A QUICK CORRECTION

Listen, I'm not perfect, okay?

In the email that went out earlier there was a technical goof on my end so that the link to comment to get a chance at winning that swell Godzilla original painting goes to the comments section for a past newsletter. Those are valid entries still, or you can reply to this week’s Rhea Ripley newsletter or this one. This won’t be a problem going forward and I apologize for any confusion. We’re all good, just be patient with me!

Here’s the bit in question again, with a fixed link:

QUESTION OF THE WEEK

What’s your first memory of a giant monster? Godzilla, King Kong, Gamera, it doesn’t matter, take your pick! I’ll randomly pick one of these answers and send them this original 9x12 Godzilla painting I did back in 2015! Can’t leave a comment? That’s because you’re not in our ultra-rad paid tier yet, silly!

I feel like my first memory of a giant monster was the original King Kong movie when I was around three years old. They used to show classic sci-fi and monster movies after the cartoons on either Saturday or Sunday and this was definitely my first. I think the next week they showed the Japanese King Kong movie ‘King Kong Escapes’ from the mad geniuses at Toho, and it may have been back-to-back with King Kong vs Godzilla. I’ve been chasing that nostalgia high ever since, honestly. Probably a week hasn’t gone by where I haven’t thought about how excited I was to originally watch them!

I feel like we didn’t get a lot of the Toho stuff on broadcast TV in Kansas City in the 80’s, so my full-on exposure to Godzilla would’ve happened later in the decade when we got cable and the Showa era was sorta omni-present later at night to fill up the channels’ schedules. I remember thinking it looked goofy but also could never look away when one was on. I feel like around 1992-93 I saw an original Ultraman show at a comic convention. We definitely didn’t get any of that here in KC.

Just a few years later Mighty Morphin Power Rangers came along to mainstream giant monsters and while I watched the first couple of seasons I think I was like one year too old to really get into it. The monster designs were all killer, though.

So, what’s your first memory of a guy in a rubber suit stomping through a miniature city?