Chicago talent showcased in "Godzilla vs. Chicago" comic book, art show
Godzilla has terrorized Tokyo, New York, San Francisco, and Hong Kong — and now he's coming for Chicago.
Relax. That's not a news headline. It's the premise of a new comic book that hit store shelves this week.
The comic book by IDW Publishing features Chicago landmarks and the work of Chicago-based writers and artists.
"Godzilla vs. Chicago" is the first entry into the "Godzilla vs. America" series. It is one of the newest for sale at Howling Pages, at 4354 N. Milwaukee Ave. in the Portage Park neighborhood.
"We kind of focus on the graphic novels and the collected editions of comics," said Howling Pages owner Alain Park.
Godzilla will also soon be in the Seventh Corner Gallery — a space at the back of Howling Pages. The gallery now features all kinds of Chicago-centric Godzilla artwork.
"It's not hard to convince a bunch of artists to draw Godzilla," said Anthony Hall of Harebrained Design, one of the owners of Seventh Corner Gallery.
Twenty artists submitted their work for the gallery show — including artists who also illustrated the new comic.
The artwork imagines how the City of Big Shoulders would handle the King of Monsters.
One of them evokes that famous 1989 Vienna Beef advertising poster that shows a giant Chicago-style hot dog covering Navy Pier and a fireboat squirting mustard onto it from the lake.
The fireboat is squirting mustard onto a giant hot dog in this piece by Hall himself, titled "Visit Chicago"— and the hot dog is of proper Chicago style, with tomatoes, diced onions, sport peppers, relish, and a pickle spear, but absolutely no ketchup. But in this artwork, the hot dog is in Godzilla's hands as the monster stands in the lake.
"He's claiming victory, "Hall said. "He's found the largest hotdog in the world."
An artwork up for sale by Luis Romero, titled "Glizzylla," imagines Godzilla as a walking hot dog. In another up for sale by Bird Milk, Godzilla holds a bottle of Malört — the title for this one is "The Real Source of Radiation."
Also part of the gallery show are a figurine of Godzilla in a Walter Payton Bears jersey, and
In a drawing from the comic book, Godzilla is seen stomping through downtown Chicago past a billboard showing Eagle Man from the famous Eagle Insurance commercials.
As seen in another drawing, the comic book also features a storyline with a reference to a disgusting incident that happened back on Aug. 8, 2004 — involving the toilet tank of a tour bus belonging to the Dave Matthews Band, a Chicago River Bridge, and an architectural tour boat passing below.
"It's got Godzilla over the Kinzie Street bridge, where it looks like some sort of band tour bus is dumping some liquids into the river," said Hall.
Hall just enjoys the Godzilla concept.
"I love the idea of a giant beast that can destroy absolutely destroy a whole city, and then still be hailed as a protector and hero," he said.
The group art show for Godzilla vs. Chicago is set for 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. Friday at Howling Pages.
