Godzilla: The Ultimate Illustrated Guide

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Angilasman
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Godzilla: The Ultimate Illustrated Guide

Post by Angilasman »

Now, amazon is awash in bootleg Godzilla coloring books and journals, but this $30 hardcover scheduled for November feels different. I think it's legit.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/1787398994/re ... WYQSRDFX9R

What is it? I imagine maybe a successor to the old Godzilla Compendium, maybe a bit lighter on editorial and heavy on images?

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Re: Godzilla: The Ultimate Illustrated Guide

Post by UltramanGoji »

The publisher is legit, they've done a ton of nonfiction visual books including one on Bill & Ted and various musical groups and figures. I can't imagine it'll be anything spectacular but definitely worth keeping an eye on.

Price is indicative of quality, usually. At $30 MSRP, I don't expect much from it. Visual books with tons of interesting info (like film artbooks) usually run for about ten dollars more.
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Re: Godzilla: The Ultimate Illustrated Guide

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Maybe an English translation of a preexisting Japanese "illustrated guide" ? Maybe just a modified version of a Toho licensing brochure!

I would hope for concept art, bts photos, and full page poster reproductions. Of course, if it's just a guide to monsters that would appeal to my inner kid.

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Re: Godzilla: The Ultimate Illustrated Guide

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Yeah I'm assuming this will be less Illustrated Encyclopedia of Godzilla and more Official Godzilla Compendium.

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Re: Godzilla: The Ultimate Illustrated Guide

Post by Tyrant_Lizard_King »

Who cares its been decades since we've gotten an all encompassing English language Godzilla books. I'll gladly take something like this.
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Re: Godzilla: The Ultimate Illustrated Guide

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Looked at this company's Bill & Ted book at the store. The first half covered the original two films and was mostly images: publicity shots, behind the scenes shots, advertising art, pictures of merchandise. The second half was like a more traditional making-of book of the newest film, with an equal balance of images and text.

It was handsomely produced. Whatever the Godzilla Guide ends up being, it should look handsome on our bookshelves!

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Re: Godzilla: The Ultimate Illustrated Guide

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Description:

https://www.waterstones.com/book/godzil ... 1787398993

Generally what we suspected... but no real specifics other than it covers the entire franchise and has information and illustrations!

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Re: Godzilla: The Ultimate Illustrated Guide

Post by Angilasman »

We're on the verge of a deluge of Godzilla books! Amazon also shows two more upcoming books: a collection of Yuji Kaida's Godzilla art (being put out by Titan Books) and Godzilla Mad Libs (!) are coming out in October!

- edit -

I'm gonna make separate thread for the Kaida book
Last edited by Angilasman on Thu Apr 29, 2021 7:23 am, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: Godzilla: The Ultimate Illustrated Guide

Post by Tyrant_Lizard_King »

Here's a book they're doing on Formula One to give you an idea of what you could probably expect.

https://www.amazon.com/Formula-One-2021 ... 218&sr=8-3

I checked a couple other books they published that seem to have somewhat similar layouts. It'll definitely be much more Official Godzilla Compendium than Japan's Favorite Mon-Star.
Last edited by Tyrant_Lizard_King on Tue May 11, 2021 7:21 am, edited 2 times in total.
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Re: Godzilla: The Ultimate Illustrated Guide

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^ Well, with Ryfle's Godzilla politics book and Norman England's Godzilla/Gamera set dairy book on the horizon we're getting both types of non-fiction Godzilla book!


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Re: Godzilla: The Ultimate Illustrated Guide

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I was wondering if maybe this was a port of the new Japanese art book "Godzilla: History of Formative Arts 1954-2016," and its not because -

A) That synopsis doesn't jive with that book, and -
B) Formative Arts is also being released in English this winter - with a $100 price tag!

https://www.amazon.com/dp/4756254314/re ... UTF8&psc=1

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Re: Godzilla: The Ultimate Illustrated Guide

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Formative Arts now down to $61! Might wanna get your pre-orders in!

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Re: Godzilla: The Ultimate Illustrated Guide

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Angilasman wrote: Thu Jun 03, 2021 10:17 am Formative Arts now down to $61! Might wanna get your pre-orders in!
Wow! Great find. I was on the fence about it, but that much of a reduction in price I can’t pass up!

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Re: Godzilla: The Ultimate Illustrated Guide

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Angilasman wrote: Thu Jun 03, 2021 10:17 am Formative Arts now down to $61! Might wanna get your pre-orders in!
What is this book? I tried to find pictures of contents but I only saw huge pages that would show a couple big images and a year and that's it. None of the contents beyond the pages showing each year a Godzilla film was released. Are these the only pictures in the book and the rest all text or are there pictures throughout with plenty of text as well? And does it feature a breakdown of all the other kaiju featured in each film (like a "monster encyclopedia" that lists the name, images and stats of every monster)?
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Re: Godzilla: The Ultimate Illustrated Guide

Post by GigaBowserG »

FlawedCoil82 wrote: Fri Jun 04, 2021 10:30 pm What is this book? I tried to find pictures of contents but I only saw huge pages that would show a couple big images and a year and that's it. None of the contents beyond the pages showing each year a Godzilla film was released. Are these the only pictures in the book and the rest all text or are there pictures throughout with plenty of text as well? And does it feature a breakdown of all the other kaiju featured in each film (like a "monster encyclopedia" that lists the name, images and stats of every monster)?
Got mine in the mail recently, it's about 99% massive pictures of the Godzilla suits (and some concept artwork here and there). A majority of images are one-page spreads, some in color, some in black in white, some using a color filter, but occasionally there may be a page that is split between 2 stills. Pages generally consist of behind-the-scenes photos for the suits. Probably the least interesting section is Shin's, his pages are basically all familiar images we've seen from early promo material. Kind of hard to get unique snapshots of something that was never made into a suit :P

However, the book does contain some fun trivia whenever you reach a new decade, for instance once you hit the 1960's Godzilla movies/suits, there'll be a 2-page breakdown of what movies were released in that decade. 1st page has Japanese text to include some basic trivia, 2nd page has the same text translated in English. After Shin, the book ends with several pages dedicated to "About Godzilla's Modeling By Work" trivia, giving some insight into pretty much every suit and how they were made/operated. Otherwise, not a very text heavy book at all. And being so Godzilla-centric, very rarely will you see mention of the other monsters in the movies, even if they may share space in some images.
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Re: Godzilla: The Ultimate Illustrated Guide

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GigaBowserG wrote: Fri Jun 04, 2021 11:32 pm
FlawedCoil82 wrote: Fri Jun 04, 2021 10:30 pm What is this book? I tried to find pictures of contents but I only saw huge pages that would show a couple big images and a year and that's it. None of the contents beyond the pages showing each year a Godzilla film was released. Are these the only pictures in the book and the rest all text or are there pictures throughout with plenty of text as well? And does it feature a breakdown of all the other kaiju featured in each film (like a "monster encyclopedia" that lists the name, images and stats of every monster)?
Got mine in the mail recently, it's about 99% massive pictures of the Godzilla suits (and some concept artwork here and there). A majority of images are one-page spreads, some in color, some in black in white, some using a color filter, but occasionally there may be a page that is split between 2 stills. Pages generally consist of behind-the-scenes photos for the suits. Probably the least interesting section is Shin's, his pages are basically all familiar images we've seen from early promo material. Kind of hard to get unique snapshots of something that was never made into a suit :P

However, the book does contain some fun trivia whenever you reach a new decade, for instance once you hit the 1960's Godzilla movies/suits, there'll be a 2-page breakdown of what movies were released in that decade. 1st page has Japanese text to include some basic trivia, 2nd page has the same text translated in English. After Shin, the book ends with several pages dedicated to "About Godzilla's Modeling By Work" trivia, giving some insight into pretty much every suit and how they were made/operated. Otherwise, not a very text heavy book at all. And being so Godzilla-centric, very rarely will you see mention of the other monsters in the movies, even if they may share space in some images.
Oh wow, I was hoping for something along the lines of "The Official Godzilla Compendium" book that came out in the late 90s (just much bigger and more in depth). Hopefully this upcoming Illustrated Godzilla Guide will be more along the lines of what I am hoping for. Thank you for the information!
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Re: Godzilla: The Ultimate Illustrated Guide

Post by Angilasman »

Yeah, the Illustrated Guide should be similar to the old Compendium. Formative Arts is a big art book of photographs.

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Re: Godzilla: The Ultimate Illustrated Guide

Post by KingCornetto »

Release date changed to “Currently Unavailable”. Not a great sign.

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Re: Godzilla: The Ultimate Illustrated Guide

Post by G1985 »

KingCornetto wrote: Tue Aug 10, 2021 3:24 pm Release date changed to “Currently Unavailable”. Not a great sign.
I was just thinking about this title the other day, and was going to ask. Nope, not good.

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