You don’t make something from nothing, at least that’s how the saying goes. Enormous is no exception.
What follows is a list of the most notable influences from film, television, literature and comics that offer some insight into the creative inspiration for our story. Some of the titles, I’m sure most of you will be very familiar with, while others, I hope you’ll take a moment and explore further, particularly if you appreciate giant monster tales, horror, and science fiction.
Here’s hoping Enormous does them all some small amount of justice.
The Classics
1. King Kong & Godzilla: The obvious starting point for Enormous – the 1933 & 1954 versions of each film, made an indelible mark on my imagination as a child. It also helped that they seemed to be on television every Saturday afternoon. There is a definite nod to both of these touchstone films in the pages of Enormous.
2. Ultraman: The 1967 television show was on every afternoon following the original animated Spider-Man series. Every episode featured, Ultraman, and his Space Patrol cohorts saving Japan from a new Kaiju menace. A more recent viewing of the series revealed some surprising pathos embedded in the show that escaped me as child. Pure giant monster heaven.
3. Creature Features w/ Bob Wilkins: Debuted on Channel 2 (KTVU) in the San Francisco Bay Area in 1971. As a young boy, I would have put toothpicks to keep my eyelids open if I could have gotten away with it, just to watch the monster movies Wilkins lovingly hosted every Saturday night. The films were terribly obscure and more often just plain terrible. A lasting impression was made on me by Attack of the Mushroom People (Matango, Fungus of Terror), a 1963 Japanese film that figures rather prominently into Enormous.
4. Ray Harryhausen: Too many films to list here, but classics like the Beast from 20,00 Fathoms (1951) and later the Sinbad films (1958-1977) definitely stuck with me through the years. The stop-motion animation master has enjoyed a nearly 70 year career, and his creature work like that of the Cyclops, Medusa, and The Beast are truly iconic.
Contemporary Movies
1. The Host (2006): Written and directed by Korean filmmaker Joon-ho Bong. Tracks a trio of siblings and their father, as they try to rescue a fellow family member snatched by a giant mutant creature prowling Seoul’s Han River. Beautifully shot, with strong political overtones, This film single-handedly reignited my interest in monster movies until I discovered…
2. The Mist (2007): Frank Darabont wrote and directed this adaptation of Stephen King’s novella. I’ve watched it countless times, even switching my television’s settings to black & white for a pretty awesome throwback viewing experience ( I suggest doing the same for any Indiana Jones film). There are several scenes in The Mist involving mysterious tentacles and an incredible stilt-legged behemoth that played into our tale by informing a couple of our creature designs.
3. Cloverfield (2008): Directed by Matt Reeves, written by Drew Goddard, with JJ Abrams all over it. If anything, we’ve tried to emulate the pace of this film – pure adrenaline thrills with just enough characterization to make us care.
4. Avatar (2009): Did I just catch some of you rolling your eyes? The film is entertaining as hell. With Enormous, we wanted to create a world in which everything is a threat to the surviving humans. Avatar builds a world of beauty and splendor, where everything works in harmony, except the invading corporate-employed humans. Enormous takes that conceit from Avatar and turns it around. In our world, the pretty things will seduce you and then eat you alive. There is no harmony when you’re at the bottom of the food chain.
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5. Monsters (2010): Writer/Director Gareth Edwards small budget film follows a photographer and a woman he must escort to safety. Monsters is really a relationship film masked as a travelogue and like Spielberg’s Jaws, we don’t often get to see the monstrous creatures, but the threat of attack is ever present. Several elements from the film stand out and have woven their way into Enormous; the ever present signage warning of the beasts, a downed fighter jet in a river, and a night-time attack by the creatures.
6. Trollhunter (2010): Very similar in budget and scope to Monsters. The story tracks a team of documentarians as they embed themselves with a legendary troll hunter and attempt to capture his adventures on film. A character study of a man as mythic as the creatures he pursues, tucked inside a travelogue. The final scenes involve a jeep and creature so breathtakingly stunning in scale, it virtually obscures everything we’ve watched up to that point.
Comics & Literature
1. Invasion of the Body Snatchers, Jack Finney – 1955. All you have to do is read the first page of the solicit preview for Enormous to know that the influence of this masterful novel is right there, front and center. Finney examines more than the nature of humanity, he examines the nature of all life and how we as humans fit into that structure…or not.
2. The Passage, Justin Cronin – 2010. Expansive, sprawling and at the same time intimate. Contemporary vampires have failed to capture my interest, but Cronin succeeds by making his creatures far more feral than anything we’ve read or viewed in…maybe forever.
3. The Walking Dead, Robert Kirkman-Charlie Adlard, 2003-Present. Survivalist genre fiction at it’s best! No better source in comics, particularly in the horror genre, for quality ensemble storytelling. Since our tale involves multiple human and non-human factions vying for dominance and/or survival, Kirkman-Adlard’s, Walking Dead, served as a strong source of inspiration for Enormous.
4. Y The Last Man, Brian K. Vaughan-Pia Guerra. The ten volumes of Vaughan’s masterpiece have never left my side, remaining on my desk beside my monitor for the duration of writing Enormous. From panel layouts, page composition, dialogue, and characterization to the book’s bittersweet, wistful conclusion, “Y” has simply become my personal technical manual.
Honorable Mentions: The Terror, On The Beach, Alas Babylon, World War Z, Attack The Block, THEM!, The Blob, Universal Monsters, Hammer Films.
Currently Reading: MM9, Hiroshi Yamamoto – Japan is beset by natural disasters all the time: typhoons, earthquakes, and…giant monster attacks. A special anti-monster unit called the Meteorological Agency Monsterological Measures Department (MMD) has been formed to deal with natural disasters of high “monster magnitude.” The work is challenging, the public is hostile, and the monsters are hungry, but the MMD crew has science, teamwork…and a legendary secret weapon on their side. Together, they can save Japan, and the universe!
The best tips for reading and viewing have always come from friends and fellow readers. If you have a personal favorite film, novel, television show or comic, you’d like to add to this list (hopefully one I’m unfamiliar with and can go explore), please add a comment below or visit us on the web at: http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Enormous/172618619459718
