G-Fan: Best Rubber Suit Monster Magazine Ever!

In days of old, or BC (before computers), fans of rubber suit monsters like Godzilla, relied mostly on user-generated, low-tech, hard-copy publications to find each other in classified ads, critique the films and other monster media, and invent new stories.  The premier publication for Godzilla and other Japanese cinema kaiju monster lovers was G-Fan Magazine.

Still holding its own, even now that most of this monster-related fan communication has shifted to Internet chat sites and blogs, G-Fan was the creation of Canadian high school teacher and uber 'zilla fan-boy, J. D. Lees in 1992.  Originally a two-page mimeographed newsletter mailed to a few like-minded Godzilla enthusiasts, G-Fan quickly became a full-fledged magazine with beautifully appointed full-color art work.

Besides producing a high quality fanzine about giant sci-fi monsters (the "G" in the mag's title stands for "Giant" after Godzilla movie studio Toho International asked G-Fan to stop using copyrighted materials), Lees also facilitates some other important rubber suit monster fan culture that can't happen on the world wide web.  If you check the G-Fan Magazine web landing page, you will discover that Lees and his helpers are also the sponsors of periodic face-to-face extravaganzas like the "G-Fest" fan conventions, and the "G-Tour" trips to Godzilla movie studios and filming locations in Japan.

Rubber suit monster scholars like David Kalat (we are endlessly tickled by the fact that there are academics devoted to Godzilla), claims in his book, A Critical History and Filmography of Toho's Godzilla Series, that G-Fan Magazine is one of the most important primary research sources for criticism related to Godzilla.  In particular, Kalat thinks that G-Fan's published surveys of its readerships' likes, dislikes, and habits form the most complete picture of who rubber suit monster fans are.  For example, a survey of G-Fan questionnaire findings tells us that Godzilla and other Kaiju monster fans are predominantly male, in their teens or early twenties, and single.  Maybe Lees needs to do a "G-Harmony" Godzilla fan dating service next?  We also know from the G-Fan reader surveys that the best Godzilla movies were the first one (Godzilla 1954), the last (Godzilla: Final Wars 2004), and the worst was the American CGI version starring Matthew Broderick (Godzilla 1998) -- although most G-Fan's paid for a ticket to see it in the theaters anyway.

(Props to David Kalat, J.D. Lees' website, and Wiki)