Godzilla vs. Texas is being released this Wednesday, and features Godzilla wreaking havoc across the Lone Star State.
DALLAS — Everything is bigger in Texas, as they say — but is there anything big enough to stop Godzilla?
That’s the question that will be addressed in the new comic book, Godzilla vs. Texas, which will be released in comic shops across the state on Wednesday.
The 48-page comic is divided into four different writer-artists’ interpretations of Godzilla wreaking havoc across the Lone Star State. At the helm of the project is Matt Frank, who has written Godzilla comics for more than 15 years. Three other writer-artists have their own stories in the book — Devin Kraft, Joe Eisma and John Lucas. All four have roots in Texas, with Frank originally from San Antonio and now living in Austin.
Godzilla vs. Texas is one chapter in a larger ongoing series, Godzilla vs. America. The series has seen Godzilla take on several iconic American cities — Chicago, Boston and Los Angeles, to name a few — but this is the first time Godzilla has been pitted against an entire state.
“Unlike a lot of other states, Texas has a lot of really big cities, but no one city really represents the state,” Frank said. “I think Texas has a unified identity that a lot of other states don’t. Plus, it’s just a great title.”
Frank said this series offers artists and writers from the chosen cities or regions to bring in local flavor and pride, and gives them an opportunity to celebrate their state.
“It’s one of those things that Texans show up for,” Frank said about the book. “People who are either cheering for the destruction of the state, or they’re totally convinced that Godzilla has no chance. I hope they all pick up the book and at least get some entertainment out of it, get a good chuckle, because it’s fairly light-hearted.”
For Frank’s story in the book, it features a controversial podcaster character who argues that Godzilla is a hoax. Frank said he was inspired by some of the more controversial podcasters based in Austin.
“There’s a lot of people who try to take advantage of people’s skepticism or baser instincts in order to profit off of them, and that was definitely something like Godzilla would be ripe for someone to say that’s not real,” Frank said.
But really, Frank said that element was a counterpoint to the core of his story — Texans coming together.
“Whenever there’s a big natural disaster in Texas, Texans — by and large — tend to come together, tend to lock arms and help each other out,” Frank said. “It was also an excuse to have Godzilla destroy a bunch of landmarks.”
And there are few landmarks more iconic in Texas than the 55-feet-tall cowboy himself, Big Tex, who welcomes Texans to the State Fair of Texas every year. So when Godzilla came to town, it made complete sense for Eisma, a Dallas native, to include him in the story. But this version of Big Tex is a mecha version, looking like something out of Neon Genesis Evangelion or Pacific Rim. And it’s being called the Tex-Mech.
“His first line of dialogue is ‘alright, alright, alright,'” Frank said about the Tex-Mech. “It’s very silly but also very funny.”