King Kong Anyone??

[Collect 'em all!]

I honestly do not recall that much. I know the artwork was cool to look at. I believe one of the drawings had him smashing through the bamboo fence on the island (but I do recall it being a collage of pictures. I think perhaps some of these black and white pics were also used for the 1970s kong jigsaw puzzles). I wish I could remember more. There might be a chance that I have a partial photo of one in the background during a family pic. I will have to check

Your memory of it is about the same as mine--
"that the artwork was cool to look at", LOL.

I definately remember it being a collage on one of the posters too, and like you suggest, maybe very similar in layout to the 1976 King Kong GIANT PUZZLE, which was a collage of all six John Berkey paintings.

I'm guessing that most likely the second poster was line art of either the Movie poster with Kong striding the WTC, or, Kong smashing through the Skull Island Wall.

If can you find that family photo with it, that would be amazing to see!
I'll keep my fingers crossed! Thanks for your help

[Collect 'em all!]

My King Kong 76 Holy Grail--AT LAST!!!

For my 41st birthday, My wonderful wife Pamela presented me with the King Kong 1976 collectible
that has been eluding me for over 30 years!

The Craft House King Kong Felt Poster Pen Poster set!!!

In the spring of 1977 (a month or two after I saw King Kong and just before Star Wars hit), I was 10 yrs old and my Mom took my younger brother and I to a Pie Eating Contest (seriously) at the Livonia Mall, MI. They were holding the Pie eating contest in the courtyard outside the mall shoppes. While we were waiting for it to begin, my brother and I were window shopping, looking for what we would buy if we won the contest, LOL.

Well, that's when I first saw this King Kong felt pen Poster set. Try as I might, I didn't win the pie eating contest--and I couldn't convince my Mom to buy this King Kong set for me! Instead, she offered to buy me a plain white poster board and said she thought I could draw my own King Kong poster--which I did.(see photo below)

Ever since that day, I have always wanted it. I have been looking for this on eBay since 1998, and have never seen it there. After all this time, I honestly didn't think I was ever going to see one again...


Then, my wife secretly posted on the Kong is King website saying she wanted to find one for me for a birthday present, and by chance, someone who read the thread posted a reply the very next day saying that they had one! Unbelievable!
After my wife related my 30 year quest to them, they decided that it must have been fate, and the reason they kept it all these years was that it was waiting for me.

The best birthday gift I ever got! What a wife! Thank you, honey, I love you!

[Monsterama2000]

Wow Kirk! That's awesome. Congratulations on finally getting your "holy grail".

That wife of yours is a keeper .

[cjefferys]

Wow, that is so awesome that your wife did that for you. She's a keeper, that's for sure.

I'm glad you finally got the poster set, Kirk. You must be thrilled.

That poster you drew as a kid looks like a really nice job. Do you still have it? That makes me think about a project I did in high school art class. We had to do a painting, and I copied a Kong painting that Frank Frazetta did. The teacher knew that I just copied an existing painting, but I did a good job so he gave me an "A" anyway.

[UnderdogDJLSW]

Awesome thread, guys! I too love that detail in the Galactica poster. Cool King Kong poster that you drew back in '77, too and very cool gift from your wife. Also, I never knew that there were six promotional paintings for the Kong movie. The only ones I recall seeing were the smashing through the Island Wall and the Trade Center one. What are the others of? I just tried to look online and couldn't find a reference.

[cjefferys]

Also, I never knew that there were six promotional paintings for the Kong movie. The only ones I recall seeing were the smashing through the Island Wall and the Trade Center one. What are the others of? I just tried to look online and couldn't find a reference.

I used to have the giant puzzle that showed all the paintings. I tried finding a pic of it on line but came up empty. But I did find this website that shows a few of the other paintings as lobby cards. Scroll down and you will find them (they are not all together): http://henningsebastian.blogspot.com...ite-movie.html Actually they are all really cool paintings. I may have to try and find some of those lobby cards.

[UnderdogDJLSW]

That one of Kong vs the giant serpent is cool! The subway train one would be good if it didn't look like the painter just copied the head from the other ones. Kong isn't even looking at the havoc he's making, almost like he's bored. lol

[Collect 'em all!]

Wow Kirk! That's awesome. Congratulations on finally getting your "holy grail".

That wife of yours is a keeper .

Thanks! I still can't believe she found it, this thing is extremely rare!

[Collect 'em all!]

Wow, that is so awesome that your wife did that for you. She's a keeper, that's for sure.

I'm glad you finally got the poster set, Kirk. You must be thrilled.

That poster you drew as a kid looks like a really nice job. Do you still have it? That makes me think about a project I did in high school art class. We had to do a painting, and I copied a Kong painting that Frank Frazetta did. The teacher knew that I just copied an existing painting, but I did a good job so he gave me an "A" anyway.

Thanks Chris!

So which Frazetta poster did you paint? The Kong chasing girl through the jungle Warren cover or the Kong vs. Giant Snake book cover?

That's a funny story! Did you really think your art teacher wouldn't notice or did you just think he never heard of Frank Frazetta?

[Collect 'em all!]

That one of Kong vs the giant serpent is cool! The subway train one would be good if it didn't look like the painter just copied the head from the other ones. Kong isn't even looking at the havoc he's making, almost like he's bored. lol

The other 5 paintings were a ordered as a rush job, and John Berkey originally did paint them all with unique Kong faces, but for some reason the studio decided to paste the original WTC poster head in on each of them.

I'm not sure if it was because they didn't think that some of the Kong heads didn't look as good or what, but, the pasted up results did, in my opinion, create a nice sort of continuity between all of the posters and gave them a much greater "iconic" look when the were used as promotional and merchandising art.

The 6th poster was the rarest, but is a cool birds eye perspective shot of Kong climbing up the wtc towers. This painting was used on one of the King Kong 7 Eleven Slurpee cups.


Here's a link to a Kong is King article that shows all of the original paintings, with the original faces.

http://www.kongisking.net/kongfiles/12706.html

And here's a link to an article I co-authored about the Kirby Kong Konection that you may be entertained by...

http://www.pulpanddagger.com/canuck/Kong_kirby.html

[Collect 'em all!]

Awesome thread, guys! I too love that detail in the Galactica poster. Cool King Kong poster that you drew back in '77, too and very cool gift from your wife. Also, I never knew that there were six promotional paintings for the Kong movie. The only ones I recall seeing were the smashing through the Island Wall and the Trade Center one. What are the others of? I just tried to look online and couldn't find a reference.

Here's a so so close-up scan of the package insert of what "suggested colors" to use when coloring these two posters.

The front poster (on the right) shows 5 of the 6 Berkey paintings: from upper left, Kong vs. Train--Kong holding plane on WTC--Kong climbing WTC--Kong crashing the jungle wall (lower left) and Kong vs. Giant Snake (lower right).

The back poster, in the upper left corner, shows a loose interpretaion of the 6th Berkey painting, Kong attacking an ocean liner, and an iconic bust and logo shot center, and the lower left and right extremely stylized Kong in jungle and Kong fighting Snake illustrations seem to me to be inspired by the original 1933 King Kong.

Thanks for the complement on my hand drawn Kong poster from 77. I really think that it was the 1st drawing I did where all of the adults in my life looked at it and said I was going to grow up to be an artist (which I did). LOL, to think that my love of King Kong is greatly responsible for inspiring me to draw.

Yeah, the Battlestar Galactica pen poster set is ultra detailed. So is the Star Wars one. They both have a lot of fine line art and pointillism going on that make them look amazing! Funny, because it seems like the uncredited artist who drew those two did this really outstanding work on them--despite knowing that kids were going to be scribbling all over them with markers!

It turns out that the Star Wars and Battlestar Galactica sets were made by Craft Master, and the King Kong set was made by Craft House, Corp. So that explains why the Kong art isn't nearly as finely detailed, and looks more like one of their paint by number kits. Enjoy!

[cjefferys]

Thanks Chris!

So which Frazetta poster did you paint? The Kong chasing girl through the jungle Warren cover or the Kong vs. Giant Snake book cover?

That's a funny story! Did you really think your art teacher wouldn't notice or did you just think he never heard of Frank Frazetta?

I painted the one with the girl. It was the back cover of one of the Frazetta collected books I have.

I think it was more of a situation where my art teacher didn't give a crap. He was just happy if his students painted something (it was a end of the school year final project). Actually I was fairly happy with how it turned out, I did a lot of drawing in high school, but didn't have much experience with painting. I still have it stashed away somewhere.

[UnderdogDJLSW]

Kirk,
Thanks for the links. It's great to discover something new off of something that is 31 years old!

Steve

[Collect 'em all!]

You bet! There is nothing like a fresh blast of nostalgia, is there?

[hyperjoe]

curious, what does a color pad such as that go for now a days?