Christophe Blain, “King Kong”

King Kong, Illustrated by Christophe Blain

This re-telling of Merian C Cooper and Edgar Wallace’s famed tale is a 44 page children’s book printed in 2004 by Albin Michel.

The comic pages illustrated by Christophe Blain are more in line with the style that’s become synonymous with him: bubbly, clear-lined, cartoony, although it is more subdued here and weighted down with shadowy pencils, and are a well done use of narrative; really layering in further story considering the text is a very condensed version. At the same time he’s aware of his intended audience, so does keep them simple, in terms of composition or multiple elements in frame.

The single and double page images give Blain more room to fles and are much more impressionistic: smokier, smudged pastel-like textures that cleverly -by never really giving solid outline or shape to Kong’s gargantuan mass- have the effect of making him seem even bigger, mythic and uncontainable. They add to the ominous atmosphere, set up ambiance, and feed the tragic tone of the story.

King Kong

Various Artists, King Kong Artwork

“To understand King Kong, you need to know Merian Coldwell Cooper. Nearly every story element of the original film is reflective of some aspect of Cooper’s life leading up to his creation of the iconic movie. His passions—aviation, exploration, adventure filmmaking—are all incorporated into King Kong. You can argue about the extent to which the final screenplay evolved through contributions by Edgar Wallace, James Creelman, Ruth Rose, as well as a host of uncredited RKO scribes, but it’s clear that virtually everything in Kong got there by way of Cooper. (There’s a great memo from James Creelman to Cooper, in fact, where the overworked scribe—he was also writing The Most Dangerous Game—laments that Cooper’s suggested addition of a giant wall, island tribe and sacrificial rites were just too much for the plot to handle. Cooper “relieved” him soon after.)

Kong´s effects, music, sound; none of these aspects of the film were the direct work of his hands, but Cooper’s force of personality, bullheadedness and sheer refusal to take no for an answer ultimately made Skull Island a real place in the minds of film lovers across multiple generations.” -John Mitchlig, The Kong Files, kingiskong.net

Thomas Blackshear

Thomas Blackshear, “Eighth Wonder of the World”

This illustration of King Kong by Thomas Blackshear was on the cover of Graphis Magazine, Volume 50, Number 269, the September/October issue published in 1990.