The Renderings Of Gwangi!

The Valley of Gwangi is likely the best cowboys versus dinosaur movie of all time. I admit that a slim category. One of the things about Gwangi that I've mentioned before is the fantastic poster art by Frank McCarthy. To look at this captivating image you imagine Gwangi as large as Godzilla or any self-respecting Kaiju, and the melee of cowboys and horses running among ancient giant bones and flailing in the desert air as Gwangi swings his enormous tale suggests a truly epic movie.

Here's the artwork which made for a fantastic poster.

It made for a great cover for a comic book drawn with somewhat less magnificence by Jack Sparling. 

And I recently got to thinking about the image again when I stumbled across this coloring book tie-in for the movie. That painting was truly epic in scale!

So it's always been a mystery to me why my DVD copy of the film (which I'm deliriously happy to have) ignores the McCarthy masterpiece and instead uses artwork apparently done for a European poster presentation. There's no comparison despite the argument that the foreign poster is more accurate to the film itself.

Note: This post originally appeared at Rip Jagger's Other Dojo. 

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Fantastic Giants!

Happy Halloween! It's been fun gathering together all these various giant monsters in comics, some classic monsters from film and others giant threats to sundry superhero universes across the decades.

Since forever mankind has been menaced by giants who are possessed of great power which makes man seem puny, and points out the weaknesses of our species. These giants can only be defeated by wit and not power, showcasing man's greatest advantage, his mind. It is our worst selves that create the monsters in the world and our best selves that try to defeat them.

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The Valley Of Gwangi!

The Valley of Gwangi is huge favorite of mine. Long before I'd ever get a chance to at last see the movie, the comic book was my source. The comic itself is nothing to get too excited about, featuring a fairly humdrum adaptation by Jack Sparling. Back then I got most of my movie news this way, by way of comics and MAD magazine. But I'm sure I bought the comic for the same reason I still treasure it, the outstanding cover artwork. It's the same art used on the movie posters, and it's perhaps the single most dramatic image of a dinosaur I've ever seen.

Now the "Gwangi" on this cover is far bigger than the actual dino in the flick, but that doesn't take away from the awesome power of this image. The Godzilla-sized Gwangi flicking his tale among stones and bones and a virtual army of fleeing cowboys, horses, and dames is a masterpiece. My question has been -- who is the artist?

The answer-- Frank McCarthy! McCarthy, who has since passed away was renowned as a western artist, but early on did many movie posters, many for the Bond films. But my favorite McCarthy piece will always be the truly awesome image of Gwangi.

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