Post Your Godzilla/Dakaiju Book Collection!

[Dr Kain]

I just got this today:

[Enjoying An Egg]

Finally got the books I ordered a while back, thanks ebirahsmeg for the recommendations, at first glance they look fantastic!

[Dr Kain]

Well, I'm going to give this series a chance:



I've been told it is a vast improvement over that garbage that was Kingdom of Monsters (which I dropped I think 7 issues in)

[ebirahsmeg1]

[ebirahsmeg1]

Some recent additions to the ol' book collection:




Pen Magazine is a popular men's life-style magazines in Japan. So during the summer last year when the LP film was released, they dedicated an entire issue to Godzilla. To be honest, I think the contents in this particular issue of Pen is on par (and in some cases better) than some of the Godzilla books released last year, so this magazine really surprised me. Besides covering the 2014 film, they covered all 28 of the TOHO films, movie posters, a kaiju encyclopedia profile all of the TOHO kaiju that appeared in a G film, a nice little map outline of cities/sites trampled by Godzilla and co. throughout the series, and a surprisingly extensive section covering all of the various mecha/vehicles.. Even Bob Eggleton is featured with some of his IDW work.









This book was originally released back in 2010, but was reprinted this past January in light to Kawakita's recent passing. This book is very text heavy and not for everyone. However, the few stills that are scattered throughout the book are very interesting, with quite a few rare stills of Kawakita on the sets of Showa films from Matango to GvsMG cutting his teeth under Tsuburaya and Nakano. Also included are some stills of the likes of James Cameron, Steven Spielberg, Tim Burton, and Roland Emmerich (yes, that last one was not a typo) visiting TOHO studios. I'm not the biggest fan of Kawakita, but this book seems a lot more deeper than most Kawakita-focused books that focus almost exclusively on his Heisei series work.







This just came about 2 months ago and as the title suggest, is a photo book dedicated to everyone's favorite ass-kicking karate babe Yuriko Hishimi (aka Momagon) from GvsGigan and Ultra-Seven. Actually, there weren't many stills from this book that I could show here, for as one might guess, it's filled with a lot of...um...shall we say "natural, artistic" photo shoots she did between 1967-73. Let's just say that she's a very lovely woman. Overall, a nice photo book of an actress who often gets lost in the shuffle with the likes Kumi Mizuno, Mie Hama, Akiko Wakabayashi, Tomoko Ai and overlooked for her contributions to the tokusatsu genre.

[ebirahsmeg1]

Just picked up the new TOHO Movie Special Effects Treasures Vol.1 Yosensha MOOK . Here is with my other Yosensha *Mooks":

[mbozzo]

I brought some Godzilla books back in the 1990s. I later gave them to the nearest library.

[ebirahsmeg1]

Latest additions to the collection:

Recently purchased the new GvsBiollante: Completion Japan Hobby Book. Here it is with the other "Perfection/Completion" Japan Hobby books:



Nakajima/Kawakita/Murase PhotoBook series by Yosensha:



Various IDW/Comic Book-related stuff:

[Hybrid Gojira]

Shout out to ebirahsmeg1 and klen7 for their book recommendations...because today, these came in from Amazon -



I haven't looked through them yet, but I'm sure it will be a blast.

[klen7]

Good selections!!

[lhb412]

I have no Japanese books on Godzilla. Recommend a good one for behind the scenes and production pics of Showa era stuff?

[Hybrid Gojira]

^ I haven't flipped through mine yet, but the ones I bought were basically the books recommended by Klen and Ebirah. This one is supposed to be really good and focuses on the 70's films - https://www.amazon.co.jp/gp/product/404 ... UTF8&psc=1

This is the Nakajima photobook, so it would focus on Showa films - https://www.amazon.co.jp/gp/product/480 ... UTF8&psc=1

This is the book about Murase, so it would also focus on Showa films - https://www.amazon.co.jp/gp/product/480 ... UTF8&psc=1

Side note, but this came in the mail today -



This basically catelogs all the Toho monsters from Godzilla 54 - Godzilla 2014 and has some of the more rare stuff from Toho.

Again, shout out to Klen and Ebirah, because without their reviews and help in various threads, I wouldn't have known where to even start. Thanks guys.

[klen7]

Unfortunately there aren't as many Showa books as there are Heisei books (for that matter there may be more Heisei than Showa and Millennium put together)

I was going to recommend the first 3 books Hybrid mentioned. The first one is my top pic, but I love the films of the 70s. The other 2 focus on specific careers (Nakajimas suit acting and Murase's suit building). All 3 are packed with rare behind the scenes images. Highly recommended.

I like the mook in Hybrids picture that is 2in/2down with the Kaida cover a lot too, plenty of Showa, but includes Heisei and Millennium as well.

[The Great MM]

I don't have much in terms of books, mostly comics. My Dark Horse comics are in a box yet, all protected by comic condoms.



I have a handful of other horror/sci-fi novels also boxed up yet. Don't have the space to put a shelf or two up of just books, sadly. So I just went with the IDW stuff, Godzilla novels, and a handful of my favorite others.

[Benjamin Haines]

^ At World's End comes before Robot Monsters.

[The Great MM]

[klen7]

Picked up a couple new books



The Shinji Nishikawa is a must have. Filled with concept art and some plain good art in general.

The SHMA is a skip. 90% of this book is the promotion shots they release when they announce a figure. The remaining 10% are dioramas.

The book on the bottom left is a complete skip. It's a board book, like for toddlers, and that's probably the target audience. Less than 30 pages of pictures which you probably have seen before.

Bottom right is an interesting mook. It advertised it's Shin Goji content but that's only 4 pages of promo shots. The rest of the mook is packed with pictures. There's a similar mook (with the Kaida cover) that edges this in its formatting and organization, but a pretty decent mook with plenty of content. Oddly the monochromatic pictures are Purple & White rather than Black&white or Sepia

[Hybrid Gojira]

Does anyone know much about this series of books?



There are few - are they worth picking up?

[klen7]

There's better stuff out there. They aren't terrible, but you get very little about a lot of different films. They are also starting to be a bit dated. I'd say skip it and recommend one or two mooks that do the same approach better.

[Hybrid Gojira]

Here are my latest purchases over the last few months:

The newest Hobby Japan Kiryu/Godzilla book. This is an awesome book with tons of new photos, including pics of the Godzilla 54 suit they used in the film.



The Godzilla 84 book is excellent. The two Kiryu books below are good, though the newest book pictured above is better IMO.



I got the Godzilla Pictorial books based on the recommendations here (thanks Eb and Klen), and these are incredible.




This Ultraman book is awesome - highly recommended if you are a fan of the original series. It is loaded with pics.

[canofhumdingers]

Very cool. Yes, the Making of Godzilla '84 is really great. One of my favorite Godzilla books about one of my favorite Godzilla films! I love some of the behind the scenes pictures of the suit. Several show the suit resting or being fitted where the head or body is positioned in such a way that it makes the suit look far more mobile than it appeared onscreen. Gives you an idea what it might've looked like if the suit could move its head up and down or look around (rather than the cybot).

Care to post pics of the G'54 suit used in the Kiryu films? I've seen one or two small pics but I'd love to see more!

[tbeasley]

[Hybrid Gojira]

^ Beat me to it!

I got this in the mail today -

[klen7]

^ I haven't seen that one. What's the content?

Also, you have me itching to check out that Ultra book

[canofhumdingers]