The Charlton Konga!

Of all the great apes in science fiction, including the great King Kong himself, the humble Konga from American International was the one to find success in comics. Konga was picked up by Charlton Comics and offered at first as a compliment to the film itself. But it became a relative success for Charlton and ran for nearly half a decade. Much of that success was due the fabulous artwork of Steve Ditko who was at the same time making his mark at Marvel on science fiction stories, ghost yarns, and superheroes such as the Amazing Spider-Man and Doctor Strange. 

The comic stayed reasonably close to the set up in the film for the first several issues of its run. In the comic the side characters Sandra and Bob are not killed as they are in the movie and Doctor Decker is a much more reasonable man, though no less a tragic one. Through Sandra and Bob, we get a second Konga, using Decker's theories and it is this Konga who is the focus of the remaining issues of the run. Eventually this second genesis is forgotten and Konga is again presumed to be the original, though it's murky. Joe Gill wrote the Konga stories and in these tales, he spends his time fighting sea monsters, space aliens and the Red Menace. He also is the reason for many young couples to find love, as it is the people around the lonely figure of Konga who is at the center of our attention. 

Artists other than Ditko worked on the series. Dick Giordano drew many of the covers and the fine team of Bill Montes and Ernie Bache took over the series after Ditko withdrew after a lengthy run on the title.  Their take on the giant ape made him a cuter figure despite his great bulk, and their charming style always makes everyone resemble dolls somehow. It works very well on this series. Other artists are Charles Nicholas and Nick Alascia who created the second issue between Ditko's run. Bill Molno even drew The Return of Konga. 

Here are the covers for the run. 

This reprint from 1968 was the final issue of Konga from Charlton Comics. 

I read the series this time in the two-volume reprint series which offers a barebones reprinting of the stories scanned from the original copies. The quality of some of the scans is suspect, but it's handy to have all of this epic tale in a couple of handy volumes. 

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Konga!

Konga, the 1961 monster movie written and produced by Herman Cohen, is a deliriously bizarre entertainment. According to some sources the original title of the movie was I Was a Teenage Gorilla, so that should tip anyone off that this is a strange flicker. (For the record Cohen was also behind such iconic titles such as I Was a Teenage Frankenstein and I Was a Teenage Werewolf.) And as amazing as it sounds it's strange not just because it features a somewhat hokey giant ape stumbling across London, but because of the acting of one man -- Michael Gough. Whenever you look him up these days, his role as "Alfred" in those Batman flicks of moons ago get the main attention, but for me it will ever be Konga.

Gough plays a scientist named Decker who returns to London after a year lost in the depths of the African jungles with new ideas and some seeds. It seems he's learned how to make things big, but there is nothing on the planet able to outgrow this guy's ego. Gough's performance as Decker gives the screen one of the most repulsive people it has ever experienced. Nothing is more important to Decker than himself and he spends the movie proving it.

He turns on everyone around him, eventually killing his superiors, killing innocent kids, and then preying upon those left in his special care. He is a man who violates every boundary of trust given to him. He is truly "uncivilized" and that's the theme. The comic book adaptation spends more time in the jungle and shows us how Decker finds his special things, but in the movie all of that is ignored in service of showing the results. He betrays his lover and assistant, puts the moves on a stacked female student, and sends his gorilla on patrol to commit murder. He's not a nice guy. 

While not of the same kind as the werewolves of fiction, Decker and Konga are two sides of the same creature, and the latter is changed in physical shape to reflect the changes inside the heart and soul of the other. Decker's ego knows no bounds and so does Konga grow to giant size and in doing so plod to his doom. Decker imagined he was above, beyond the grip of society, but in the grip of Konga, his other self in the shadow of the clock tower which holds Big Ben, he is brought low at last.

If perchance you haven't seen Konga I recommend it and even more maybe the reading of the comic adaptation which shows greater details of the origin. But we'll get to that in due course. 

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Konga Weeps!

Michael Gough, the superb character actor has passed away. Here's a link to an overview of the career of the late Mr.Gough. He's stolen so many movies away from so many big actors, it's difficult to remember them all.


I most remember Gough mostly for his delicious turn as the mad scientist in Konga and his later role as the wildly outraged townsman in Trog.


He showed up in many a flick, always with that distinctive voice and always grimacing as if those around him gave him physical pain. He was a delightfully grumpy screen presence.


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