Gorgo is a 1961 monster film funded by King Brothers Productions after they had a huge success distributing the American version of the Japanese film Rodan (1956). At the time Tokusatsu and suitmation was not nearly the pop culture juggernaut it would become later in the ’60s. At the time there had only been two Godzilla films released in Japan and the success of Gorgo really helped to maintain the popularity of the genre in the overseas markets. The film has a huge cult following and many a famous filmmaker find themselves enamoured with the tale of a mother monster wrecking London to save her son. Director Eugène Lourié is the same man responsible for helming The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms a film from 1953 which heavily inspired the original Gojira in 1954. Needless to say, the film has a place in the annals of Tokusatsu. The lesser-known element of the film is the fact that Charlton comics bought the rights to the character prior to release and released a comic book series featuring both Mother and Child Gorgo in the titular role.
Charlton was not a huge comic studio at the time and as such did not have high page rates for their artistic talent. That being said the studio did employ legendary artist Steve Ditko who was balancing time between multiple companies most notably Marvel comics. For those unaware of comic history, Steve Ditko is the co-creator of Spider-Man and Dr. Strange. So it is rather surprising that Ditko would still be doing work for Charlton comics up to 1966. Ditko’s work on Gorgo is magnificent. Ditko drew nine of the 26 Gorgo titles including the first and last issues. Before we go too deep into the comic itself we have to tackle the fact that the folks at Charlton comics have nothing but good things to say about Steve Ditko, while most Marvel historians do not. 
Compare this quote from Ditko Monsters: Gorgo by Craig Yoe “…he was terrific. He was funny. He was friendly. He was affable. He was best man at Billy Anderson’s wedding,” with this quote featured in Sean Howe’s Marvel Comics: The Untold Story from a Convention attendee who asked Ditko what it was like working in the industry, “…how hard the job was, and that it paid too little and had few lasting rewards.”. Furthermore you can see the disparity to how he got along with Gorgo writer Joe Gill (Ditko Monsters: Gorgo): “Ditko and I were drinking buddies for a while, even though he wasn’t a drinker. We both lived in the only hotel in town, and we’d have supper together in a nearby bar or restaurant, and we were totally unalike. We had nothing in common. But we hung out together. He had a nice sense of humor at that time,” and how he got along with famous Marvel writer Stan Lee (Marvel Comics: The Untold Story) “I don’t know what he did, or where he lived, or who his friends were, or what he did with himself,”. It seems the difference in character can simply be the fact that Ditko seemed to genuinely enjoy the folks at Charlton. The infamous Marvel Method in which material was drawn before it was scripted may have played a factor as well. With Ditko himself being quoted as saying (Ditko Monsters: Gorgo) “I read the (movie) screenplay of Gorgo. From the first reading to this day, I marvel at how well Joe adapted the character to comic books.”. This may do a lot to describing why Ditko would still work for Charlton regardless of the pay disparity.
The comic itself can best be described using a quote from its 17th issue: “It’s one of those monsters which almost wrecked England a few years ago! Fought the space invaders in Australia, destroyed communist bases in Siberia”, and that’s omitting a lot of the craziness the Gorgos got themselves into. The Gorgos’ fight mutant plants, get nuked multiple times, solve the Cuban missile crisis, stop three separate alien invasions, cause multiple couples to get together, go the moon, fight a Castro knockoff only for real Fidel Castro to appear in later issues, time travel, and of course teach humans valuable lessons about the unpredictability of nature. 
These are pulp comic books through and through. As such, they adopt the pulp formula’s more problematic elements as well. Particularly the rampant use of indigenous native tribes and the constant use of the word “savages”. At the very least you can take solace in the fact that they are for the most part not drawn racially insensitively, only written as such. Which is notable for the time as racial depictions tended to be very exaggerated. The other blessing is the fact that the characters, asides from a few very small moments, don’t speak in broken English. This was especially surprising when characters of Asian descent appear. The mention of the monsters being matchmakers was not a joke, in many issues we will be introduced to a man and a woman who are in a strained relationship. Perhaps the man is incredibly sexist, perhaps the woman just finds the man to be cowardly. Either way by the end of the issue the couple ends up together, even if multiple times they should not be. The comic touches on Feminism of the time but it’s clear that Joe Gill did not have the greatest grasp on women’s rights as the men do not learn from their chauvinism and constantly end up convincing their enlightened female cohorts to settle down. In the latter half of Gorgo‘s run, the villains find themselves in tears when they’re defeated. At one point Momma Gorgo defeats a robotic alien who begins to cry saying it doesn’t deserve to live. Then the monster picks up the crying robot, puts it back in its space ship, and sends it on its way home.
For all their monstrous tendencies the Gorgos are never directly malicious or murderous. They are always reactionary. For many issues, we have a very simple story structure. Momma Gorgo is sound asleep on the ocean floor and Baby Gorgo finds itself restless. The child then gets itself into trouble, which eventually leads to the mother having to get up to rescue the child. This is occasionally subverted by having the child go on solo adventures. They really try to capture the feeling of the original film by maintaining this plot structure.
The stories are self-contained but have an odd sense of continuity. For example, there will be five stories that happen within a single continuity, only to be seemingly forgotten when convenient. Occasionally authorities will laugh at the existence of the Gorgos even when it’s proven they exist due to multiple attacks on various landmasses throughout the world. From Africa to Manhattan these creatures should be well documented. Yet they make it a huge deal when evidence is caught on film, only to ignore the fact that they were caught on film a few issues later when a movie producer wants to use the monsters to make a cheap sci-fi film. Not to mention the fact that two distinct alien creatures are called Venusians despite their designs being dramatically different and not mentioning the fact that they had encountered the Gorgos prior to this. It is a very loose continuity, to say the least. In the event that a story is needed for context, the story will recap it in the first few pages before getting to the new story. The nice part about these recaps is that they do not reuse the same panels. So if a prior issue ended in a monster fight you will get to see it in a different perspective in the subsequent issue.
There are quite a few issues in which we witness the Gorgo’s and the comic creators utilize a shot or premise that would appear in genre fiction later down the line. For example, in the second issue of the series, Momma Gorgo destroys the U.N. Building, which would later get destroyed by Godzilla in Destroy All Monsters (1968). In issue nine the Gorgos are frozen in ice, only to get freed from a Nuclear explosion. This is the exact way that the original Gamera is awoken in his 1965 debut film. Issue fifteen features two firsts and while the prior two may be mere coincidences there may be weight to issue fifteen being a cultural touchstone. 
This issue features a group discovering a lost world of Dinosaurs similar to King Kong but without the titular character of King Kong. When they encounter a dinosaur they first come across a long-necked herbivore peacefully feasting on some trees. This bears a resemblance to the first appearance of the Brachiosaurus in Jurassic Park. Steven Spielberg is well documented for his love of the original Gorgo film, citing that it had a big influence on the finale of Jurassic Park: The Lost World. So it is not entirely unlikely that he encountered this comic as a child and it may have left an impact. Our second instance in this issue involves the Gorgos fighting not one, not two, but three ferocious T-rex like beasts in order to save humans who have been tied up for sacrifice. This bears a lot in common with the aforementioned King Kong and this scene particularly brings to mind Peter Jackson’s interpretation of the giant Ape in which Kong fights three bipedal carnivores to save a woman in distress. Our final instance comes from issue twenty in which one of the Gorgo (it’s not clear which) is sent to the moon. This would be the exact method they would use to defeat Gamera within his first appearance. It is likely some if not all of these are coincidences but it is worth noting nonetheless.
If you can only read one Gorgo story you need to read issue twelve. It is not collected anywhere but the series has entered the public domain so you can find it relatively easily. The artwork is done by Joe Sinnott and it features an amazingly complicated monster-filled romp digested into a single issue. You have the return of the Venusians (looking very different) who land on Earth and begin creating Mimics to infiltrate humanity. An FBI agent goes undercover as a famous scientist and gets kidnapped by the beings. He lets the FBI know his whereabouts and they launch an all-out assault. The aliens get the ire of the Gorgos who begin to destroy their base. As the aliens try to combat the planes and the monsters their air support is cut off by who else but REPTILICUS the Danish monster (here named Reptisaurus due to rights issues) who destroys their flying saucers.
The monsters win the day and the Venusians are defeated once again. There is a solace to be had that Gorgo and Reptilicus would team up as many years later both would receive the MST3K treatment. These oft-maligned giant monsters had at least one day in the sun.
If you’re a fan of pulpy storytelling and enjoy seeing the cold war disrupted by giant prehistoric dinosaurs than this series is for you. The Ditko issues are all collected within a beautiful and informative package by IDW comics titled “Ditko Monsters: Gorgo”. The rest of the issues can be found online and are worth checking out as the Reptilicus issue was not drawn by Ditko and so did not get included in the collection. The monster designs are truly wacky, with an array of colourful patterns that every Kaiju fan owes it to themselves to experience at least once. Don’t expect anything too deep but there are some interesting parallels to be had with the fears of the era.
