Welcome back to Rotten Ink, and Happy Thanksgiving. For this update we will be taking a look at The Giant Gila Monster, a cult classic film from 1959 that was an early b-movie giant monster film or better yet a Kaiju film, and is considered a Turkey of a film by those who are not educated in the art of B-Movies! This update we will also be taking a look at the Blood Scream Comics adaptation of the film, and for the first time on a “From Horror Movie To Horror Comic” update we will not be giving the comic a star rating as I feel that would be lame as I am part of Blood Scream Comics and even edited this comic when it was released. But if you are ready, let’s head to the sock hop and dance the night away and wait for that Turkey to cook in the oven as we also dodge a very Giant Gila Monster.

Let’s first talk about The Giant Gila Monster and the creature’s way of killing those pesky humans that get in its way. The Giant Gila Monster is around 70 feet long and weighs multiple tons, and his size alone strikes fear into the hearts of humans who happen to be in his path of destruction. The Gila Monster can also use his massive size to crush humans into paste under his size or to bulldoze and get into buildings and places that his human prey might try and hide. He also has sharp claws that he can use to rip into places and things and has massive jaws with teeth that pack a deadly poison to normal size humans. The Giant Gila Monster also eats humans and can eat up to one third of his body weight, and that is a lot of humans and animals to stop his hunger! And because his size small weapons like guns cannot hurt Giant Gila Monster as his skin is kind of tough due to his scales. But while he is massive in size and is super dangerous, The Giant Gila Monster does have his weaknesses with his biggest being that he cannot survive massive explosions as they will kill him, and this weakness would make him hurt or killed by tank fire and other big weapons and bombs for sure. But without having those major weapons on hand The Giant Gila is one dangerous Kaiju that can deal death with the best of them.

So as you can see, The Giant Gila Monster is a massive killing machine who not only crushes his victims but also eats them! But now it’s time for us to take a look at the movie he is from and like always I will be taking the film’s write up from our friends at IMDB and after that I will be writing about the film’s production as well as my thoughts on it. So let’s head to Texas and make sure to look out for a Gila Monster, that might be looking for a late night snack.

The Giant Gila Monster (1959)

“A couple of teenagers are reported missing in a small Texas town, and it is thought they eloped. Sheriff Jeff turns to his friend Clarence Winstead, a garage mechanic and leader of a hot-rod gang, for help. After a series of tragic motor accidents, it becomes apparent that a giant Gila monster is roaming the area depleting the town of its citizens and visitors, including two hot-rodding teens, and planning to attend the BIG record-hop party.”

The Drive-In Theater marker was huge in the 1950’s and Sci-Fi and Horror Films was all the rage with the teenage crowd who would flock to see them on weekend nights. Gordon McLendon was the film’s co-producer and a man who had a vision of making extra money on making his own films for the many southern Movie Theaters and Drive-In Theaters he owned. You see, he was a jack of all trades: radio, oil and even wrote books and was all about entertainment and making money. And with this idea of making movies, he produced two back to back to show as a double feature one being “The Killer Shrews” and the other being “The Giant Gila Monster” and he would also bring on B.R. McLendon and Ken Curits to help produce Gila Monster, and Jay Simms wrote the script with Ray Kellogg directing as well as doing the special effects. A real Mexican beaded lizard was used at the Gila Monster and they would used scaled down landscapes to show his massive size. Ken Knox a real life Dallas, Texas DJ for KLF was brought in to play Steamroller Smith, a DJ, and Don Sullivan was hired as the lead Chase Winstead. Other actors brought on board include Shug Fisher, Fred Graham, Gay McLendon and the stunning Lisa Simone who was a Miss Universe contestant in 1957. The film had a budget of around $138,000.000 and was filmed around the Dallas, Texas area, as they wanted a fast turn around between filming and getting it onto the silver screen. Once the film was done, Jack Marshall, who is best known for his work on the TV Show The Munsters and the film Munster Go Home!, was brought on to score. The film would get released not only in America but would go on to have a run in foreign markets and was a semi hit and turned a profit. The film was met with a mostly positive remarks from fans and critics and would over the decades would gain a cult following that would even get a remake film in 2012 called “Gila!” from director Jim Wynorski and would also be hosted by Mystery Science Theater 3000 in season 4 along with many other Horror Host over the years. In 1959 The Giant Gila Monster was released along such other Horror Films that year like “Night Of The Ghouls”, “The Tingler”, “The Giant Leeches”, “Return Of The Fly”, “House On Haunted Hill”, “Plan 9 From Outer Space” and “The Giant Behemoth” to name a few. While the film has fallen into the public domain, it still remains a favorite for many classic monster movie fans.

The Giant Gila Monster is a film I can remember seeing many, many time over the years from watching it on VHS to DVD but mostly seeing it hosted by Horror Hosts like A. Ghastlee Ghoul, Halloween Jack and of course MST3K, and it has always been one of my favorite cheesy films from the late 50’s as the effects are great for the time. The musical numbers are out of place and yet so fitting for that time in cinema. Lisa Simone was so beautiful and she should have gotten way more work in Horror and Sci-Fi films. I mean Lisa did star in the film “Missile To The Moon” from 1958 as Moon Girl, and this was released a year before Gila Monster. The special effects were well done for the time and the use of a Mexican beaded lizard as the Gila Monster was a fun touch as it clearly was more easy to work with and made some of the slow movements look good on camera. The film is also filled with deaths as well as really has the small town feel as all the citizens seem to know each other and both young and old meet up and have sodas at the shop. Now that I am thinking about it creator and director Ray Kellogg should have made a film that pitted The Giant Gila Monster against the Killer Shrews…or even maybe radiation cases a Killer Shrew to grow giant and they two could have fought, now that would have been a great film to see on the big screen! Say what you will about this film, but you know that if you have seen it you were entertained and some of the songs are stuck in your head even to this day…My Baby She Rocks…She Rocks And Rolls.

Giant Gila Monster really is one of those classic Drive-In cheaply made B-Movies that I think is over looked when it comes to the early days of Giant Monster or Kaiju Cinema. While the acting might be very cheesy, in my opinion one, it’s of the best late 50’s Horror Films that must have been a great experience in the Drive-In Theaters. I want to of course thank Blood Scream Comics for making this comic and making this update possible, and I want to remind you that I will NOT be grading these comics on s star scale as like I said I was involved in this comic being made. So sit back, relax and while we wait for Thanksgiving Dinner, let’s see how Chase and the teens can survive this giant monster attack.

The Giant Gila Monster # 1
Released in 2020     Cover Price $3.99  Blood Scream     # 1 of 2

Pat and Liz are a couple in love and are on a date. They decide to pull over near some woods in order to make out when they hear a noise and soon see a Giant Gila Monster who attacks and eat them. The next day at the Soda Shop Chase and his girlfriend Lisa show up and ask about the missing couple and none of their friends have any news and are puzzled by their disappearance. As Chase and his friends continue to chat Old Man Harris enters the shop and turns down some of the kids who want to buy his old care, and Chase tells the shop workers that if they see Pat and Liz to tell them the gang is going to the Drive-In. Sheriff Jeff heads to the home of Mr. Wheeler who is the rich father of Pat and he wants answers on finding his son, and Liz’s parents have faith in their daughter and think she will return home soon. Meanwhile Chase is at work being a mechanic and gets a shock when his boss comes to work with jars of Nitro in his trunk that Mr. Wheeler is having stored outback in a shed. Later that night the Sheriff finds a wrecked car and Chase is called to come tow it away, while a poor hitchhiker down the road gets killed by the Giant Gila Monster who eats him. Later Chase and The Sheriff find the suitcase of the hitchhiker and are puzzled to why someone would leave it at the side of the road. Chase does get bad news as his lovely lady Lisa alerts him that Mr. Wheeler who is her sponsor to be in our country for school wants her to stop seeing him as he blames him somehow for his sons disappearance. The next day Chase is called out again and helps repair a wrecked car as well as gives it’s driver Radio DJ Steamroller Smith a place to sleep off being drunk, and also hears Chase singing as he did the repairs and likes what he heard. Steamroller tips the youngster for his help and also gives him a business card. That’s night Chase and his friends find Pat’s car and bring it back to the garage as the owner of the garage is on the road to deliver an oil shipment and is killed by The Giant Gila Monster. Chase gets home to find that Lisa has bought the leg braces his sister Missy needed to walk and he is so touched that he sings her a song.

The Giant Gila Monster was made for comic books as the characters themselves come off as characters you would have found in comics at the time. This first issue’s plot has people going missing from a small town that are not connected and the only law in the town is one Sheriff who gets the help of the towns youth to try and crack this case. Our main character is Chase, a youngster who drives a Hot Rod who works hard for his money at a repair garage and gets money to help his younger sister who has a disability that makes it hard for her to walk. But Chase also has a great life as besides loving his family he has a beautiful foreign exchange student girlfriend as well as a singing voice that was popular in the pop music of the time. Not to mention that his kindness towards others always seems to work in his favor as he is well liked by the town and the law. Lisa is Chase’s girlfriend and she as well is a very kind person who saves up all her money to buy the braces her boyfriend’s kid sister needed, and even goes against the wishes of the sponsor that allows her in this country showing that she truly loves Chase. And out last hero of the comic series this far is Sheriff Jeff who has lots on his plate when it comes to these missing people and the town’s most wealthy man Mr. Wheeler breathing down his throat for answers as his son in one of the missing! The Giant Gila Monster is dangerous as its massive size and equally big hunger make any man, woman, child and beast in it’s way food on the menu and it has no issues chomping down on flesh to fill it’s belly. And man does Giant Gila Monster eat as it snaps people in half. The comic adds way more blood, gore and violence that the film was lacking as we get to see the Monster chomping down on the humans. The cover for this issue is very eye catching as the yellow helps bring out the Gila Monster. The interior artwork is done by Don Stephenson and captures the cartoonish horrors of the film really well, and his detail on The Gila Monster is top notch. Over all this first issue does a great job of staying true to the film and yet added a more bloodstained modern touch. Let’s see what issue two has in store for Chase.

The Giant Gila Monster # 2
Released in 2020     Cover Price $3.99    Blood Scream     # 2 of 2

As Chase is at home with his family and girlfriend, he gets a call from the Sheriff to meet him at the garage and gets the news that his boss’s might have passed away as the truck he was driving the gas delivery has blown up. Meanwhile The Giant Gila Monster is on the prowl for more humans and even causes a train wreck and starts eating the survivors as they try and flee. Old Man Harris sees the attack and reports it to the Sheriff and even more calls start coming in and he thinks that these people have to be drunk or their town really is under attack by a giant lizard. Chase after dropping his mom and sister off at a friends house heads to a barn dance party that is being hosted by Radio DJ Steamroller Smith with his lady Lisa and he even gets a chance to sing in front of all his friends as he is brought up on stage to perform. Meanwhile Mr. Wheeler is super mad and goes to The Sheriff and demands that he arrest Chase as he blames him for his son’s disappearance and also threatens to remove the officer from his job! As Mr. Wheeler and The Sheriff show up to the barn dance party the Gila Monster as well appears and goes on the attack busting through the wall and starts his rampage of terror, Chase and Lisa jump into his hot rod and head to the garage and gets the nitro and Chase wrecks his car into the beast and blows it up killing it! In the ends Chase meets back up with Lisa, his baby sister Missy, Mr. Wheeler and The Sheriff and they are all so happy to have this terror come to an end. We then flash to the future (2020) and The Undertaker from the now closed down Shady Rest Funeral Home is looking over giant Gila Monster eggs, and this leaves the question when these three eggs hatch, what horror awaits the world.

This second Issue has The Giant Gila Monster meeting his end at the hands of a hot rod car packed with nitro and the explosion from the two colliding blows the massive creature into chunks of meat and bone! But before this Giant Monster dies it does cause death and destruction and just imagine if it was able to make its way to a bigger city like New York or Los Angeles, now that would have been Godzilla level Kaiju destruction! Chase is our hero as not only is he a good singer and mechanic, but he is also very smart and uses his wits in order to stop the giant monsters rampage. As he knew the dangers of the nitro and even places himself in danger in order to bring and end to the terror and save the lives of all his fellow towns people. Lisa, The Sheriff as well as Mr. Wheeler and Old Man Harris as well do their parts of trying to save lives as well as piece together the truth of the giant creature and if it was real or just town gossip among the heavy drinkers. The feeling of a small town is still very much present in this issue, and I also feel Don did a great job of following the film as a blueprint but also adding his own touches to it to make if feel familiar but also new. The issue has some blood and gore with the death of the Gila Monster being the most gruesome, and is one of my favorite panels in the comic. The cover for this issue is pretty cool and the light blue background once more made it standout on the comic shelf when released. The art by Don is also very cool and has a cartoonish nature to it and that is why the more detailed monster and bloody moments standout. And I can’t not talk about the fact that The Undertaker from the 1966 film Undertaker And His Pals makes a cameo appearance in this comic and shows that for decades he has been watching over giant eggs of The Giant Gila Monster and we all know that he his crazy so no one knows what will happen once they hatch…well some know with one being Don Stephenson who will be working on this story arc soon! Say what you will, but the film The Giant Gila Monster but I have to once more say that it makes for a great comic book series. Check out the artwork below to see the style of Don used in this comic series.

It was such a blast working alongside Don Stephenson to bring The Giant Gila Monster to the world of comic books and for those wondering for Blood Scream Comics The Giant Gila Monster ties into a few other comic releases including “The Giant Skunk ”, “The Undertaker And His Pals” and “Raiga God Of The Monsters” and who knows if The Giant Gila Monster will rise from the grave it’s self for another comic rampage via Blood Scream Comics! Well I am sure that the Turkey, Ham, Stuffing, Mashed Potatoes and all the other sides have hit the table and you readers and your loved ones are gearing up for a feast and good conversation. So thanks for spending some of your Holiday with me here at Rotten Ink, and I hope this update added to your Turkey Day. Before we part I want to tell you our next update will take us away from giant monsters and will once more take us back to the world of Pro Wrestling as we step into the squared circle with one of the sports most legendary big men Haystacks Calhoun! So until next time, read an Indie Horror Comic or three, watch a B-Horror Movie or two and as always support your local Horror Hosts. Oh and I enjoyed talking about this Blood Scream Comic release and who knows in the future I might cover a few more of them here at Rotten Ink, and make sure to have one more scoop of mashed potatoes and gravy for me.