Description

Willis O’Brien: Lost Worlds, Giant Apes and Dinosaurs Volume 1: From Thomas Edison to King Kong by Greg Kulon

Hardcover – Kulon Ventures – 2024 – 370 pages

Willis O’Brien: Lost Worlds, Giant Apes, and Dinosaurs provides the most detailed record ever assembled of the life and career of the pioneering stop-motion animation genius behind such ground-breaking films as The Lost World, King Kong, and Mighty Joe Young. A century ago, when the film Industry was still in its adolescent growing pains, Willis (“OBie”) O’Brien created astounding images of the fantastic and impossible that startled audiences of his time and continue to inspire modern Cinema.

Illustrated by over 600 color and black and white photos, production artwork and storyboards, Volume 1 begins with an overview of OBie’s early career, including the short animated films he made for Thomas Edison. His collaboration and eventual confrontation with Major Herbert M. Dawley over Dawley’s ground-breaking feature The Ghost of Slumber Mountain leads OBie to the making of the original feature film, The Lost World, celebrating its 100th Anniversary in 2025. The unfinished dinosaur drama Creation followed, leading directly to Merian C. Cooper’s bold vision for King Kong (1933). Son of Kong followed immediately, though for OBie this sequel marked tragedy in his personal life.

Building upon five decades of collecting, this 3-volume work has been extensively researched and written over the last seven years culling the most pertinent information and the best images from numerous public archives and private collections. Tens of thousands of pages of production files, scripts, personal correspondence, photographs artwork, and interviews, most never published, have been reviewed to tell the story of OBie’s life and career, ranging from the creation of movie icons recognized around the world to his own personal tragedies and disappointments.