Welcome back to Hail to the King (Kong), a series of posts that’ll pop up here and there that focus on merchandise and other things that relate to the giant gorilla who’s captured the hearts of monster-movie fans since his debut in 1933. It’s part of our promotion for the latest addition to our Illustrated Classics library: the e-book-exclusive edition of the 1932 novelization of King Kong, which is on sale right now.
Written by Delos W. Lovelace, based on the story by Edgar Wallace and Merian C. Cooper and the screenplay by James A. Creelman and Ruth Rose, it features scenes that didn’t appear in the final cut of the film—including the notorious “spider pit” sequence in which Kong’s human pursuers are attacked by horrific arachnids and insects. What makes our version special is that it contains six exclusive, original black-and-white illustrations by comics artist Paul Tuma, whose pulp-influenced style has appeared in the pages of The Twilight Avenger, The Green Hornet, and Dan Turner: Hollywood Detective.
With March having reached its end, I thought it’d be the perfect time to recap the Kong-ly doings that went on here during the month. If you missed anything the first time, here’s your opportunity to catch up!
On March 5, as part of our Simian Saturdays series I reviewed Peter Jackson’s 2005 remake of King Kong. It’s a good movie—certain better than the 1976 version, which I also reviewed—but it still falls short of matching the original Kong (and yes, I reviewed that, too, back in February).
March 7 was the publication day for our King Kong novelization—an exciting day for us, as you’d probably expect!
For March 9, we launched Hail to the King (Kong) with a small gallery of King Kong lobby cards that were used in movie theaters to promote the original version of Kong.
On March 10, Kong: Skull Island debuted in movie theaters and made quite the impression on moviegoers—three weeks later, it’s still one of the top 3 box-office hits, is the number 3 top-grossing movie of 2017 (according to Box Office Mojo), and is still playing to packed houses! (Hey, not everyone’s interested in seeing Beauty and the Beast and Power Rangers.)
On March 11, Simian Saturdays continued with my review of Anthony Browne’s King Kong, a 1994 children’s book that adapted the original Kong, but with a twist: the artist/writer recast the role of Kong’s leading lady, Ann Darrow, replacing original actress Fay Wray with Marilyn Monroe!
On March 18, the Simian Saturdays entry was my review of Kong: Skull Island. I really liked it, and I’m not just saying that because we published King Kong—I’ve seen Skull Island twice now, and movie-theater repeats are a rarity for me, given the price of tickets these days.
On March 23, Hail to the King (Kong) focused on Kong’s appearances as a cover model for Famous Monsters of Filmland, the legendary horror magazine. He’s a very photogenic monkey!
And on March 25, for Simian Saturdays I reviewed Giant Classic King Kong, an Alberto Giolitti–drawn comic-book adaptation of the original Kong published by Gold Key Comics in 1968.
And that’s the month! A pretty busy one, wouldn’t you say?
King Kong (the SWC edition) is available for download through the SWC webstore. Visit its product page for ordering information.
