Monster Zero x SciFi Japan - Archive Only

I have an idea to throw out there in order to get your creative input…

I don’t need to tell you all how much fun it is to be a kaiju fan, but almost everyone I know personally doesn’t 'get it' and I find it a little hard to introduce them to the fandom and the films.

So I was thinking... since creating personal books has become so easy in our day, I might like to create a coffee-table-type, full-color Book of Kaiju as a way for me to introduce people who come to my place to the wonders of kaiju films.

Any ideas you might have on what to include in such a book toward this end would be appreciated…

Here’s some ideas I’m considering…

A full page for each movie with an English language movie poster, in color, and maybe just a little info about the movie but not a lot.

There’d be a Godzilla section, of course, a Gamera section, a classic Toho section as well as other film companies.

It goes without saying this would be a not for profit project.

The title might be “Stomping Tokyo”, or "The Little Big Book of Kaiju" or something else.

Maybe this would help me introduce some folks to the universe of Japanese giant monster movies.

I don't know of anything exactly like this in English, but you may want to check out Sean Linkenback's book "The Art of Japanese Monsters" - it has posters from all the franchises and has a nice presentation. The focus is completely on posters and advertising rather than shots from the films, but it's one of the better English books on the genre that is primarily illustration based

Taschen's "Japanese Cinema" coffee table book has a very nice chapter on kaiju cinema, at least. A coffee table overview of the genre WOULD be a great thing to have. I love me a good coffee table book.

I'm leaning toward now just a collection of the movie poster art over the years from each of the movies. A conversation piece that could evolve into "Oh, I have that movie on disc, want to see it?"

The book is too in depth. I need something more superficial. The idea here is to generate conversation, not to geek out. Besides, A hard copy of Sean's book goes for several hundred dollars now, and I woud want a hard back copy.

Sooo, something like John Landis' "Monsters in the Movies" book? But just kaiju?

(btw, everyone needs Monsters in the Movies. It's great)

And Ragone's Tsuburaya book, while ostensibly a breezy bio and overview of his work, is loaded with images and very much a 'coffee table book.'