16 King Kong innovative (sometimes surprising) books and comics
“It wasn’t the airplanes—it was beauty killed the beast.”
One of the best-known figures in movie history, mighty ape King Kong has been the subject of several films—and beyond. Following his 1933 screen debut, he’s also been the inspiration for novels, comic books, stage productions, TV shows, and more.
Over the decades, there have been numerous books, novels, and comic books based on King Kong by various publishers. Below, you’ll find several novels, comic book editions, and nonfiction books that are currently still in print.
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King Kong novels, comic books, and nonfiction books
King Kong novels
King Kong (Modern Library Classics) by Edgar Wallace, Merian C. Cooper, and Delos W. Lovelace
The giant primeval gorilla King Kong is one of the most recognized images in our culture—so great is the mighty Kong’s hold on the popular imagination that his story has inspired an entire cinematic universe. Beneath King Kong’s cultural significance, however, is a tense and surprisingly tender story.
On a mysterious and dangerous island, a film producer captures a giant ape and brings him back to New York in the hopes of capitalizing on his prize.
Merian C. Cooper’s King Kong by Joe Devito and Brad Strickland
Since its release in 1933, Merian C. Cooper’s film King Kong has shocked and delighted generations of movie fans, setting the standard against which all such movies have been judged ever since. In December, 2005, Peter Jackson— whose films of the Lord of the Rings won critical acclaim and set box office records around the world—released his version of this classic film, bringing King Kong back to the forefront of the popular imagination. Fully authorized by the estate of Merian C. Cooper, Joe DeVito’s and Brad Strickland’s novel is a full rewrite of the original 1932 novel, bringing Cooper’s original vision of King Kong back to readers and fans alike. Set in the early 1930’s, it is a classic story of exploration and adventure, at the center of which is the “eighth wonder of the world” himself—Kong.
Kong: Skull Island—novelization by Tim Lebbon
In this novelization, based on the film, a scientific expedition to an uncharted island awakens titanic forces of nature. Suddenly, a mission of discovery becomes an explosive war between monster and man. A thrilling and original adventure that reveals the untold story of how Kong became King.
Buy the Kong: Skull Island novelization from Amazon
“I think I first wrote a Hellboy novel, then did a novelization, then the tie-in editors, and publishers noticed me,” Lebbon told horror fiction site Ravenous Monster. “That led on to Star Wars, Alien, Predator, and a novelization for Kong: Skull Island. I really enjoy working in other people’s universes. I’ve never worked on something that didn’t really excite me.”
Doc Savage: Skull Island by Will Murray
This crossover brings in 1930s pulp hero Doc Savage—a doctor, scientist, adventurer, detective, and polymath who “rights wrongs and punishes evildoers.”
Doc Savage returns from his Fortress of Solitude to discovers the cold corpse of King Kong lying on the cracked sidewalk of his skyscraper headquarters. He tells his stunned men, “I know this creature.” Tasked to dispose of the remains, the Man of Bronze relates the previously untold story of how Doc and his father once embarked on a quest for Doc’s missing grandfather, the legendary mariner Stormalong Savage, and discovered Skull Island, a savage wonderland ruled by the monarch or all monsters—King Kong!
Buy Doc Savage: Skull Island from Amazon
The author was profiled by SF site Pulpfest, which said that Murray has written extensively about Lester Dent’s classic pulp hero Doc Savage, both officially licensed novels and articles about the hero. “Joe DeVito suggested a King Kong crossover,” Murray told the site. “Of course, the characters were already connected. They had debuted within weeks of each other, and Kong toppled from Doc Savage’s skyscraper headquarters.”
King Kong Vs. Tarzan by Will Murray
First appearing in 1912, Edgar Rice Burroughs’ character Tarzan was a child raised in the African jungle by apes. When he later experiences civilization, he rejects it and returns to the wild to be the king of the jungle.
The year was 1933. Filmmaker Carl Denham had captured the stupendous monster he had dubbed "King" Kong. But that was only the beginning. Denham was determined to get the dethroned ruler of Skull Mountain Island back to America, and cash in on the greatest wild animal capture in human history. The saga of how Kong was taken in chains from his Indian Ocean kingdom to New York City has never been told. In order for the cargo freighter Wanderer to make the long transit to the Atlantic, she is forced to circumnavigate Africa—jungle home of the legendary Tarzan of the Apes! Here is the long-anticipated clash between the Monarch of Skull Island and Lord of the Jungle. When the largest anthropoid who ever lived encounters the savage superman raised by the great apes, will they make peace—or war?
Buy King Kong Vs. Tarzan from Amazon
“King Kong vs. Tarzan tells the previously untold saga of how the beast-god of Skull Island is conveyed from his home to his tragic fate,” author Murray told Geeks a Gogo. “It’s about the struggle to keep him alive during the time he’s kept chained in the holder of a cargo steamer which has the misfortune to encounter trouble off the African coast. Kong escapes, then makes his way to land. That sets the stage for us fateful encounter with Tarzan of the Apes.”
Murray said he had considered writing a ‘Tarzan on Skull Island’ novel, but it just didn’t feel right to him. “There’ve been plenty of Tarzan and King Kong stories where they battled dinosaurs to the death. I wanted to do something different. Here, King Kong becomes a stranger in a strange land, a wounded and hunted tragic figure. As he struggles for survival on the Dark Continent, he becomes a menace that Tarzan has to vanquish somehow. So his role is very different from what we are used to.”
Of course, he pointed out, there’s also the problem that the crew of the cargo freighter have. “They need to recapture Kong and get him back to New York City,” Murray said. “Although we know how that story turned out, it is the conflicts between Tarzan, the crew, and Kong himself that provide for a dramatic and exciting story.”
King Kong of Skull Island: Exodus by Joe DeVito
King Kong of Skull Island—Part 1: Exodus, reveals the hidden history of the spectacular Tagatu civilization, the origins of the mighty Kongs and the strange, ancient interactions that enabled their survival in the midst of global catastrophe. Facing impossible obstacles, the remarkable exodus of an entire civilization unfolds against a cataclysmic backdrop, leading to an unlikely destination: Skull Island.
The survivors confront the indigenous, pseudo-sentient population of terrifying saurians called “Deathrunners,” led by a god-like carnosaur of titanic size and ferocity, a beast the Tagatu call “Gaw.” Unless a Wall can be built quickly enough to cope with these and other physical, psychological, and philosophical challenges, the unimaginable dangers of Skull Island threaten to wipe the Kongs and the Tagatu from the face of the earth...
Buy King Kong of Skull Island: Exodus from Amazon
“It’s probably safe to say that most kids are fascinated by dinosaurs,” DeVito told fansite King Kong of Skull Island. “By the age of three, I was already drawing dinosaurs continually—I actually knew how to spell Tyrannosaurus rex before I knew how to spell my own name! You can you imagine how it affected me first time my older brother, Vito, sat me down to watch King Kong on TV when I was about four. All of a sudden these creatures were stomping around, roaring and fighting this huge, utterly fantastic creature called King Kong. So, the technical short answer to your question is that the recent origins of King Kong of Skull Island go back to 1992 when I first began concepting a prequel/sequel mythology to the original King Kong story called, ‘Skull Island.’ But in spirit, the roots go back to when I was about three years old.”
King Kong of Skull Island: The Wall by Joe DeVito
King Kong of Skull Island—Part 2: The Wall reveals the astonishing history of Skull Island after the arrival of the first human civilization, the Tagatu, accompanied by the prehistoric Kongs. Their penultimate war for species survival versus the island’s forward-evolved denizens and their super-saurian queen, Gaw, explodes against the backdrop of the building of the iconic Wall that still spans island's peninsula.
Millennia before the Golden Ages of Egypt and Greece, a uniquely marvelous race of humans existed on the shores of what today is a portion of the northern rim of the Indian Ocean, on the northeast side of the Andaman Sea.
They called themselves the Tagatu. They could have—perhaps would have—ruled the world.
And then they vanished.
Their former greatness and their relationship to the giant species of anthropoids known as the Kongs are only hinted at in a colossal Wall that still spans the peninsula of Skull Island. How did the Tagatu come to live on that prehistoric island, and how could they have built such a Wall in the midst of so many terrifyingly powerful dinosaurs?
Buy King Kong of Skull Island: The Wall from Amazon
“[King Kong of Skull Island: The Wall ] is a prequel/sequel to the story,” DeVito told King Kong of Skull Island in a separate interview. “What I set out to do was address all the questions about King Kong that had been rolling around in my head for more than thirty years. The classic, of course, is if the islanders built a wall big enough to keep Kong out, why did it have doors big enough to let him in? But there were many more mysteries than that…
“Obviously, in the original King Kong story, Kong dies at the end, so how do you go back and tell his story when he’s already dead and still maintain the connection with the original tale that occurs in the 1930’s? I had to come up with a storyline that would allow me to look back on the fact that he had fallen from the Empire State Building, and then somehow allow me to tell the story of what happened on Skull Island before Carl Denham ever arrived there. It was an interesting problem to solve.”
Godzilla vs Kong by Greg Keyes
The official novelization of the biggest battle in movie history Godzilla vs Kong, the latest film in the Monsterverse franchise.
ONE WILL FALL
The next epic Monsterverse chapter sees legends collide as Godzilla and Kong, the two most powerful forces of nature, clash in a spectacular battle for the ages. As a squadron embarks on a perilous mission into fantastic uncharted terrain, unearthing clues to the Titans’ very origins and mankind’s survival, a conspiracy threatens to wipe the creatures, both good and bad, from the face of the earth forever.
New York Times bestseller Greg Keyes returns once again to the Monsterverse and takes readers deeper into the worlds of Monarch, the Titans, and so much more.
Buy Godzilla vs Kong from Amazon
In an interview with Keyes, movie review and interview site Action Reloaded asked the author whether he was rooting for Godzilla or Kong. “I wasn’t really on either team in terms of who I thought should win,” he answered. “I just wanted a kick-ass story, and I got it.”
King Kong comics
Skull Island: Birth of Kong by Arvid Nelson and ZID
Both a sequel and a prequel to the film, the series tells the story of a secret team of Monarch operatives returning to Skull Island to discover the truth behind Kong and the island he is born to protect. In doing so, they unlock an ancient history of monster conflict, witness the primal war between Kong and an otherworldly ecosystem of deadly new creatures, and finally reveal how this lonely god became the last of his kind.
Skull Island: Birth of Kong is written by Arvid Nelson, with art by ZID.
Available in two editions:
“Legendary has done a fine job with the prequel of the newest King Kong movie. Writer Arvid Nelson gives us an intimate look into what makes Kong…well, Kong. The creature’s tragic backstory is revealed here and with ZID’s art showing the pain and rage of the young Kong, it’s no wonder that this book is a success.” (Graham Crackers Comics)
Kingdom Kong by Marie Anello and ZID
A sequel to the graphic novel Skull Island: Birth of Kong and a prelude to the film Godzilla vs. Kong, this graphic novel follows a group of highly skilled military pilots gathered together on Skull Island to see who has “the right stuff” to take on a dangerous mission into the hollow earth. One of the pilots, Audrey, is haunted by the memories of a monstrous clash with one of Godzilla’s titanic rivals that left deep scars.
When Skull Island is attacked by Camazotz, a bat-like Titan, Audrey must to come to terms with her inner demons. And, finding his home newly threatened, Kong must rise to face this usurper that would plunge the world into perpetual night.
Kingdom Kong is written by Marie Anello, with art by ZID.
Monster fan site Toho Kingdom interviewed the comic’s creators. The writer, Anello, told them, “With regards to Kong’s part in all this, we wanted to show his growth both physically and emotionally in the time since his appearance in Kong: Skull Island. He’s older and more battle-hardened now, plus three times bigger. We wanted to explore how that affects his relationship with the world around him.”
Kong on the Planet of the Apes by Ryan Ferrier and Carlos Magno
The damn dirty crossover event you demanded! Following the events of the first Planet of the Apes film (1968), Dr. Zaius and General Ursus lead a small group of soldiers to the Forbidden Zone to destroy any remaining evidence of Taylor's time among them. To their surprise, they discover...A KONG! Now they must venture to Skull Island with Cornelius and Zira to discover the truth, but they may not survive the deadliest journey of their lives!
Kong on the Planet of the Apes is written by Ryan Ferrier, with art from Carlos Magno.
Buy Kong on the Planet of the Apes from Amazon
“To say these properties are close to my heart is an understatement,” writer Ferrier told Comic Book Resources. “It’s no surprise to anyone that knows me that I am the biggest Planet of the Apes fan. For me, PotA is that fandom; the big, lifelong, die hard thing I’ve always adored. And in comics specifically, this is my dream gig. And Kong... who doesn’t love Kong? Who wasn’t mesmerized by the books and films growing up. I’ve always had a propensity for writing non-human characters in my comics, and that aside, if you saw my apartment, you’d see it’s full of PotA stuff. I’m that geeky about it.”
King Kong nonfiction books
The Making of King Kong by George Turner, Orville Goldner, and Michael Price
In this updated, expanded edition, the story of Universal’s 1933 classic film King Kong is fully told, from the biographies of its creators and the challenges in its production, to its derivative cinematic progeny. With over 100 photos, and forewords by Ray Harryhausen and Ray Bradbury.
The tale begins with adventurer-filmmakers Merian C. Cooper and Ernest B. Schoedsack, whose exotic films shot on location in such remote areas as Siam and Persia were prelude to their fateful voyage to Skull Island, years later.
Then, with narrative verve, impeccable research, and technical detail, the authors offer a full account not only of the original Kong’s cast and crew, in particular famed special effects pioneer Willis O’Brien, but also the politics, pitfalls, and ultimate triumph that characterized the production.
The authors also analyze the earlier gorilla, dinosaur, and jungle films that preceded Kong, like the notorious Ingagi, as well as the many that followed it, including Captive Wild Woman, The Lost World, Mighty Joe Young, the Kong remakes, and dozens more.
“Ladies and gentlemen, look at Kong, the eighth wonder of the world...”
Kong Unmade: The Lost Films of Skull Island Revisited: Vol 1 (1925-1960) by John LeMay
Ready for a return trip to Skull Island? If so, then you’re in luck, because the 2nd Edition of KONG UNMADE was so huge that it had to be spilt into two volumes!
This revised and expanded edition not only revisits the original chapters with new information but contains over a dozen new entries. From 1931’s CREATION to 1958’s KING KONG VS. FRANKENSTEIN, this book covers uncompleted projects related to the original KING KONG including sequels like THE 8TH WONDER, TARZAN VS. KING KONG, and THE NEW ADVENTURES OF KING KONG.
Speaking of what’s new, this tome has been expanded to cover related projects like Merian C. Cooper’s WAR EAGLES, Ray Harryhausen’s EVOLUTION, and Charles Gemora’s unmade ape movies like THE BIG THAW and the LADY AND THE GORILLA to name only a few. Add to this lost films like ISLE OF SUNKEN GOLD, a 1927 silent film featuring an ape called Kong six years before the original, and Robert Armstrong’s first tussle with a big gorilla in the same year’s THE LEOPARD LADY, and you’ve got a lot of exploring to do!
Inside King Kong: A Journal by Will Shephard
When actor Will Shephard turned up at the Beverley Hills offices of Dino De Laurentiis, he expected to be interviewed for a modest role in the great man’s next production.
“My agent told me on the phone that you were looking for actors who could do animal movements, but she didn’t tell me what the film was about,” said Will.
“It’s King Kong,” said the producer.
“You mean a remake of the 1933 film?”
“Yes.”
“What’s the role I’m being considered for?”
“It’s Kong.”
And so began an extraordinary few months in Will’s life as he joined fellow actor and make-up artist Rick Baker to become the one of the ‘guys in the ape suit’, striding through miniature jungles, wrestling a giant rubber snake, running amok in Manhattan and scaling the World Trade Center. Inside the suit it was fearsomely hot, the special contact lenses made him dizzy and he frequently had to insert a tube through the gorilla mask in order to breathe.
But the illusion was perfect: audiences never knew that the highly publicized, forty-foot tall, mechanical Kong that had cost millions of dollars to develop only got a few seconds of exposure, and that on screen for the rest of the movie were Rick and Will, clad in rubber and bear-hide.
Inside King Kong is Will’s journal of his experiences on the set in 1976. This delightful, engaging and funny account is accompanied by behind-the-scenes photographs that are being published for the first time.
King Kong: The Eighth Wonder of the Cinema (Movie Monsters Book 1) by Brian J. Robb
King Kong is a cultural phenomenon that has endured for 85 years, from his first appearance menacing a terrified Fay Wray in 1933’s King Kong right through to his rematch (they first fought in 1962) with Japan’s finest movie monster in Godzilla vs. Kong. Kong has appeared in several official films, including Kong: Skull Island, but he has also had a major impact on popular culture.
Kong is an outsider, and open to reinvention and re-appropriation by filmmakers across the decades who see him as a figure in which can be invested notions of race, identity, gender, class, sexuality, and ideas of adventure amid the exotic, something increasingly lacking in the modern world. The mythic nature of the character imbued in the original King Kong by his creators is what has allowed him to live on and adapt, not only to changing times but also to changing ways of representing the character himself onscreen.
This volume focuses on seven official King Kong films, with a special extended section on the 1933 original. There are many retellings of the creation of the film King Kong, so the aim in the present volume is to look at how Kong himself was created for the screen and how changing movie technology has contributed to the evolution of this mythic character and allowed his survival into the 21st century.
Godzilla vs. Kong: One Will Fall: The Art of the Ultimate Battle Royale by Daniel Wallace
Go behind the scenes of the biggest battle in movie history, with this deluxe book that explores the art and making of Godzilla vs. Kong.
Delve into the making of Godzilla vs. Kong, and experience cinema’s most colossal clash like never before. Featuring exclusive concept art and insights from the filmmakers, Godzilla vs. Kong: One Will Fall is the ultimate guide to an iconic movie showdown.
From creature design to on-set photography, Godzilla vs. Kong: One Will Fall captures every stage of the filmmaking process, giving you unprecedented access to the creation of a titanic movie event.
Exclusive concept art lets you experience the epic showdown in a whole new way.
Interviews with filmmakers give you an inside look at the making of the movie.
A deluxe format makes this book a must-have collector’s item.
