MISC. MANGA, *Godzilla's Monsterpiece Theatre

Tom Sciolo has done his own Jack Kirby-inspired takes on franchises like G.I. Joe, Gobots, and Transformers, so when it came to the King of Monsters, he borrowed a title from Sesame Street and made the 3-issue mini-series Godzilla's Monsterpiece Theatre. Each issue was doubled the size of your average comic book, so IDW Publishing put this out in prestige format where we get to see Sciolo's bright colors and thick character outlines. This is one of the first times that we get to see Godzilla take on various literary figures making this as tale of the colossal kaiju mixing it up with The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. "Godzilla vs. Public Domain Characters" is the best way to sum this up without giving too much away.

Starting out in the middle of The Great Gatsby, Jay Gatsby himself pulls together his own team of monster hunters called G-Force to destroy the rampaging giant lizard. They get help from brilliant minds like Jules Verne and Thomas Edison(although he probably ripped off most of the gear he claimed to have made)and chase the monster from America to England when they get help from an elderly Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson's niece who is also a doctor. Godzilla's rampage through London gets the attention of a certain vampire who is currently held up in Carfax Abbey. Dracula kidnaps Gatsby's wouldbe love interest Daisy in an attempt to get Godzilla to follow them to Transylvania, however the Time Machinist from H.G. Wells' story shows up to help G-Force. Dracula hypnotizes the Time Machinist and has him hand over a magical ring that he uses to turn Frankenstein's monster, a wolfman, and a mummy into giants to fight Godzilla. Gatsby himself has the ring used on him and helps defeat the other monsters including Dracula, then the two remaining titans battle it out. Godzilla returns to the ocean while Gatsby returns to his normal size and returns to his lavish lifestyle after Daisy turns him down as she's already married.

The artwork Scioli created for this comic is reminiscent of Hanna-Barbera cartoons and shows like Thundarr The Barbarian which Jack Kirby worked on. The gritty figure designs look like its right out of the Bronze Age of comics and really works for this outlandish premise. Godzilla himself here is more of a plot device in this story than an actual character, but that's nothing new as the monster is usually personified as a force of nature than an actual living creature. Tokusatsu fans should find this as being a different but refreshing change of pace from the regular Godzilla beat-em-up monster bashes, and hardcore comic fans will love the blending of kaiju and steampunk genres.