Most of the monster action going on around here has been of the internet variety as of late. Facebook has provided two cool items. First, as pictured here, is a great site called www.ultrabestiary.blogspot.com by Ben Mackey. Kaiju artist Matt Frank brought it to light. It looks like Ben is going to be posting his interpretations of Ultra monsters in chronological order based on the original Ultraman series.
Next, August Ragone has been posting on Facebook about a Japanese release of Ultra Q on Blu ray. The twist is that it will be released in both black and white and colorized versions! We are fortunate to have the series on DVD in glorious black and white. If you are interested enough to actually be reading this, then you must get your hands on Ultra Q, even though I don't know of any versions that have English subtitles (the new releases included). G-FEST guest of honor Kenji Sahara is great in this, and in the series you can see not only the seeds of what would become Ultraman, but I see connections between Ultra Q and series like The Twilight Zone and even The X-Files.
Finally, one of the best elements of having an iPhone is the fact that I can carry Godzilla films with me anywhere I go! The iTunes store even offers some of them for $4.99 a pop. At this point, I haven't been able to bring myself to spend $9.99, which means no Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla or War of the Gargantuas yet, but it does mean that with a few finger taps, I can watch Godzilla, King of the Monsters, Rodan, Godzilla vs. Mothra, or Godzilla 2000. As someone who used to live for "Godzilla Week" on local TV, this represents a quantum leap into the future!
