, a designer on many tokusatsu projects, who was a guest at the show. If you’d like to see the costume parade, which includes one of the best Mechagodzilla cosplays I’ve ever seen, watch this video:

Jarod and I then went to the final Pickwick screening of the weekend: Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire, which is the latest MonsterVerse flick. Jarod hadn’t seen it and told me he wanted to see it at G-Fest, so I made sure to go for him. I was a little hesitant because the last time I saw a MonsterVerse movie at the Pickwick, Godzilla vs. Kong, it was a bad experience thanks to an obnoxious crowd. I’m happy to say this was better. Yes, the crowd was largely teenage boys, so while it was slightly smaller than the Final Wars screening, it was louder. However, they didn’t just cheer for the monsters: they cheered for the human characters and their sentimental moments. This along with Allan Henry, who introduced the movie, being at the con and several cosplayers wearing costumes of the movie’s villain, Skar King, showed me how popular certain monsters were. It got my English major brain going. I’m mulling over a potential think piece for Kaiju United based on this experience.

Day 3

I was surprised to see that G-pardy, G-Fest’s trademark quiz show, was moved from Saturday night as the warm-up to the costume parade to its own event on Sunday morning. It was also under new management from Skip Peel, who wasn’t in attendance. The program said to come 30 minutes early for qualifying questions, so I and many other people did. Unfortunately, the host didn’t show up until the scheduled start time of 10AM. While I appreciated that his prelim questions were easier and more reasonable than Skip’s (i.e. they were softballs by comparison), I still missed one question and blanked on another. So, my dream of competing was dashed again. But the game itself was rushed, and I still don’t know who won because I had to leave early.

I made another trip into the dealer hall and, more importantly, downstairs to Film Festival room for the premiere of Elijah Thomas’s new short film, Edo Kami No Gyuakushu. Lucky for me, it was the first of the short films to be shown for the video contest, which gave me just enough time to rush back upstairs to the main ballroom for the Kenpachiro Satsuma Tribute panel. (Watch my interview of Elijah about his short film here). Anyway, I was joined by Nick Huber for it for the Satsuma panel. Satsuma was a suit actor who, among other things, played Godzilla in the ‘80s and ‘90s. I met him at G-Fest in 2018. Sadly, he died some months ago. We all shared some experiences we’d had with Satsuma and discussed his work. About halfway in, I opened it to the audience to share. It made the somber panel more meaningful. Sadly, this panel wasn’t recorded, as far as I know. If it was, I’ll update this blog.

I ran to autograph room after that to get a picture with Allan Henry, who chatted with me a little bit and agreed to be interviewed on MIFV. (Score!) He’s a great guy to talk to and a huge nerd, himself.

Finally, we got to the stacked panel that I expected to be one of the biggest of the weekend: Godzilla Turns 70. To discuss that iconic film, there was myself, Daniel DiManna, Elijah Thomas, Kevin Horn, and Dr. Jeffrey Angles. It was wonderful. Watch the video of the whole thing below:

I hung out with my friends for a bit after that, but I did take Jake to see the end of Kaiju Konfessions, a sing-along event hosted by Stan Hyde, because it was worth seeing once, and it’s always felt like the right way to end the con.

We all then walked to the Crown Plaza for one more dinner at Caddyshack, but it was closed for the “official” afterparty, so we returned to the Hyatt for dinner at the Red Bar. A surprising moment for me was a tall black man walked up behind me as I entered, grabbed my arm, and told me how much he appreciated my panels that weekend. (I say it was “surprising” because he grabbed me from behind). We then had our own “wholesome” afterparty by hiding in a room and playing board games like Horrified and Transformers Uno Flip.

Jarod and I left bright and early the next day to get him home for work.

Conclusion

While this wasn’t my overall favorite G-Fest, it still had plenty of highlights. The con is still having growing pains as the new generation of management continues to modernize the show. They’re also dealing with space issues. Rumor has it attendance doubled from 5,000 to 10,000 this year, which is insane. They’ll either have to move to the convention center next door to the Convention Center or take over more of the hotel going forward. I also think they should go back to three panels at a time. Regardless, the show remains the premiere con for kaiju and tokusatsu fans, especially now that more things Kamen Rider are finding their way into the con.

I look forward to next year. I already have at least six panel ideas. Haha!

See you then!

Novellas, Science Fiction, Thriller, Books, Blog

NaNoWriMo Excerpt – “Apollyon: Body and Soul”

Artwork by Tyler Sowles. Designed by Nathan Marchand.

I’m “unoffcially” participating in National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) this year. I say, “unoffcially,” because I haven’t signed up and plan to write 25,00-30,000 words instead of the target 50,000. It’s my first time trying this, so I thought I’d start with a smaller goal. (Plus, who in their right mind thinks November is a great idea for this when Thanksgiving and holiday activities happen during it? There’s a reason some use January as an alternative).

My project for this is the much-demanded sequel to Destroyer, which is currently titled Apollyon: Body and Soul. I’m four chapters and 7,500 words deep into it, but I’m sharing its prologue here for you, True Believer, to read. Forgive me, for it is an unedited first draft. Enjoy!

***

“Come not between the Dragon and his wrath.”

–King Lear, Act 1, Scene 1 (William Shakespeare)

Prologue: Resurrection

Hydraulics growled as the Ilyushin Il-215’s jet engines rotated to VTAL position. Ivanov tapped a few buttons on the aircraft’s dashboard with his calloused fingers, and the words, Autopilot Activated, appeared on the monitor. The dark-haired, hard-faced man stood, reflexively brushing flecks of dried blood from his camouflage fatigues, stepped over the aircraft’s dead pilot on the floor, and walked out the cockpit’s door to the transport’s long main bay. There he saw his lieutenant, Nikitin, also clad in dirty fatigues, standing by a Typhoon Titan armored truck. The vehicle bore several years of rust after years of sitting in storage after the World War. Nikitin was a haggard man with a shaved head and long scars on both cheeks. 

“Remember the Coalition!” said Ivanov in Russian.

“It will rise again!” replied Nikitin, also in Russian.

“We’ve reached the coordinates above the Zmei Crater, comrade. We have little time before the VVS realizes we have stolen their aircraft.”

“Do not worry. I have completed the Muromets Cocktail and placed it in the Typhoon. It will provide excellent raw materials for the microbots.”

“We lost a dozen Warriors gathering the alien crystals, dinosaur DNA, and alloys for it. If their sacrifices are wasted, you will pay with your life.”

“I assure you, comrade, we will succeed for the glory of the Coalition!”

Ivanov tapped several buttons on a control panel on the wall. Hydraulics hissed as gray light flooded the tunnel-like bay from the back of the aircraft. The thunderous wind coming from the open hatch was not unlike a roar shooting from a great maw, Ivanov thought. “‘Come not between the dragon, and his wrath,’” he said.

“Indeed,” replied Nikitin.

Ivanov pressed a final button, and the clamps restraining the Typhoon snapped off the vehicle’s wheels, letting it roll back and disappear out the hatch.

***

Darkness. Unending.

Coldness. Smothering.

Silence. Everlasting.

Crash!

Bugs crawling.

Teeth biting.

Eyes…seeing.

Lost limbs regrown.

Open wounds closed.

Severed sinews reconnected.

Skin wraps his body.

He feels the dirt.

Buzzing fills his ears.

Fire burns in his throat.

Heart beats in cold fire.

Blood flows in metal veins.

A voice cries in his brain.

Moaning escapes his throat in response.

His hands claw at the cliff.

***

Ivanov maneuvered the aircraft in a patrol pattern around the Zmei Crater under Russian radar for several hours. Waiting. Waiting for the results of this grandiose and desperate experiment. An experiment to avenge Mother Russia’s disgraceful defeat. What better way to do so than the irony of reviving the enemy’s greatest weapon and unleashing it upon them? Yet still, they wait.

“We must go, comrade,” said Nikitin, who sat in the co-pilot chair, “before the VVS finds us!”

Ivanov shot him a glare. “No, not until we know if the dragon lives again!”

“And join our fellow patriots in Siberia? No!” Nikitin threw his headset on the dashboard and shot to his feet.

But as he stormed off, Ivanov called, “Down there! Something moves!” Nikitin looked out the windshield where his leader pointed.

A few hundred feet below, a huge metal hand half-covered in blood-red flesh rose from the crater. Its claws dug into the ground, anchoring themselves, and with a great heave, a malformed cyber-serpent dragged itself from the hole. Crimson skin seemed to grow on its half-melted endoskeleton. A crown of horns slowly grew on a head that flopped wildly like a suffocating fish. It crawled on the ground like a snake, leaving a trail of dark fluids and dead scales in its wake.

“The dragon lives!” exclaimed Ivanov. 

Nikitin pulled a computer tablet from his coat pocket and unfurled it. “I will upload instructions to the microbots to begin Operation: Dragonstrike.”

As if in response, one of the dragon’s red eyes flared, shooting a crimson laser.

A crash. Alarms blared. Red warning lights flashed on every dashboard monitor. The Il-215 spun and lurched and divebombed. Ivanov fought the control stick as his lieutenant screamed behind him. With lightning reflexes, he tapped buttons to lower the landing gear and forced the aircraft level out. But it landed cockeyed and slid across the rugged ground, grinding to a halt several long seconds later. It lay at a 60-degree angle, propped on a broken wing. 

Sparks flared from the dashboard, singeing Ivanov’s fatigues, as smoke filled the cockpit. The Russian shook his aching head to regain his bearings, blinking to clear his blurry vision. He felt blood trickle down his left cheek. Cursing, he struggled to free himself from the seatbelt, and a giant hand smashed the ground in front of the downed aircraft, quaking the earth and rattling his teeth. A shadow fell over the cockpit as the rebirthed cyborg dragon slithered by, a low rumble echoing with his every movement.

A rare smile cracked Ivanov’s face.

He finally unbuckled the seatbelt and turned to speak with Nikitin–only to find the man lying dead in a mangled heap with the pilot’s thrashed corpse. The tablet lay shattered next to him.

“May the dragon avenge you, comrade!” whispered Ivanov.

He reached into his pocket and produced a cellular phone and tapped its cracked screen. It rang twice before someone answered. “I require extraction,” Ivanov said.

A voice with an Asian accent replied in English, “Is it done?”

“Yes, Kang, Apollyon lives!”

Video, Interview

I was Interviewed by Kaiju Kim about Kaiju Literature!

This past Sunday, I was interviewed by Kaiju Kim, who makes the most wholesome kaiju content you’ll see on YouTube. It was Father’s Day, so the chat was relatively quiet, but we still had a good time discussing kaiju literature–including books and short stories I’ve written and published myself. Give it a watch!

Video

The Monster Island Film Vault – My New Podcast Premieres!

After a year of prep and a summer of hype, my new podcast, The Monster Island Film Vault, premiered today. You can listen to it on several podcatchers, but it’s also on YouTube. The video version is below. Click here for the audio version.

Enjoy!

Hello, kaiju lovers!

Listen as Nathan Marchand, co-creator and season one co-host of the Kaijuvision Radio, regales you with the origin story of his new podcast. It includes a vacation to a resort on the fabled Monster Island (formerly Monsterland), where he met his intrepid producer, Jimmy From NASA (who miraculously survived the infamous War in Space), and got a new job as the curator of the Island’s film vault. Between bantering sessions with his detail-obsessed, fact-checking interrupter of a producer, Nathan explains the podcast’s philosophy of film appreciation and lays the groundwork for the upcoming episodes.

And what will Nathan, Jimmy, and their many guests be discussing first? The filmography of Monster Island’s other most famous resident: KING KONG!

Hold onto your butts!

The Monster Island Film Vault: A podcast seeking entertainment and enlightenment through tokusatsu.

Check out the epic three-hour KVR episode on Shin Godzilla: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZyQsL…#JimmyFromNASALives

www.MonsterIslandFilmVault.com

© 2019 Nathan Marchand/Moonlighting Ninjas Media

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Grad School Update: My Ishiro Honda Independent Study

Honda on the set of 1962’s King Kong vs. Godzilla.

One unique and unusual aspect of my current semester of grad school is I’m doing my first ever independent study. Specifically, a study on several films directed by Ishiro Honda, the lauded director of many Godzilla films. It took a little work to convince my university’s resident film professor (and most reclusive man in the English department) to do this with me, but he agreed. Not only that, but he actually liked the first film I wrote about in this study, 1955’s Half Human, and said the cinematography reminded him of Akira Kurosawa! I’m excited to be introducing him to films he isn’t familiar with.

One fun thing about this is I got to write my own syllabus for it. Here’s an excerpt:

Objective: The goal of this study is examine six films directed by Ishiro Honda and connect their stories to contemporaneous cultural and historical events in Japan. Films are never made in a vacuum, and knowing and understanding their original contexts is vital to appreciating them.

There will be a special focus on discriminated people groups in this study since half of the films being covered will involve such groups.

While Honda is best known for his Godzilla films, I will be focusing on several of his non-Godzilla genre pictures spanning a ten-year period that included what’s considered the “golden age” of Toho tokusatsu (special effects) filmmaking. Honda also directed dramas, war epics, and light comedies, but these films are sadly unavailable in the U.S. currently.

The films and related topics I’ll be examining are Half Human/The Ainu; The Mysterians/Japan and the U.N.; Varan the Unbelievable/The Burakumin; Atragon/Japanese WWII holdovers and the resurgence of Japanese nationalism; Matango/Japan’s newfound opulence;and Frankenstein Conquers the World/The Hibakusha.

This came about because I wanted to fill a few credit hours and make the research I’m doing for my new podcast, The Monster Island Film Vault, count as school credit. Because why not?

There are reasons why grad school might be the best thing in my life right now. J

Blog

G-Fest XXVI Report: The Best One Yet!

(Originally posted here on the Monster Island Film Vault website).

The logo for the con. (Official website).

Hello, kaiju lovers!

I’m delighted to say that G-Fest XXVI was the best one I’ve attended yet. While I’m still a bit of a noob to this convention (this was my third year), I was once again impressed with the con-goers’ friendliness and family-like atmosphere. The best part was the sheer amount of support and recognition I received. A few people recognized me from my time on Kaijuvision Radio (which, contrary to some reports, I am the co-creator of that show). I seem to have made an impression on this fan community. I never expected that to happen. I like a lot of things besides Godzilla and kaiju, but it’s here that I’ve made some of my biggest strides of late.

But you didn’t come here to hear me gush. You want to know what happened that weekend.

My brother Jarod and I left early Thursday morning and drove three hours from Fort Wayne, Indiana, to Rosemont, Illinois. We listened to the audiobook of Jurassic Park (a long overdue read for both of us, and an appropriate one for this con) on YouTube as we went. Sadly, we were at a slight disadvantage because we had to stay in the Comfort Inn and not the Crowne Plaza (where the con was held), but there was a shuttle service to G-Fest, and we got a free breakfast every morning. Can’t go wrong there.

Our first order of business after unpacking my 2003 Subaru Legacy (which I named Tatsumaki) was the film screenings at the Pickwick Theatre. It was there we met up with my friend/fellow writer/co-panelist Danny DiManna, author/creator of the Godzilla Novelization Project, and his entourage of family and friends and went to the first of two double features at 1pm: Godzilla’s Revenge and Ghidrah, the Three-Headed Monster. We were a bit late to the first one, but our RiffTrax-style commentary entertained everyone around us. Ghidrah was fantastic on the big screen. Every time I see an older film—even those from as recent as the 1980s—I see how much better their old-fashioned special effects look because this was how they were meant to be seen. It was the dubbed version, but the print was gorgeous.

After that, Jarod and I partook of my G-Fest tradition: Thursday dinner at Giodano’s, a chain of pizzerias that serves true Chicago-style pizza. We split a small deep-dish, which I finished first because Jarod was still learning how to attack such thick pizza.

This was followed by the second double-feature: The X from Outer Space and Godzilla, Mothra, and King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack. I’d never seen the former, so I was unprepared for how (unintentionally?) hilarious it was. For one thing, it had the worst dub I’ve ever heard. Me and another guy riffed it the entire time. He had one joke that made me double over in my chair. In one of the worst hull breach in space scenes I’ve ever seen, a character gets sucked butt-first into the hole and gets stuck. In defiance of physics, his comrades pull him out and patch the hole. My fellow riffer said, “‘You saved the ship!’ ‘You bet your @$$!’” GMK was, thankfully, subtitled, but the subtitles weren’t entirely accurate.

Friday started bright and early. Jarod and I rode the shuttle there and collected our badges and programs. I met with Danny, and we wandered down to the Kennedy Room to prep for our panel, Sekizawa and Kimura: A Tale of Two Screenwriters, at noon. I took Jarod to the orientation at 11am and went back down at 11:30am. People kept pouring in, especially after the orientation. I don’t know if it was because of it being one of the first panels of the con, the subject matter, or the pre-con hype leading up to it (it was mentioned by at least two podcasts beforehand), but the room was packed. Danny’s girlfriend, Tori, had to be our usher to find seats for people. I’ve never seen that room get that full in all my time at G-Fest. It was thrilling. We weren’t able to go through all of our material, and I wasn’t able to play my podcast trailer for everyone, but it was a resounding success. We want to host another one next year.

If you missed our panel or want to watch it again, here’s the video:

I spent the rest of the day attending a few more panels, including G-pardy tryouts (didn’t make it again), a paleontologist panel on Godzilla, and Kevin Derendorf presenting on kaiju fans in media. That evening we attended the opening ceremony, where the guests gave emotional, heartfelt speeches to the fans (especially Sonoe Nakajima, the daughter of Haruo Nakajima); Akira Takarada picked a kid from the audience to get an expensive Gigan toy; and the kids’ costume parade was held. I then made a brief appearance at what I expect will be the final listener party for Kaijucast, the premiere Godzilla/kaiju podcast, where I collected my prize from their #MemeoftheMonsters contest and educated one fella on the politics of Shin Godzilla.

At 10:30pm, Jarod and I returned to the Pickwick to see Godzilla: King of the Monsters with a theatre full of fans. It was my third time seeing it and his first. G-Fest crowds are famously rowdy, but I’ve never heard them like this. It was glorious! I even squeezed in a joke that got a groan. When a bunch of dead fish floated up after the detonation of the Oxygen Destroyer, I yelled, “That’s a lot of fish!” (My apologies to everyone who was present). The best part was when we all sang along with the new cover of Blue Oyster Cult’s “Godzilla” during the credits. A video of that was shared on Twitter, and both director Michael Dougherty and composer Bear McCreary teared up, it seemed.

Saturday was a whirlwind. As usual, G-Fest is remarkably busy for a con of its size. I never feel like I partake in everything. Panels tend to eat up most of my time. A few highlights: the Akira Takarada interview, where he talked about growing up in China and being wounded by Soviet soldiers as a child; the Shusuke Kaneko interview; the Dawn of the Monsters video game panel (wherein I suggested they add Indianapolis as a location); the Heisei Gamera panel; and the panel on the unmade film Nessie.

I participated in two more panels that day. The first was the Godzilla: King of the Monsters panel with the guys from the YouTube channel DangerVille, among others. Here’s the video of that:

After that was The Art of Kaiju Writing, which I’ve been on every year I’ve gone to G-Fest. (What’s crazy is I got on it in 2017 five minutes before it started—but that’s a story for another day). It was four writers doing a Q&A on the craft of writing and the publishing process. I recorded that panel, too, but it hasn’t been edited or posted yet. Stay tuned! It has a tremendous amount of info for beginning writers.

The traditional evening events followed: awards and the adult costume parade. A guy in an inflatable Godzilla costume, which are a dime a dozen usually, surprised everyone when he turned on some red lights inside the suit, making him Burning Godzilla from KOTM. Well-played, sir!

The Kaiju Crescendo concert was held that night. I wanted very much to go, but I ended up not attending because I wanted to save money (my budget has been tight this summer). I kinda regret it, honestly. But Jarod didn’t want to go and wanted to see Monster Zero at the Pickwick, and since I didn’t want to abandon him, so we went there. A good time was had by all. I heard, though, that attendance was split so much, it was somewhat low for all events that night.

I went to a few panels the next day, but I tried to hit up the places I didn’t get to the rest of the con, like the Mecha-G Arcade, artist room, and dealer hall. I also got autographs from both Akira Takarada and Shusuke Kaneko. Much to my surprise, Takarada-san gave me two signatures! I gave him the booklet to my Criterion copy of Godzilla (1954), which he signed, and then he grabbed the box and signed that, too! What a wonderful man!

The day ended with Kaiju Confessions, a hilarious sing-along to kaiju film songs.

I can’t wait for G-Fest XXVII!

Blog, Review

Lost and Now Found: A Review of “Kong Unmade” by John LeMay

The cover of “Kong Unmade,” the newest book by film historian and kaiju fan John LeMay. It is available in paperback and KIndle on Amazon.

Tokusatsu film historian John LeMay has done it again! After indexing every kaiju (giant monster) movie from the 1950s to today with The Big Book of Japanese Giant Monster Movies, Vol. 1-2, his newest is essentially the third entry in what could be called his Lost Films trilogy. Previously he discovered unused scripts and story treatments for famous Japanese monsters like Godzilla and Gamera with the copiously-researched The Big Book of Japanese Giant Monster Movies: The Lost Films and more down-to-size Japanese science fiction and fantasy films with Terror of the Lost Tokusatsu Films. Now he brings readers the “lost films” of the granddaddy of all kaiju, King Kong, with Kong Unmade: The Lost Films of Skull Island.

While Kong’s impact on pop culture is humungous, his filmography is surprisingly short. In all, he has only ten official films (plus one upcoming movie) in over eight-and-a-half decades. It’s not from a lack of trying, though, as LeMay details. Director/producer Merrian C. Cooper tried for years to make another sequel to the 1933 classic after the hastily-made Son of Kong. The New Adventures of King Kong would’ve been a “midquel” that took place while Kong was being transported from Skull Island to New York, where he escaped into the jungles of Africa. A similar and even more outlandish idea was Tarzan vs. King Kong, where the big ape would’ve met the famous ape man. On the other side of the Pacific, Toho Studios attempted to create Frankenstein vs. King Kong, which eventually became King Kong vs. Godzilla. After its massive success, a script for a rematch—cleverly titled Continuation: King Kong vs. Godzilla­­—was written that would’ve had Kong become a surrogate father to a lost infant. And that’s just a few examples!

Essays on these lost films aren’t all that’s in this new volume. There are “bonus reviews” and “development of” chapters on the Kong films that did get made. They detail many concepts that were abandoned or changed during the filmmaking process. For example, the script Peter Jackson wrote for his 2005 remake was originally quite different (Ann Darrow was British, for one thing). There are also essays on lost or obscure Kong media such as Don Glut’s Tor films and what would’ve been an animated sequel to King Kong Lives featuring Kong’s son (who would’ve had the ability to change his size) by producer/artist Robert Lamb. Several of these essays are written by excellent guest contributors. LeMay also writes on obscure and lost films that were inspired by King Kong, such as The Mighty Gorga and the infamous A*P*E*. If they don’t get a full-length chapter, they’re included in one of the book’s several appendices.

One improvement over LeMay’s previous books is the inclusion of many images. These are photographs, movie posters, and concept art. The aforementioned chapter on the proposed Kong animated series includes concept art from Lamb, which gave me flashbacks to the Saturday morning cartoons of my childhood. A downside of the images is some of them are placed on right-hand pages opposite from the previous essay, and since these don’t have captions, it isn’t apparent that they’re meant to signal the next essay.

As usual, the design of the book is creative. The spine is designed to look like it has a library index code taped onto it. The title pages have a few ink splotches to simulate age and a half-faded stamp that says, “This book has been discarded by the Skull Island Public Library.” They’re wonderful touches, and the sort of clever design choices I wish I saw more often in books.

If I may mention a fairly significant nitpick, there are points I think the book could’ve been edited and proofread a bit better, but this is coming from someone who spends a lot of time editing in his work, so it’s hard for me to miss.

For fans of Kong, kaiju, film history, and/or LeMay, this is a must-read!

Five Stars out of Five.

Appearances, Announcements, Blog, News

My Toho Screenwriter Panel was Accepted by G-Fest!

It’s been a while, hasn’t it, True Believers? I know I say this a lot, but please accept my apologies. I was hard at work finishing my first year as a graduate student. If you’ve been following me on social media, though, you know that I’ve picked up on writing Hope’s War and editing my novella for Children of the Wells. That and a secret project will be my primary works this summer. Stay tuned for more!

Speaking of summer….

A few months ago I wrote that I would be going to G-Fest XXVI but as a panelist and not a vendor. I’ll once again be part of “The Art of Kaiju Writing” panel and joining the panel discussion of the upcoming Godzilla: King of the Monsters. More importantly, though…

Promotional image for G-Fest XXVI. (Courtesy of www.G-Fan.com).

I’M HOSTING MY OWN PANEL!

I and my friend/fellow writer Danny DiManna of the Godzilla Novelization Project will be presenting on Toho screenwriters Shinichi Sekizawa and Takeshi Kimura, who wrote many of the studio’s tokusatsu films from the 1950s-1970s. (You probably heard me talking about them a lot on Kaijuvision Radio). The fandom talks a lot about directors, actors, and composers, and rightfully so, but almost never about screenwriters, which is a shame. Danny and I hope to fill in that gap.

Here’s the description of the panel you’ll see in the convention program:

Most of Toho’s classic tokusatsu films started with scripts penned by the Showa era creative team’s unsung heroes, Shinichi Sekizawa and Takeshi Kimura. Join Nathan Marchand (professional writer and co-creator of Kaijuvision Radio) and Daniel DiManna (creator/author of the Godzilla Novelization Project) as they explain how these polar opposite storytellers revolutionized the kaiju genre.

I can’t begin to tell you how excited I am about doing this. Danny is a tremendous writer and one of the most infectiously enthusiastic fans I’ve ever met, so it’ll be a great presentation. Be there or be square!

Here’s my panel schedule:

Friday 12pm (Kennedy Room): Sekizawa and Kimura: A Tale of Two Screenwriters
Saturday 3pm (Ballroom 1): Godzilla: King of the Monsters
Saturday 4pm (Kennedy Room): The Art of Kaiju Writing

Learn more about G-Fest here.

News, Appearances, Announcements, Blog

My Upcoming Appearances for Summer 2018

I may not have a new book out this year (yet), but I am making appearances at several events in the tristate area this summer. This will give you several opportunities to meet me, buy a book, and get it autographed. I’ll be participating in other events at these shows, as well, so you can see me outside the vendor hall and hang out.

So, in chronological order:

G-Fest XXV
When: July 13-15, 2018
Where: The Crowne Plaza Chicago O’Hare in Rosemont, Illinois
Website: http://www.g-fan.com/html/gfest_xxv/gfest_xxv.php

This is the annual gathering of the kaiju nerds. I attended last year with my Kaijuvision Radio co-host, Brian Scherschel, to promote our upcoming podcast. (Although, I did get myself on a kaiju writing panel). Now that KVR is up and running, we’re returning. This time we’re on several panels throughout the weekend—including a live KVR episode recording entitled “Godzilla and the Japanese National Spirit.” I’ll also be on two kaiju writing panels and one for the recent film Pacific Rim: Uprising. I won’t be in the vendor hall, but I’ll have copies of Destroyer and The Worlds of Nathan Marchand available for purchase and signing.

Gen-Con 2018
When: August 2-5, 2018
Where: The Indiana Convention Center in Indianapolis, Indiana
Website: http://www.gencon.com/

“The best four days in gaming” returns for another huge year. It’s become a staple of my summer and the biggest event I attend all year. I’ll be in Authors Avenue in the vendor hall with all my Gen-Con writer friends. I’ll be selling and signing my own books as well as the newest volume of Missing Pieces, which features a new short story by yours truly. I might slip away to a few events throughout the day, and I’ll be attending events in the evening for sure, so we can hang out, if you want.

FYI: It seems the time was changed since this poster was created. The event’s pages now say 10am-4pm.

True Believers Fest 2018
When: August 11, 2018, 10am-4pm
Where: Marquis Comics in Kentwood, Michigan
Website: https://www.facebook.com/events/2144061572493810/

This is a small one-day event I was invited to vend at thanks to my partner in crime and Nerd Chapel founder, Eric Anderson. It’s a free family event. I’ve never been to this comic shop before, but I’m always in the market for finding cool new nerdy hangouts. It’s appropriate that I’m vending at this event since I, like Stan “The Man” Lee, like referring to my fans as “True Believers.”

I’ll see you…out there! Be there or be square!