As listed in his profile, Brian from Connecticut’s interests include “giant monsters, godzilla, giant monster movies, writing, giant squid” – an impeccable CV for the keeper of the Giant Monster Blog. Of course, the fact that I happen to think that those are necessary interests for any human being to have probably colours my opinion of this site, which I find almost touching. Some posts here deal pretty much in what you’d expect them to – giant-monster-related news, a few odds-n-sods links – but the real meat inside this foam lizard suit, for me, is the consideration of monster movies and merchandise. The films, their soundtracks, the people involved in their making – these are discussed (and, often, eulogised) with a familiarity and humility which seems amazingly small and understated compared to the GIANT! MONSTERS! we came here to read about. (One entry sounds like a kid’s hand-lettered card to his grandma: titled “Happy birthday, Gojira!,” it reads, “Today, Nov. 3, my favorite giant monster is 50 years old.”) Such a slow, silent accumulation of detail and devotion becomes a testament to a passion that is, surprisingly, far from outsized or rash or ill-considered or anything monster-like at all. It’s not a matter of irony or nostalgia thus to exalt the b-movie, the rubber suit, the matte artist – nothing so vulgar. It is rather a matter of aesthetics – to find the human in the monster and the spectacle, to have as much interest in Ishiro Honda and Jack Kirby as you do in Rodan and Gamera. “This will be a forum for my views on city-crushing beasts,” Brian writes. “I hope you like it.” It’s pretty tough not to. (Sean Rogers)
http://giantmonsters.blogspot.com/