KAIJUMAX #1
Release Date: 8 April, 2015 (available for preorder)
Writer: Zander Cannon
Artist: Zander Cannon
Publisher: Oni Press
This is it. The one you’ve been waiting for. The debut issue you absolutely cannot miss. The comic book about…
… giant monsters in maximum security prison guarded by an Ultraman-esque super-warden named Kang.
Silly? Yes. Ingenius? Also yes, if only for the fact that these monsters are painted in hues brighter than technicolor (à la old tokusatsu TV shows), exclaim Oh my Goj instead of Oh my God (if I have to explain that reference to you, well, I’m sorry), and have pissing contests involving mechas on a conversion mission (“Go back to the lab, you load-lifters!”).
And while the genre nods and winks are endless and welcome, the most successful angle that Zander Cannon’s new book chooses to pursue is that of following hardcore prison story clichés: the outdoor gym, the inside deals, the garish tattoos and rough talk, the courageous rebellion leading to solitary confinement. Except that these are giant whale-apes, a hellmoth (but don’t call him that), and terrible lizards. Their gym equipment involves crushing skyscrapers and lifting aircraft carriers, and they barter for cities (“For exclusive rights to Tokyo, he says he’ll give you Seoul, Saigon, Beijing, and Pyongyang”).
Of course, none of these would mean anything if we didn’t have our sympathetic central character: a “J-Pop” named Electrogor who looks sort of like an orange grasshopper and barfs battery acid. He was nabbed while procuring food for his kids, see, and just wants to go home and see if they’re okay. Sniffle.
It’s like Ishiro Honda decided to make THE LAND BEFORE TIME. And, come on—that would rule.
I’m not familiar with much of Zander Cannon’s previous work for Drawn & Quarterly, but I will definitely be checking it out now. There’s a level of charm to this that so many contemporary comics aim for and can’t really achieve, either because they’re being too ironic about it or attempting a kind of “hip” vibe that backfires and ages me seventy years in three seconds.
Bottom line: KAIJUMAX #1 is a colorful, cracktastic romp that is aimed squarely at the heads of Godzilla and Ultraman enthusiasts. It’s creative and clever enough to avoid pastiche. If you’re a kaiju fan and feel you don’t have enough giant clawed gibbons in your life, you must give this comic your money. 8.5/10
