Since 1954 when he first debuted, Godzilla has been one of the most popular monsters in the world. Aside from having the most successful film franchise in the history of Japanese cinema, he's also starred in cartoons, videos games, novels and, of course, comic books. Marvel and Dark Horse have both adapted the King of the Monsters into comic form.

Godzilla--known as Gojira in Japan--is the modern equivalent of some of the legendary monsters of antiquity, such as fire breathing dragons or the Kraken of Greek mythology or stories of sea-serpents that would capsize old sailing ships. Modern stories of dinosaurs on the loose can be traced back to Edgar Rice Burroughs's "The Lost World" in 1912.

The modern origins of Godzilla are a bit cloudy and contradictory. One story of Godzilla's creation involves Tanaka Tomoyuki, a young up-and-coming producer for Toho Studio, Tomoyuki's was assigned to do a big budget war drama in Indonesia when the project fell through. This left a hole in Toho's fall release schedule for 1954 and left Tomoyuki at loose ends. He was determined to come up with a new project quickly, something unique. According to legend, while he was flying back to Japan at night, he looked down at the Pacific Ocean and started musing on what secrets the deep oceans held. He had a 'light bulb' moment and conceived of the story of a sea monster attacking Japan.

Another possibility for Gojira/Godzilla'a creation is that he was inspired (some might say stolen) from "the Beast from 20,000 Fathoms" an American hit from 1953, featuring special effects by the legendary Ray Harryhausen. The stories are very similar. A prehistoric beast is awoken under the sea and mutated by radiation, then comes to the surface to wreak havoc.

Or it could be that Godzilla is simply a metaphor of the atomic bomb blasts of 1945 which was still a very recent thing in 1954 when the first Godzilla film debuted. Godzilla represented the horrors of atomic weapons. The Japanese, not surprisingly, saw the A-bomb as an uncontrollable threat; a sort of monster that could level cities. Godzilla embodied their nuclear anxiety.

The name Gojira came from a combination of the word Gorilla and the Japanese word for whale. His appearance was developed by artists who combined the appearance of a Tyrannosaurus Rex and a Stegosaurus. Godzilla was nothing more than a man in a monster costume. Even for its day, this was not sophisticated (America had been doing stop-motion special effects since 'The Lost World' film in 1925) but that didn't seem to bother anyone. In fact, the image of Godzilla trampling over a model of Tokyo is an iconic pop culture image today.

"Gojira" debuted in 1954 and became a colossal hit for Toho. The studio had been struggling in recent years and the massive success of 'Gojira' allowed it to regain financial stability. The following year, the film was released in America under the altered title "Godzilla: King of the Monsters" and although is was severely edited (Scenes with America Actor Raymond Burr were spliced into the film, and other scenes were cut for time) it was just as big a blockbuster in the US as it was in Japan.

A long, successful film franchise followed, as did all the alternate media success. And that brings us back to the subject of comic books. Marvel Comics acquired the rights to the reptilian icon in 1977, beginning a two-year run for "Godzilla, King of the Monsters". When Godzilla first appears at the beginning of issue # 1, we see him bursting out of an iceberg in a scene very similar to one we saw in the film "King Kong vs. Godzilla" in 1963.

The Marvel comic series made very few references to the Toho franchise and established Godzilla as existing firmly in the Marvel Universe proper. Starting from the second issue, the bane of Godzilla's existence was SHIELD, Marvel's mega high tech spy organization, run by Nick Fury. SHIELD in the comics took on the role that G-Force performed in the later Godzilla films.

Godzilla met several other established Marvel characters during the series run, including the Champions (Although sadly the Ghost Rider didn't appear), the Devil Dinosaur, the Fantastic Four and the Avengers. Some of the story lines along the way had Godzilla being shrunk (leading to a battle in the sewer with a rat), traveling through time (where he met Devil Dinosaur) and battling the giant monster minions of mad scientist Doctor Demonicus. One of the weal points of the series was the involvement of a small boy who had a major role. (Can't Gamera sue him for that?)

Marvel lost the rights to the character and the series wrapped up rather abruptly with issue 24, when Godzilla is coaxed by that same kid to return to the deep oceans an avoid humans. The series ended production in 1979.

In the 1980s. Dark Horse comics gained the rights to the King of the Monsters and produced a few one-shot specials, as well as a translation of a Japanese Manga adaptation of the film "The Return of Gojira", AKA "Godzilla 1985". In the 1990s, Dark Horse produced their own series, unoriginally "Godzilla King of the Monsters", which lasted for 17 issues. A story arc from that series had Godzilla traveling back to the early 1900s and getting involved in the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, the sinking of the Titanic and the Spanish- American War.

Right now, all's quiet on the Godzilla front but in just a few years, when Godzilla celebrates his 50th Anniversary with his 30th film, don't be surprised if Godzilla returns to the pages of comicdom.