Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/1124104
4 4 P E R S P E C T I V E | J U L Y / A U G U S T 2 0 1 9 effects on the environment with his mere distant approach. Mothra came into being as a timeless moth goddess from a tropical island who traveled with an entourage of two tiny twin high priestesses, her official communicators. How that last detail originally came to be is anyone's guess. She was also the most crudely developed of the monsters, which oddly contributed to her charm and appeal. In this tale, she quickly displays her benevolent intentions to help the humans help Godzilla, leading the Monarch team to believe Godzilla might become their own protector as a result. With her relative goodness as a bedrock, a streamlined and powerful physicality was developed for her that nonetheless had terrifying aspects. Of all the film's creatures, she is also the one who directly expresses beauty in her physical being, and designing into her being a literal relationship with light and its various qualities became her signature design statement. The twins have a presence in the film as well, although in a rather different aspect ratio. The story features monster security and monitoring stations all over the planet. Monarch Org. is a multinational enterprise that works entirely under the radar in association with the governmental militaries of each member nation. As a result, each station is carefully disguised to represent a different type of public function appropriate to its location in the world. Mothra Station seems to be a recently discovered archeological site in a Chinese jungle. Rodan Station functions as a geothermal plant at the base of a live volcano near Mexico City. Ghidorah Station is deep below what seems to be a governmental Antarctic weather and geological outpost. Godzilla's site is the most secret of them all, created deep within the center of an undersea mountain near the Bermuda Triangle. The access point is through what appears to be an oil platform in the middle of the ocean. This is also the Monarch HQ. The Monarch Base, which uses the somewhat kitschy code name "Castle Bravo" taken from the original movies, is the organization's central operations home. It's a massive multi-departmental complex that houses the science, defense, intelligence and monitoring central hubs, as well as providing the equivalent of a corporate living complex for Monarch's permanent and semi- permanent international employees. If this was a Ken Adam-designed James Bond movie, Monarch HQ would be the crazy massive super-secret high- styled environment that were signature showpieces A A. MIGUEL ORTEGA AND TRAN MA'S PORTRAIT OF RODAN, IN THE APEX OF A FIERY VOLCANIC ERUPTION NEAR MEXICO CITY. B. ILLUSTRATION OF GHIDORAH BY THE LEGACY EFFECTS TEAM. C. THE MYSTERIOUS BAS RELIEF IMAGE OF TWIN GUARDIAN ANGELS WHO WATCH OVER THE EGG OF MOTHRA. ILLUSTRATION BY JOHN DICKENSON. D. CREATURE ILLUSTRATORS TRAN MA AND MIGUEL ORTEGA CREATED THIS FINAL PORTRAIT OF THE BEAUTIFUL AND DANGEROUS MOTHRA. E. THE ANCIENT AND OVERGROWN CHINESE TEMPLE FOR THE GOD MOTHRA, CONCEPT ILLUSTRATION BY MILENA ZDRAVKOVIC. F. CONCEPT ARTIST WARREN FLANAGAN DEVELOPED VIEWS OF RODAN'S VOLCANIC ISLAND HOME. B C D