James Stokoe

It's been a fairly long time since I gave you one of these and I figured it was about time I fixed that. And who better to showcase than a guy who has been drawing all sorts of of monstery goodness, yes? I remember basically discovering the work of James Stokoe by complete accident. I was just checking out some comics, seeing what looked good, and I saw Wonton Soup. Becoming instantly fascinated by the cover alone, I ended up buying it (along with a rare copy of Apocalypse Meow) and later became a fan.

I just wish I knew how to pronounce his last name without sounding like an asshole.

You might be asking yourself though , "what does this have to do with giant monsters?", and that would be a good point. Wonton Soup isn't really about giant creatures destroying things. It's about a space trucker who also happens to be a gifted chef as he journeys through space with his partner. Stokoe's next work, Orc Stain, also has very little to do with giant monsters. What it does have though is money made out of dismembered penises.

I'll take any excuse to take about this too.
But, where those series don't really hover into kaiju territory, I assure you that the man himself does. Stokoe worked on a book funded through Kickstarter called Sullivan's Sluggers, which involved a baseball team duking it out with various nasty monsters of many sizes. Some even hover into kaiju territory as I define it, but even this isn't quite what I'm talking about. Sure, it's an amazing book that you should all go read, but still not quite there.

Then again, I could be wrong, because evidence definitely lends itself towards it featuring at least one truly giant monster.
But no, his true contributions came when he was tapped to work on the king of all kaiju. That's right, he got to do a Godzilla series. Now that's what we're looking for! Yes, this incredibly talented artist got to live the dream and draw the king of the monsters in all his blackish-green glory and let me tell you, he definitely brought his A-game for this task. We're talking two page spreads, tons of detail, and massive kaiju battles.

When kaiju are fighting, you should always remember to pack a light snack in case you get held up.
Godzilla: The Half Century War is well worth checking out and so are Stokoe's other works. To say I'm a fan would simply be stating something so obvious it would be like pointing out a hard-on in a strip club. But can you really blame me? Look at that art! He's a damn machine when it comes to the beautifully grotesque and I can't take my eyes off of it. Do yourself a favour and go check out some of books and support one of the better artists working in comics today.

Remember, if you don't then Godzilla might get upset with you.
Further examples of jawesomeness!


Comments