Robot God Akamatsu
Trade Paperback | Kindle Edition
Written by James Biggie
Dialogue by James Biggie and Josh Van Reyk
Illustrated by Frankie B. Washington
Lettered by Josh Van Reyk
Cover by James Biggie
Zetabella Publishing
Release Date: June 28, 2013
Cover Price: $12.99

“All this has happened before. All this will happen again.”

The above quote from Ronald D. Moore’s Battlestar Galactica recurred in my mind as I read Robot God Akamatsu — a graphic novel dealing with the impact of an ancient, giant robot on humanity. Created by writer James Biggie and illustrator Frankie B. Washington with dialogue from Josh Van Reyk, this love letter to Mecha fiction will leave you wondering how often history repeats itself.

Millennia ago, the city of Atlantis was protected by the giant Robot God Aka-Mat’Xu. As monstrous beasts called Kaiju wreaked havoc upon the city, Aka-Mat’Xu would normally save the day; however, Aka-Mat’Xu and his brother-god, Balan Uru had been at war with each other for quite some time. Their feud was unleashed on the people of Atlantis and ended with the city’s destruction and Aka-Mat’Xu’s robot form was lost in the depths of the sea.

Pacific Rim: Tales From the Year Zero
Hardcover
Written by Travis Beacham
Pencils by Sean Chen, Yvel Guichet, Pericles Junior, Chris Batista, Geoff Shaw
Inks by Mark McKenna, Steven Bird, Pericles Junior, Matt Banning
Letters by Patrick Brosseau
Cover by Alex Ross
Marvel Comics | Legendary Comics
Release Date: June 18, 2013
Cover Price: $24.99

Presented by Guillermo del Toro and written by Travis Beacham, Pacific Rim: Tales from Year Zero serves as a prequel to Warner Bros. and Legendary Pictures’ Pacific Rim.

Journalist Naomi Sokolov visits the Anchorage Shatterdome to interview Pan Pacific Defense Corps officers for a retrospective piece she’s writing about humanity’s battle against the Kaiju.

When she arrives, she meets Tendo Choi who reflects on his experiences during “K-Day” (August 10, 2013), the day of the first Kaiju attack in San Francisco. When the Kaiju Trespasser attacked he and his dock workers helped civilians onto boats to protect them from the monstrous beast. Choi then tells the reporter about his grandfather Yeye, who he managed to successfully rescue from Chinatown before Trespasser smashed it into oblivion.

Pacific Rim
Director: Guillermo del Toro
Screenwriter(s): Travis Beacham, Guillermo del Toro
Cast: Charlie Hunnam, Idris Elba, Rinko Kikuchi, Charlie Day, Ron Perlman
Warner Bros. Pictures
Rated PG-13 | 131 Minutes
Release Date: July 12, 2013

“Something out there discovered us.”

In the near future, giant monsters known as “Kaiju” emerge from an inter-dimensional portal deep beneath the Pacific Ocean, resulting in a never-ending war that takes millions of lives and quickly consumes humanity’s resources.

In order to fight the monsters at our door, we create monsters of our own: massive robots, known as Jaegers, controlled simultaneously by two pilots whose minds are locked in a neural bridge. Man and machine become one.

The Great Kaiju War rages on for decades. No matter how many we kill, they just keep coming – each wave bigger and stronger, harder to defeat. Resistance is futile. Now, as humanity is threatened with extinction, the remaining forces of mankind must make a final stand against their relentless, colossal adversary.

Co-written and directed by Guillermo del Toro (Hellboy, Pan’s Labyrinth), Pacific Rim is a spirited love letter to Japanese Kaiju films like Godzilla, Mothra, and Rodan. The film stars Charlie Hunnam (Sons of Anarchy) as Raleigh Becket, a washed-up Jaeger pilot brought out of retirement by Stacker Pentecost (Idris Elba), a Pan Pacific Defense Corps Marshall who needs the brash, impulsive veteran to suit up and fight the Kaiju one more time.

Well folks, it looks like the apocalypse isn’t canceled after all. This morning, the monstrous Kaiju of Guillermo del Toro‘s Pacific Rim made land fall in San Diego, California. Ladies and gentlemen, the Great Kaiju War has begun and it will be televised… or streamed on YouTube at least!

Taken from helicopters flying over Qualcomm Stadium, the footage below shows a series of colossal craters – a monster’s massive footprints – in and around the stadium. As if stadium parking wasn’t the pits already, am I right people?!

Warner Bros., Legendary Pictures, and Guillermo del Toro are ready to cancel the apocalypse this summer with Pacific Rim, a sci-fi blockbuster about giant monsters and the big-ass robots that fight them.

Guillermo del Toro’s film is set for release on July 12, 2013, but you can catch a sneak peek at Pacific Rim‘s epic scale and impressive special effects with this new trailer, which played at WonderCon back in late March. The footage was exclusive to WonderCon audiences until today, after fans pleaded with the director of Pan’s Labyrinth and Hellboy to see more action.

Watch the trailer here below.