King Kong! Here's Red-Hot Excitement!

Now I'm not one thousand percent sure of that, but there's no doubt that getting my grubby little kiddie mitts on this Gold Key gem was part of what propelled me to become a comic book addict from that day to this. If you check out that date on the ad, you'll discover that this wonderful and memorable comic hit the newsstands on D-Day. And it just so happens D-Day is also my birthday. A better present for a young boy at that time is hard to imagine. 

The George Wilson cover has all the elements you expect of the epic clash, even if Kong is a tad bit leaner than you'd expect, and in the comic, a whole lot bluer. But since this was likely not only my first comic, but certainly my first contact with King Kong I didn't find the changes odd at all. And since it hit the stands on my birthday, I can only think the fellows at Gold Key were thinking of me. Because of the convoluted rights to the character of King Kong and the movie King Kong, this is based on the novel version of the story produced at the same time as the epic film. What prompted Gold Key in 1968 to bring out the comic is uncertain, but Toho was expressing interest in Kong and a cartoon show was debuting that same year. So as had periodically been the case since Kong's 1933 debut, interest was blooming again in the King of Skull Island.

So, sit back, keep the candy handy and along with me enjoy a different version of the epic journey to the magical and deadly Skull Island. If like me, you've visited before it will be welcoming back a good friend, or if this is your first trip to the island as imagined by writer Gary Poole, and Italian artists Giovanni Ticci and Alberto Giolitti it will be exploring a new but still oddly familiar territory. 

That was a treat -- a birthday present to me, myself, and I. And I see the makings of an annual tradition. Despite his precipitous plunge at the end, Kong Lives...in our imaginations! 

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