Monster Comics - King Kong!

Under this luscious Dave Stevens cover is a wild and wooly adaptation of King Kong by Don Simpson for the Fantagraphics Monster Comics label. The Stevens cover is considerably more on the classic model than Simpson's art, but that's not necessarily a criticism. 

It is lively and true to the source material. While it's seemingly an adaptation of the novel like the 1968 Gold Key adaptation, I see elements, especially in the later chapters where the film version comes into play. The escape from Skull Mountain in particular feels like it's from the movie and not the novel, though given the way the rights to Kong have been divided over the decades I understand why they wanted to say it was the novel.

Don Simpson is a favorite artist of mine. His artwork is muscular and vivid, a nice mix for the mighty Kong. Having said that, his King Kong is a wee bit too cartoonish for my tastes. More of a character than the Gold Key adaptation in which he's a big bluish ape, this Kong is a personality through and through. That's good, but the face sometimes seems a bit too funny for the right scary effect.

Another thing is the update of the characterizations. Denham is more of an ass in this one, and Driscoll calls him out several times in the story. Driscoll here is a more modern man, less noble but no less brave. Ann Darrow's plight is undermined a bit by her becoming aware of Driscoll's attempt at rescue much sooner, thus limiting her isolated time with Kong, and the horror that isolation instilled. 

Simpson is known for his babes, and he draws Ann here as one. She's sexy, but not as much the innocent as in the other versions I've seen. I have less empathy for the humans in this version and more for Kong, and perhaps that was Simpson's intent. His Kong might seem a bit goofy looking for some fans, but looking at the original film it's easy to see where Simpson derived his expressions. 

The NYC stuff is very good, and the ending is abrupt, but then so it is in the original. Actually, the pacing of this one hundred-and-thirty-five-page adaptation is hurt a bit by the way it's spread over six issues, one too many I'd reckon. The first chapter runs thirty-five pages and gets the action all the way to Skull Island and introduces Kong. Then we get four issues of the chase and escape in the jungle followed by a single issue dedicated to the New York events. This is a solid adaptation by an excellent talent. 

Still the outstanding covers for the series not only by Dave Stevens but also by Mark Schultz, Bill Stout, Ken Steacy, and Al Williamson are superb.

(Mark Schultz)

(William Stout)

(William Stout)

(Mark Schultz and Al Williamson)

(Ken Steacy)

This story has never been collected to my knowledge. If you want to read it, you have to hunt up the original issues. Collections weren't as frequent in the early 90's as they are today, but then one wonders why this has not been collected by someone in the intervening three decades. If the King Kong folks were unhappy with it, I've never run across that information. I'd love to know. 

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