Introductions and Inspirations

Hello, and welcome to Robot Devil Dinosaur! Here you will find independent and deeply focused analysis of video games, film, and general pop culture. It is my goal to make this an entertaining and insightful blog regarding these topics, and I hope that readers will find some value in the perspective of a soon-to-be college graduate making his way out into the world and exercising his media analysis skills.

First, a little bit of backstory regarding the name of this blog. I’m a huge Godzilla fan. I grew up with the old movies, I’m one of the few who actually liked Roland Emmerich’s 1998 interpretation of the big guy, and I’m a huge kaiju fan in general. So what better way to pass the time than to browse a Godzilla wiki site like Wikizilla? While perusing the site, looking for unusual and obscure monsters, I stumbled across the ridiculous “Robotic Devil Dinosaur,” pictured below. The monster’s description reads as follows:

Robotic Devil Dinosaur, in all his glory.

“Created by special effects guru Trimble, this animatronic device was the lead prop on the Devil Dinosaur movie. Unfortunately, Ben Grimm, the Thing, mistook the device for an actual dinosaur upon first sight, and attacked the beast in an effort to protect Sharon Ventur and her friends. With a single blow, Ben managed to decimate the jaw of the robot, leaving its creator furious over the damage. Eventually, the machine was repaired and set back into action on the set, while the Thing decided to stay put in his trailer to avoid further hold ups to production. Unfortunately, just as filming started, the mutated Godzilla emerged from the sea to bare witness to this dinosaur-like creature that he had once met before. However, Trimble, controlling his creation, ordered the robot to bite Godzilla in the leg. This caused for retaliation on the part of the King of the Monsters, who quickly ripped apart the smaller machine with his powerful jaws. With the prop dismantled, Godzilla returned to the sea, never to be seen again.”

So, the only known appearance of this guy is in a brief Marvel Comics crossover featuring Godzilla in The Thing #31. He is the mechanized version of character created by none other than Jack Kirby, named Devil Dinosaur, who starred in his own comic book series (along with his sidekick, Moon-Boy) which enjoyed a short nine-issue run in 1978.

Devil Dinosaur #1

He has since made appearances in many other Marvel properties, including The Amazing Spider-Man.

I was struck by the existence of such an outlandish character. Not just the original Devil Dinosaur, but the existence of a robot version which was so quickly dispatched after his hilariously brief comic book appearance. It is so quintessentially comics, so pure and unapologetic in its pop-culture irreverence, that I found it incredibly inspiring. Thus, here we have a newly dedicated pop-culture blog, galvanized by the existence of a lowly one-off comic book joke.

I hope to do him some justice.