Godzilla, the lumbering, hulking, nuclear resurrected prehistoric behemoth of terror, celebrates its 60th birthday today.

Appearing in many different productions through the decades, ranging from the first film, a Japanese production originally released on November 3rd, 1954 that is also considered the first Kaiju film, to this year’s hit shocker which brought the creature to new audiences and put him in concert with the kind of over the top special effects laden pictures that are the norm today, Godzilla has been a constant in pop culture and in Hollywood and World Cinema folklore.

The image of him, towering over a burning and dilapidated metropolis, destroying everything in his wake, is one of the high-tower images of anything to have ever been committed to celluloid or digital. From action figures to graphic novels and scores and scores of pictures produced all over the world (mainly in Japan), where he was up against formidable foes such as King Kong, Mothra, or even Bambi in the classic animated short, Godzilla is etched into the consciousness as a sort of unique, intense, and tough sort of antihero to millions of fans and six decades of generations.

There’s plenty to delve into if one wants to immerse themselves into the phenomenon that is Godzilla today. It’s the perfect opportunity to celebrate the 60th anniversary of a film icon which is stronger than ever, and a franchise which is stronger than ever and holds as much mammoth weight and awe inspiring scope as the character itself.