Dark Horse Classics: Terror of Godzilla #1

Name: Dark Horse Classics: Terror of Godzilla #1
Brand: Dark Horse

Aug 1998 · Dark Horse · 2.95 USD; 4.15 CAD

About this Issue

Dark Horse Classics: Terror of Godzilla #1 marks the first time Kazuhisa Iwata's manga adaptation of The Return of Godzilla was presented to English-language readers in full color — a distinction the publisher itself emphasized as 'in color for the very first time anywhere.' As the fourth and final format in which Dark Horse published this material, the 1998 miniseries capped more than a decade of the company's stewardship of the Godzilla license, offering a newly colorized presentation of a story that had introduced many American readers to the Japanese, Toho-faithful version of the kaiju rather than the Americanized Godzilla 1985 cut. It stands as a document of how earnestly Dark Horse worked to contextualize Godzilla within authentic manga form, distinct from the earlier Marvel Comics approach to the character.

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writer, artist, inker Kazuhisa Iwata · writer Mike Richardson · writer Randy Stradley · artist, inker Jim Bradrick · artist, inker, colorist Chris Chalenor · colorist Dark Horse Digital · letterer Dan McKinnon · cover Art Adams

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History

The underlying story originated as a 1985 Japanese manga by Kazuhisa Iwata, published by Shogakukan in Bessatsu CoroCoro Comic Special and later as a standalone Tentomushi Comics paperback — a straightforward adaptation of the 1984 Toho film The Return of Godzilla. Dark Horse, which had acquired the Godzilla license in 1987, first translated and serialized Iwata's manga into English across six black-and-white issues from 1988 to 1989, with Mike Richardson and Randy Stradley serving as translators and Stradley as editor — the same creative team that guided the 1998 color edition. The 1998 Dark Horse Classics reissue added colorist Chris Chalenor and a new cover by Arthur Adams, repositioning the material under Dark Horse's archival 'Classics' banner during a year when the publisher released several such retrospective packages before eventually losing the Godzilla rights.

Trivia · 8 facts

Published August 19, 1998 by Dark Horse Comics as issue #1 of a six-issue miniseries running through January 1999.
Interior story and art by Kazuhisa Iwata; the material is a translated adaptation of his 1985 Japanese manga based on the Toho film The Return of Godzilla.
This is the first publication of this manga in color anywhere; the original Dark Horse serialization (1988–1989) was black and white.
Translators Mike Richardson and Randy Stradley and editor Randy Stradley carried over from the original 1988 Dark Horse black-and-white edition.
Colorist for the 1998 edition: Chris Chalenor. Cover art by Arthur Adams.
The source manga was first serialized in Japan in Shogakukan's Bessatsu CoroCoro Comic Special in 1985, then issued as a standalone Shogakukan Tentomushi Comics paperback the same year.
Dark Horse had previously collected the 1988–1989 black-and-white translation in trade paperback form in both 1990 and 1995 before producing this colorized Classics edition.
The six-issue Classics run was among the final Godzilla publications Dark Horse released before the company lost the Toho license.