Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla, 1977 (Poland)
 
We’ve done galleries of amusing or startling movie posters from abroad before, but none of them have ever been quite this focused before, to my knowledge. Godzilla, that most protean of radioactive monsters, has inspired posters that range all over the goddamn map. As is often the case, the Polish posters of the late 1960s and early 1970s are hard to beat for sheer inventiveness and oddity, but the Czechs and the French, not to be short-changed, contribute bizarre wonders as well.

Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla gets a dashing Peter Max treatment, while the creature from Godzilla vs. Gigan is anachronistically, and energetically, pimping his radioactive RSS feed. Meanwhile, the creature on the poster of Son of Godzilla resembles a drunken Wookiee. My favorite might be the Polish poster for Godzilla vs. The Smog Monster, an impressionistic masterpiece with flaming red eyeballs in the monster’s midsection and silhouettes of factories inhabiting his feet.
 

Godzilla, 1954 (Germany)
 

Godzilla, King of the Monsters!, 1956 (France)
 

Godzilla, 1956 (Czechoslovakia)
 

Godzilla, 1957 (Poland)
 

Gigantis the Fire Monster/Godzilla Raids Again, 1957 (Italy)
 

Invasion of Astro-Monster, 1965 (Poland)
 

Invasion of Astro-Monster, 1965 (France)
 

Son of Godzilla, 1967 (Poland)
 

Godzilla vs. The Smog Monster, 1971 (Poland)
 

Godzilla vs. Hedorah/Godzilla vs. the Smog Monster, 1971 (Italy)
 

Godzilla vs. Megalon, 1976 (France)
 

Godzilla vs. Gigan, 1977 (Poland)
 

Godzilla vs. The Sea Monster, 1978 (Poland)
 
via io9

Previously on Dangerous Minds:
Awesome Japanese movie posters from the go-go Sixties
Polish movie posters make every movie a scary movie