The Giant Monster Series, Final Part

The giant monster genre has entertained movie audiences for almost a century. However the legends that inspired those creatures were much older than that. In a way they were the roots of the fairy tales, the religious parables and the creation myths thousands of years old. The giant monster was a way to explain the uncertainty of life, the terrible tragedies and natural disasters. Chaos was easier understood when people could put a shape and name to it. There were artists in the modern world that were exceptional at capturing the images of chaos. People like Ian Miller, Wayne England and Mark Gibbons created horrific creatures with an exceptional level of detail. It was as if they were tapping into the fears of primitive civilizations and framing nightmares in ink and paint. Then there were artists that took the opposite approach while rendering the giants of chaos. An artist like Bob Eggleton made classic beasts like griffons and dragons accessible and managed to do the same to modern legends like Godzilla. Eggleton was not alone in this regard, the painter Yasushi Torisawa and Bill Gudmundson kept the images of those primal heroes and villains alive. In pop culture circles the comic book style illustrator Matt Frank AKA the Kaiju Samurai had earned a strong following. The artist that I would like to highlight today is the best representative of the many themes I have explored over this series, including science fiction and horror.

Thomas Perkins is an illustrator and character designer in title but his volume of work is much more than just that. His designs on the original Ben 10 series earned him an Emmy. It validated his time in animation as much as his impeccable style. Mr. Perkins had cut his teeth designing for the great Richard Raynis on a string of projects including the Extreme Ghostbusters, Big Guy and Rusty the Robot, Godzilla: the Series, and the Jackie Chan adventures. It was impressive that Mr. Perkins actually got a chance to follow in the footsteps of Geof Darrow, the artist on the Big Guy and Rusty graphic novels. Geof's insanely detailed giant monster illustrations became the stuff of legend in the community. Mr. Perkins was certainly no slouch while crafting his own villains. The beasts that the Big Guy and Godzilla battled over several seasons were consistently great.

His work on the Ben 10 series was known by every kid and kid-at-heart in the US. The people he worked with created the monsters Spidermonkey, Humongousaur, Jetray, Chromastone and Swampfire. The assortment of creatures that Ben Tennyson could turn into and battle were amazing. He followed up with a new library of creatures in Ben 10 Alien Force and Ultimate Alien. Here's a sampling of the characters he designed: Ditto, Waybig, Artiguana, Upchuck, Benwolf, Benmummy, Ben 10K, Ken 10, Gullet / Samohtsnikrep, Benviktor, Charmcaster, Eye Guy, Captain Kork, and Big Chuck. The characters in Ben 10 Omniverse were designed by Derrick J. Wyatt as an homage to the original creatures. These creatures would influence countless generations of designers. It would not be a stretch to say that his work over the years became the encyclopedia of modern monster designs. What made the artist special however were the illustrations and characters that most people never get to see. He detailed many of these designs on his blog and liked to insert as many comic book references and insider jokes as he could. For example one of his original characters, Kid Kuthulu, was a vintage hero that could only have existed if HP Lovecraft were a comic book writer.


Mr. Perkins' best work may be in deconstructing and rearranging pop culture characters and references. He had done revisionist versions of the Marvel and DC characters from the 70's that would work in the modern, Bruce Timm-style, super hero cartoons. He had even created a few convincing illustrations of Chinese bootleg super heroes just for fun.

Recently he did a version of Batman that was set in the Science Ninja Team: Gatchaman universe. Instead of going with the classic animated show as a template he followed the more recent Imagi studio redesigns of the characters. His version of "Batchaman" was genius and certainly deserved a chance for a DC spin-off.



As if Mr. Perkins was not busy in television he was also busy being a dad. His entry for father of the decade would be posted on the Lunch Bag Blog. He illustrated a multi-panel scene on his kid's lunch bags every day of every week during their school year. He turned his kids into super powered characters and let their adventures be told over several seasons. He took the interests that each had and built narratives around their hero persona and the powers they had. On occasion little sister Perkins Lass Purple would join her brothers Red and Green on their adventures. More often than not the kids ended up fighting against or even fighting as giant monsters.

Thomas Perkins should be celebrated as one of the best giant monster designers ever. His style could be read very easily by comic book and animation fans equally. His use of lines and shapes were clean, even when drawing the grotesque. He gave all of his creatures personality on top of presence. The giant monsters written about over the course of this series have all shown some level of personality. They are remembered for more than their awe inspiring size and power. They have existed in our dreams and myths since the dawn of time and will continue to fill the spaces in the minds of future generations. Mr. Perkins is one of the artists working in animation that understands that all too well. I am glad that he is one of the people working to keep the genre alive and well.

I hope that you have enjoyed this series and give pause to think about some of your favorite giant monsters and giant monster games as well. Hopefully there will be some more great monster stories to write about as new games and movies get off the ground. If you have any thoughts or comments on the series please let me know in the comments section.

The road to Rising Thunder, final part

Rising Thunder, the fighting game from Radiant Entertainment was a long time coming. It was offering something that had been lacking in the genre for a long-long while. It was one of the few all-robot fighting games and had the most potential of any previous title. Some long-time fighting game fans hoped that it would undo the legacy of the horrendous Rise of the Robots from more than 20 years prior. Yet like the modern crop of fighting games there was the challenge of what platform it would appear on. Would it be PC-only, or a console exclusive title. Radiant Ent. took a good look at the market and decided that it should be a PC title that could be downloaded for free, at least the beta-version. It would support online and local play as well. The fighting game was born in the arcade but that era was long gone. Radiant had to bring the game to the people and not convince them to leave the house in order to play. Other web-based fighters had found success with the community.

 

The 2013 game Divekick by One True Game Studios spread like wildfire. It was an insanely addictive web-based fighting game that had all the momentum of a viral meme. It was easy to play, audiences really only needed one button and some strategy to win. The purpose was to be the first person to hit the opponent. Players did not have to worry about learning complex combos, they did not have to learn secret moves or anything else. They only needed to learn how to pace themselves and be the one to deliver a kick to their opponent. Now audiences could "buy" upgrades to make their character react faster or move in different directions while kicking, but for the most part audiences enjoyed the rudimentary gameplay. They enjoyed it so much that it became a featured title at the EVO fighting game championships.

 

Rising Thunder would be far more robust than Divekick. It would have far more features, greater graphics, tighter balance and a control scheme reminiscent of the best fighting games. The stars of the game would be sentient robots about 2-3 stories tall. They were humanoid in their construction and moved very much like people. It would be easier for a gamer to learn effective ranges and strategies if the robots controlled like people after all. Some of these robots could make use of ranged gun-type weapons, not unlike Vector and Omega from the Star Gladiator series, and others had use of close range weapons like energy swords. What appealed to me were the designs used on the robots. They did not have to have "genders" but I'm glad the designers at Radiant Ent. decided to do just that.

 

The idea of gendered robots has been around for centuries. In pop culture these ideas were often repeated in movies and animation. Mickey Mouse after all built a mechanical "man" in 1933. Also the first full length feature was a 1927 expressionist movie called Metropolis. Director Fritz Lang introduced the world to a female robot named Maria. Comic books were not immune to the idea of gendered machines either. Astro Boy was presented as a child but his origins were parodied years later. The Big Guy and Rusty the Boy Robot was a post-modern send up of the robot genre. Writer Frank Miller and artist Geof Darrow did a great job at reinventing the robot myth in 1995. It was far more graphic and disturbing than Osamu Tezuka had ever presented. Around that same time Sega was incorporating boy and girl robots in their Virtual On fighting series. Hints of these characterizations could be seen in the cast of Rising Thunder.

The characters in Rising Thunder were reminiscent of the square-jawed Rock 'em Sock 'em robots, and Atom from Real Steel. The classic anime robots like Tetsujin 28 and the modern EVA Units were also reflected in these new robot designs. Yet they also had their own unique look, a very smooth and seamless aesthetic that had one foot in Japan and one foot in the USA. The figures lent themselves very easily to a toy line or at the least a series of collectable statues. I would only hope that Radiant Entertainment had plans for merchandising should the game become as big a hit as they anticipate.

Of course the game was not all style without substance. Radiant Ent. was experimenting with the play mechanics, since these were robots and not human martial arts masters they wanted to introduce some new ideas to the genre. These robots were internally powered but their special attacks could drain their batteries which left them vulnerable to counter attacks. The characters would have to let their weapons recharge before they could fire off another powerful attack. It was a balance issue that even studios like Capcom had a problem figuring out. Energy aside there were many great ideas that Rising Thunder had going for it. Even as early as in the public beta there was a certain sense of polish that Rising Thunder had going for it. This was not going to be just another web-based fighting game but something more profound. I'm glad that the studio took a risk on basing the characters on robots. They are after all the ultimate machines and something that just about every generation had grown up reading about in comics and watching in movies. It was a long time before we got to experience the freedom and power of controlling these characters in a game. Audiences had to wait for the technology and platforms to be ready for the next evolutionary step in the genre. I wish Seth Killian and everyone at Radiant Entertainment the best of luck and can't wait to see where this game takes us. As always if you enjoyed this blog and would like to sponsor me please visit my Patreon page and consider donating each month, even as little as $1 would help make better blogs and even podcasts!