Gold Key King Kong!

I recently completed reading the King Kong novel again. It's been a long long time since I read it. I like the novelization a lot, it adds quite a bit to the saga drawing from the original screenplay. Some of the stuff cut from the final movie is present in the novel, most notably the mates Jimmy and Lumpy and the famous ravine sequence. The way Jack Driscoll and Ann Darrow escape from Kong's lair high atop Skull Mountain is different too and bit a more practical if not visually interesting.

I bring all this up because I just completed reading again the Gold Key adaptation of the story, and it's clear that this story is based on the novel. And it's in fact likely that Alberto Giolitti and his team never saw the original movie. The plot details have much more in common with the novelization, including Jimmy and the bombs and the Skull Mountain escape. And the character designs are completely different. No one looks like they do in the original movie. This is a complete reimagining of the story from original source material, an interesting approach.

This is an authorized adaptation, strange to come so long after the film. A little research shows that Merriam C. Cooper only owned the rights to the novel outright, so likley this was an attempt to glean some income from his creation. Reasonable. And really despite multiple re-releases over the decades, comics were merely a glimmmer when Kong was first opened in theaters. Still to wait until the 60's is strange. To use Gold Key isn't, but then for someone who seemingly never saw the movie to draw it is odd, but refreshing. Maybe they sought someone like that. Probably Giolitti got the nod because his studio had experience with dinosaurs from Turok, or at least I'd like to think so.

Oh and I hope I'm not spoiling anyone by saying that Kong still dies in the end.

And I just discovered on this nifty ad I found, that this comic came out on my birthday. No wonder I love it.

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