IDW Publishing has announced The Horror of Godzilla, a new series reimagining the events of the original 1954 film in the context of the company’s new Kai-Sei Era continuity. Written by Ethan S. Parker & Griffin Sheridan (Godzilla: Escape the Deadzone) with art by Tristan Jones (Event Horizon: Dark Descent), the book will reveal “the sheer terror behind Godzilla’s first horrifying onslaught on the human race [in Japan], and how the power behind its Kai-Sei energy has a frightening and transformative impact on humans exposed to the grim blasts.”
Editor Jake Williams states, “The Horror of Godzilla is for fans of Godzilla Minus One, Shin Godzilla, and Godzilla ‘54,” referring to the two most recent Japanese films from 2023 and 2016, as well as the original. “It’s a terrifying look at the Kai-Sei era’s first Godzilla attack. It grabs the reader and places them on the ground in the middle of the most petrifying night in human history… the arrival of Godzilla. Through the power of Tristan Jones’ visceral art style, this is the first Godzilla comic we’ve released that goes 100 percent in on horror. It very well might become the best Godzilla comic ever made… it’s certainly the scariest.”
Parker and Sheridan state, “The first year of the Kai-Sei Era found us in a world — a galaxy, even — steeped in kaiju, as we felt that was the best starting point for this universe. But now is the perfect moment to go back to the narrative bedrock, the genesis of our tale: humanity’s very first meeting with Godzilla. To not only be asked to tell this crucial chapter of the Kai-Sei saga, but also to make it as wild and horrific as possible… Oh, and Tristan Jones is going to draw it?! We’re beyond honored and cannot wait to share this one with readers.”
Jones adds, “Godzilla’s been such a huge part of my life as far back as I can remember, and as someone that had Godzilla 1985 on near permanent loan from our local video store, and hounding my local bootlegger every day on the walk home from high school for the original Japanese cut, I’m genuinely hard-pressed to think of anything I’ve been this excited about in my career.”
He continues, saying, “As a storyteller that’s become something of a fixture in the horror genre, it’s a genuine honor and a thrill to work with Griffin and Ethan (and our incredible editor Jake) on a Godzilla story that leans so hard into my favourite visuals and even harder into things I always wished the films would. It’s a huge departure from what I’ve been known for so far and everyone’s given me incredible space to both try new things, and bring visuals to comics I’d never had a proper chance to before.”
Issue #1 of the series will be released in July, a few months before Godzilla Minus Zero, the sequel to Minus One (which reimagined the character’s arrival as coming a few years earlier in 1947), releases in theaters on November 6. You can check out two interior pages below in the meantime. The Kai-Sei Era will continue with issue #8 of the main Godzilla series on March 4, and the sixth and final issue of Starship Godzilla on March 18. Legendary’s Godzilla will also return on Apple TV’s Monarch: Legacy of Monsters season two, premiering Friday, February 27.
