Author: Minamimura Takashi.
Title: [Robotto Kaiju - Saibogu Kaiju]. Original illustration for the magazine Shonen.
Description: n.p. [c1960?]. Illustration in ink and watercolour on card 27x20cm, tapemarks in the margins. Lettering and inset illustration pasted on. ¶ Minamimura was the master of apocalyptic aliens, monsters and outer space. No-one does devastation, cars and trains flying like debris and crumbling skyscrapers with more relish. A useful annotated diagram of our robot-cyborg monster is inset - the text can be read on a photocopy of the finished magazine page that comes with this. The pasted inset robot is a revision: held up to the light we can see a much bulkier monster underneath. Minamimura calls this a cyborg monster which might date it to after May 1960 when 'cyborg' was supposedly first used by Clynes & Kline in a paper for the Space Flight Symposium and reported in the New York Times.

Keywords: graphic art science fiction illustration c20th Japan robots thrillers