I own many copies of King Kong as novelized by Delos W. Lovelace many moons ago as part of the original Kong campaign. It's been published time and time again, and I find many of the covers too attractive to ignore. I even have an audiobook version of the novel. But far and away my favorite version is the one above featuring a painting by Frank Fra zetta.
This image was first conceived by Frazetta for issue eleven of Creepy magazine back in 1966. An immense ape threatens an endowed blonde. I love the brash colors in this image.
He reconceived the image with a new color scheme and a larger more robust, if somewhat less ferocious beast. The girl is practically identical.
Apparently Frazetta was unhappy with his King Kong cover and later repainted it again making Kong much darker and more menacing. The girl remains as ever unchanged. I cannot choose among them, they all have virtues. The Creepy cover has real energy, the original Kong cover art has great characterization, while the final version is truly terrifying. It's all in what aspect of Kong one wants to imagine. Frazetta gave you one for all moods.
Both versions are pretty stunning. The Creepy cover is particularly iconic to myself as I remember seeing this for sale back in the day, and just as I was about to pick it up someone nabbed it . One of my favourite Kong covers is a recent one for Mad magazine issue 20 (2021) by Bob Richmond , King Kong and Godzilla . Classic Mad style.
ReplyDeleteIt is quite funny. I'd forgotten about that one despite it being only a few years ago. Look for more Kong in the next few weeks.
DeleteI've never heard of the novel by Delos W. Lovelace but I watched the original King Kong movie quite recently in early December on BBC iPlayer (the BBC's streaming and downloading service). The original King Kong is still the best in my opinion.
ReplyDeleteThe novel has been around longer than the movie actually I think. It was based on an early shooting script and has scenes cut from the movie such as the infamous spider pit scene. As for which Kong is best, I'd agree.
DeleteLovelace's novel was published in December 1932 just a few months before King Kong was released in April 1933. It was published in hardcover as one of Grosset & Dunlap's Photoplay Editions and is considered the rarest of the series. One current seller has a $20,000 price tag on it. Others go in the hundreds in much lesser condition. The cover (including some of the later paperback editions) has "Conceived by Merian C. Cooper and Edgar Wallace" with Lovelace's name less prominent. Cooper did this as a promise to Wallace when he was hired to write the screenplay, but died before much of -- if any -- work was done on it. Lovelace and Cooper were friends and Cooper asked him to write it as an advance promotion for the film. He received $600 for it, which was a fair sum of cash for a book in those days. You are correct that he wrote it from a draft script and it did have the spider-pit scene that ran a couple of pages. Cooper scrapped the scene in the film because he thought that it interrupted the flow of the action! He purportedly burned the footage since it was not going to be used. Although I always like Frazetta's work, I favor a little more the cover by James Bama on the October 1965 Bantam paperback reprinting.
ReplyDeleteI have a lot coming later in the month on the Edgar Wallace influence. Thanks for this information.
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