With the release of Pacific Rim and a new Godzilla to be released next year, the word “kaiju” will soon be mainstream; however in the 1980s and early ’90s (before the great geek takeover), it was one of the nerdiest of nerdy words.  Kaiju fans were considered waayyy nerdier than average sci-fi fans (the hierarchy of nerdom went, from coolest to nerdiest: 1) Star Wars fans; 2) horror geeks; 3) average sci fi/ fantasy fans (including Lord of the Rings hippies and comic collectors); 4) Star Trek fans; 5) Doctor Who fans; 6) Kaiju fans; and lastly 7) Otaku (who were also pretty much regarded as perverts as well as nerds, mainly because of movies like Urotsukidoji).  Times have really changed).  I was pretty much all of the above.  I grew up watching Godzilla and Gamera (and other Japanese kaiju) movies and t.v. shows, and always loved them.  Luckily, there were tons of specialty fanzines available for most any geek’s passion, and G-Fan was for kaiju fans.

The issue I’m highlighting here is actually kind of a ‘best of’ issue which came out in 1995, reprinting articles from the magazine’s earlier years (issues #1 through #7).  It was 63 pages long and featured lots of Godzilla art, several ‘Monster of the Month’ reprints, a list of the top 10 best Godzilla entrances in his movies, several articles on Godzilla Vs. King Ghidorah (which had recently been released, including one entitled “Implications of time travel in Godzilla Vs. King Ghidorah“), two articles on Godzilla comics (Marvel and other), a list of the top 14 kaiju as voted by Japanese kaiju fans, an article on Godzilla Vs. Mothra, a bunch of fan fic, and an article on the girls of the Godzilla movies.

Evidently this magazine is still going today, and you can get more info about it here:
http://www.g-fan.com/index.php

Here’s some pages from this issue: