King Kong Sketch Study

So, returning to the SD Kaiju series again, we have King Kong to look at now. Usual formula: four designs, same kaiju, best aspects of each to create a hybrid design of the kaiju in question that gets turned into an SD later.

King Kong is an icon just as big as Godzilla though not exactly as prolific. He doesn't have nearly as many movies as Godzilla but his story is just as much of a classic. While Godzilla focused on the consequences of human ignorance and nightmarish horror of war, King Kong was a star crossed romantic tragedy in a fashion similar to 'beauty and the beast'. The primary difference being that Kong doesn't turn into Fabio the second he stops breathing. It was also a slight critique on man's desire to plunder the bounty of nature and in doing so destroying it. Kong himself hasn't changed nearly as much as Godzilla has but he's certainly had his moments. Kong began as something very anthromorphic, his expression was human and his build was something in between. This was supposed to build an empathy for him that the audience could relate to. As Kong diverged from stop motion single thrillers to kaiju films, he became even more anthromorphic due to suit constraints. He also got a shit load uglier on more than one occasion. I swear through most of his films as a giant monster he was glass eyed and stoned. Probably the only way they could get him to do those films anyway lol. Kong has bounced around from one director to another, one color hue to another and one boogly pair of eyes to another. Eventually we had the recent remake of King Kong by Peter Jackson which is the most anatomically correct Kong of the bunch. So there are basically two kinds of Kong: the giant gorilla and the big foot like ape man that can tango with Godzilla. I selected a rather diverse set of these designs for this study to see were we want to take this kaiju over all.

Peter Jackson's Kong: by Universal 'King of Skull Island'
This is the latest version of Kong as we currently know it. For the most part it is a giant ape and at its size, it works just great. Better than great apparently due to all the stunts its able to do like fighting three hungry V-rexes off by itself and with only three limbs (holding ms. Watts in the fourth at almost all times). This kong differentiates itself form its bretheren by having a oil tanker worth of character. It throws tantrums, it mourns, it even laughs, and of course its goes ape-shit (bad pun lol) whenever its one and only friend in the whole damn world is in danger (say it with me now, aaaawwwww). It's eyes are sunken further into its face than other Kongs and it has those wicked scars that seem to be a trademark with redesigns these days. He looks like the grizzled guerilla war veteran that he is and he looks like he eats well considering all the hungry lizards and shit out to munch on him. I don't know how well a pure Gorilla build would look at kaiju size but here it's wonder to watch him climb around his kingdom. A key trait in most Kong designs is the skull and P.J.'s Kong has these splayed out kind of warrior's crest going on with his head. It's very tribal in a sort of 'rimal Rage' fashion. Aside from him being such a squat bugger and being blatantly animal I don't have much of an issue with this design.

King Kong Neo: by Matt Frank 'Mystic Storm Lord'
You know that Kong that fought Godzilla in 'King Kong vs Godzilla'? The one that was this almost red brown and could electricute Godzilla after getting nailed by lightning? This is pretty much that Kong with slightly more animalistic features and a face that isn't so drop dead fugly. This design has been updated twice, first to drop him down to a managable human level, the second to bring him back to his original Toho role and give him mystic runes of the storm god +5. The bizzare lightning powers weren't delivered by chance and were actually the work of his followers that came to Japan with him and worked their tribal war dance to revive him in order to whoop Goji's ass back into the ocean. This build has a 'yeti' look to it as its totally upright yet has very simian features still. The bowed legs, the gorilla feet, the super long arms, and the massively built pectorial region are signs that this isn't just a gorilla, its a super gorilla. He's brown and his runes are blue, which is a bizzare combination but also very earthy and spiritual. I would have elaborated it more on his fur and had a symetrical design of the runes myself but the point is fairly evident. The face is a combination of the KK vs G Kong and P.J.'s Kong so the scar makes an appearance over the opposite eye (his left) and he has defined mutton chops and beard (remember what I said in the G Neo review about facial hair lol, case and point). Neo Kong has a slight point to his skull like the original King Kong and thats an interesting tribute. You guys can tell me whats wrong and whats right with this one, I'm not too sure myself.

Classic Kong: by Willis O'Brien 'Tragic Beast'
The original King Kong was neither completely upright nor totally gorilla. He's what we'd refer to as a retro-ape. Like the retro-saurus, it has a slightly sloped posture and a mix of features that make its origins visible but keep its role as something fantastical intact. Classic Kong is also the one with the most human of expressions and the least head hair. He is further recognized by the point on his skull that indicates ape-manship to the tenth power. His muscles are not as heavily defined as the Neo; nor is he stout like a certain Koopa stomping plumber in the case of P.J. He's the original so I got the iconic woman there on his shoulder to illustrate the point. Overall he's got a solid set of features though the huge eyes and balding don't make him perfect.

Nightmare Kong: by Nihilove 'Lightning Ravager'
I won't make any excuses, this one is as extreme as a Kong design can get. I've wanted to include Nihilove's designs in one of these studies for awhile now I figured Kong would be a place to start since there is a real lack of diverse Kong designs out there. Often we forget that giant monsters aren't just wonderous, powerful, and 'badass'...they are also scary as fuck. Nihilove strived to capture that fear and disturbing imagery that monsters can bring and that comes through in his version of Kong. Appearing somewhat more like a chimpanzee than a gorilla, the designs is manic and aggressive. Nihilove remembered what electricity does to living things when it comes in contact with them and Nightmare Kong illustrates this fairly well. His fur is standing up all over hell and his eyes glow with insane power that literally blasts around him in all directions. As we learned from the original Godzilla, its going to take more than a couple thousand volts to impede Godzilla and so Nightmare Kong looks like he's carrying thousands of AMPs instead. For those that don't know, AMP's are a shit load more dangerous to human beings than volts as it only takes one or two of them to kill you. Nightmare Kong here is pretty much a living tesla coil and you can tell that engaging him in close quarters is going to hurt like hell. Body wise he is fairly emaciated, he could definitely do with some more muscle and a stouter frame. This is where the chimpanzee opinion comes in because Nightmare Kong is too lanky and freaking wicked looking to be a Gorilla. Nightmare Kong I believe takes all the combined ugliness Kong ever had and distills it into a form of pure frenzied bloodlust. I noticed that he has mutton chops too, though wispier than the Neo. This Kong also has an interesting stitch scar going over his chest form right shoulder to left hip. This gives him a sort of Frankenstein vibe. The one thing I found funny about Nightmare Kong was him impeccable nail condition. I mean, this guy is scary and grotesque as beat hell and his nails are that smooth? So I took the liberty of making his nails chewed and broken. So while other Kongs strangle and snap the necks and jaws of their enemies, Nightmare Kong literally tears them to pieces and then blasts them into oblivion with all the fury of a lightning storm. A tad on the lanky side but with a stouter waist and more muscle this thing would kick ass in all sorts of ways. Loses a bit of humanity along the way but hey, this one fought Godzilla. There is no swan dives off the impire state building for this guy, hell if this guy was up there the damn planes wouldn't stand a chance in hell. They'd get shot out of the sky by stray lightning bolts as soon as they closed within firing distance.

So there we have it folks. A pure animal with tude and class, a retro-ape that set the standard, a yeti that looks like a close relative of Blizzard from Primal Rage, and a berserk ghoul of an ape that could make Storm from X-men green with envy. Tell me what features are best suited for hybrid and I'll see what I can cobble together for the King of Skull Island.

EDIT: I fixed the Classic Kong's creator lol.

-RenDragonClaw