Yeah, I got a copy on ebay a few months ago. Highly recommended for kaiju collectors, illustrators, and biologists. I get the impression there might be more in the series, as the gamera below is in the same style, but not in this book. This book is all Ultraman/Seven monsters. Was surprised to see the style used in Shigeru Mizuki 1st Gegege no kitaro comic from the 60s!
Back in the day, there were a number of publishers who put out similar books--most compiled from illustrated pictorials from the popular children's magazines of the day--the Gamera dates back to the 1960s (from an Asahi Sonorama publication, a couple of which were reissued in the 1990s), while the book currently available from HLJ is a reissue of the1972 Shogakukan publication, 「怪獣図解入門」(Kaiju Zukai Nyumon or "Introduction to Monster Anatomy")--I have an original I got from a pen-pal in 1976. Many of these books were available at San Francisco's Japantown back in the early-to-mid 1970s at both the now-defunct Goshado and still-in-business Books Kinokuniya. (BTW, "Introduction to Monster Anatomy" contains creatures from ULTRA Q through ULTRAMAN ACE.)
Does anyone else know where to obtain this? Checked amazon and kinokuniya but zip Please send me a message if you do. (Doesn't have to be a private message) Thanks
Kinokuniya doesn't have it? Try calling them direct. I ordered one of the Ma.K books from them, no extra charge, but they had to special order it. I got my copy of the Ultraseven book on ebay though.
I bypass them and go to Asahiya books. Much nicer and quicker. 60 Madison Ave, New York - (212) 883-0011 there's also one here 52 Vanderbilt Ave, New York - (212) 883-0011 but I haven't been there. When I ordered through them they didn't charge any shipping, handling or jacking the fee - just straight yen cover price and Roger - can't wait for that ISBN!
Looks like a neat book. I love the Kanegon drawing on HLJ. Anybody know if the book the Gamera is from, An Anatomical Guide to Monsters, is still available? I couldn't dig anything up. I would love to locate a copy of that book. Not to derail or anything but for anyone interested I stumbled upon other examples from it here:http://www.pinktentacle.com/2008/10/kaiju-anatomical-drawings/
The Gamera illustrations come from a book published in the 1960s by Asahi Sonorama, while the Godzilla, Mothra and Angilas come from a book published in the late 1980s/early 1990s from a totally different publisher.
Got the book today, it's phenomenal. Over 150 pages and kaiju from every Ultra series are covered. Even Beacon is in there! ISBN is 978-4-09-220334-1, price is 1100 yen. Amazon JP has it in stock. It's well worth it.
Just a slight correction; the book features many prominent, but not all, monsters from ULTRA Q (1966) through the early episodes of ULTRAMAN ACE (1972), as the book was published as the series premiered. Glad you enjoy the book, because they are very cool!
