Kaiju Revamp - Demeking

Fourth in the Revamp series we come to Demeking from Demeking: The Sea Monster. The Demeking suit is pretty damn flawless as far as suitmation goes so I had to think about how I would approach this revamp carefully. I tend to like to go very literally when I revamp existing characters so I started referencing snails, sea slugs and nudibranchs given the monster's obvious snail inspired design. Then as with my Giant Claw I studied the film for clues as how to further define my approach.

The subtitle Sea Monster is a bit of a misnomer. While it is true the creature in the film is in the water it actually hails from space. On top of that the protagonist of the film keeps having dreams warning him that Demeking is coming. This struck me as very Lovecraftian. SO while my beast's body was defined by terrestrial mollusks I decided his shell would resemble the impossibly angled architecture of the temples of the Great Old Ones such as Cthulhu. The structure is covered with arcane runes from the Mythos. To this end I envisioned Demeking's as being a combination of protection/home for the monster but it also serves as a church/housing for his elite minions. His invading army travels with him (and within him) as he journey's across space to invade hapless worlds.

Demeking's design is so perfect and simple I knew this time I would be forced to deviate a great deal from his film look to add anything new. Wanting to keep the monster dark as in the film but not black I went with snail coloring. The limbs were inspired by the beautiful blue ocean slug, a rather angelic looking creature. The tail came from studies of nudibrachs with their forest of fleshy spikes coming off their bodies. I couldnt resist adding slime propulsion for a bit of a gross out factor even though the film kaiju walks about on sturdy legs.

Its a strange kaiju film for giving us such a cool monster that never actually reaches Earth. He is revealed in a dream sequence which gives us a 5 minute rampage warning us of the approaching monster's intentions for humanity but thats it. Were a sequal to ever be made I would hope that the giant monster carnage would truly begin in earnest and not as the form of cryptic dreams.

Drawn in Illustrator, colored in Photoshop, drawn with a bamboo fun (6x9 inch).