Fan-made Gamera Comic “The Last Hope” Announced

To celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Gamera franchise, artist Matt Frank and writer Josh Bugosh announce their tribute project, The Last Hope.

Announced today on his tumblr page, Kaiju artist Matt Frank, best known for his work on IDW Publishing’s various Godzilla comic series, and Lobsterdance Productions’ writer Josh Bugosh will collaborate on a one-shot self-published comic book centered around the iconic character Gamera. The book is an unauthorized celebration of Gamera’s legacy and will tell a story that precedes the original Gamera film.

An excerpt from his post presents the story that the comic will explore:

The Last Hope focuses on what may have transpired in the time before Gamera was known to the modern world – the great civilization that once thrived on Earth thanks to their alchemical command of Mana, the planet’s life energy. However, their decadence and complacency has given way to disaster, as monstrous serpents rise to wreak havoc on their world. To combat this threat, they create monsters of their own – winged beasts of war to wipe out their enemies. But will this savior give way to a new threat, one they cannot control? Will their hope lay in one last creation? Or will they fall to the shadow of evil?

The Tokusatsu Network asked both Matt and Josh to share their thoughts on the project.

Matt Frank:

This really was something I wanted to do out of the blue. I was getting frustrated that it seemed like all we were getting for Gamera’s anniversary was a Monsterarts figure, and that just felt wrong. Now something COULD come out – the year’s still young, but I wanted to celebrate Gamera in my own way.

But then I was like “well I ain’t much of a writer…who do I know who is competent and will work for basically nothing?”

Josh Bugosh:

Then, of course, Matt called me, knowing all the scripts I’ve been working on with Jared and Lobsterdance. Even now, we’re working on a Gamera-inspired film, which started out with Jared asking “Hey, you wanna write a Gamera script?” to which I responded “YEAH!” But of course, we had to go with an homage film rather than something that uses Gamera. Then, Matt comes along with his idea and now I’m pretty much buried in Gamera, haha.

And it’s a really cool idea; I like playing around with the picture of this ancient but advanced culture and all their cool fantasy stuff. Plus it’s told in big, broad strokes, which is also kind of cool. It’s basically writing a mythology tale.

Matt also adds:

…So I thought “Is there a way I can do this stylistically that would be fresh and cool while being able to get it done efficiently?”

I thought of doing it in the style of an epic poem – not unlike Beowulf. But then I remembered something else: I love coming up with broad ideas and big moments for characters and stories, but connecting points A, B, and C still eludes me. So, a writer like Josh is perfect – I’ve read his work and have always liked it. Also, he and I haven’t gotten to collaborate on anything yet. And his grasp of the epic poem style is already proving very exciting!

While no official date has been set yet for the book’s release, they are planning to release it digitally some time in July 2015 with printed copies being available exclusively at conventions attended by Matt Frank. The printed form of the book will also include extra material such as concept art and testimonials from the team.

To stay up-to-date on the progress and further announcements of The Last Hope, follow Matt Frank’s Tumblr and DeviantArt pages.

Source: Matt Frank’s Tumblr page