New Monster Island Mural Turns San Francisco Japantown Into a Godzilla Art Destination

San Francisco Japantown has welcomed a new Godzilla mural, and this time the King of the Monsters is not alone!

Officially unveiled on April 17, “Monster Island” is the third Godzilla mural to appear in SF Japantown. The installation expands the neighborhood’s growing kaiju presence from the East Mall to the West Mall, turning a popular public space into a visual celebration of kaiju history.

The mural features artwork by illustrator, Aaron John Gregory, whose densely packed “Monster Island” image brings together numerous Godzilla and kaiju film characters in a lush, tropical setting. The project was a true labor of love involving MONDO, TOHO International, installer David Hufana, the Japantown Community Benefit District, and Japan Center Malls, with an additional graphic panel coordinated through the Japantown CBD.

Before it became a mural, “Monster Island” began as a limited-edition screen-printed poster created by Gregory for MONDO. Before that, the idea began with the illustrator's own lifelong connection to Godzilla.

Aaron John Gregory first encountered Godzilla in the mid-1980s through weekend afternoon “Creature Features” broadcasts on local television. The real turning point came when Gregory’s father took the future illustrator to see Godzilla 1985 in a movie theater. “By the halfway point, when we really see Godzilla in all of its glory smashing through towering modern skyscrapers, that’s when my imagination was set ablaze,” Gregory said. “I only knew I wanted more.” As a young kid, Gregory drew constantly, often filling sketchbooks and homework pages with sharks, superheroes, monsters, Godzilla, and other kaiju.

The connection later became professional. Gregory’s first licensed Godzilla project was a variant cover for IDW’s 2016 Godzilla: Rage Across Time series. His involvement with the character expanded when Gregory was “hired as a brand consultant at TOHO International in 2019.” The “Monster Island” image began through Gregory’s work with MONDO. “My Monster Island piece was created as a very limited-edition screen-printed poster for MONDO, the Austin-based collectibles and pop culture art company that I work closely with by way of my role as Godzilla Product Development Manager at TOHO,” Gregory said.

MONDO invited Gregory to create a piece for a special poster show at DesignerCon 2025 in Las Vegas after seeing Gregory’s comic book covers and biological illustration work. The concept was inspired by the old dinosaur posters many kids grew up with in the 1980s. Gregory described those images as “vast, lush, tropical scenes” packed with as many dinosaur species as possible. The new idea was to take that format and replace the dinosaurs with classic kaiju characters. From there, the setting became obvious.

“Monster Island immediately sprung to mind,” Gregory said. “This is a concept that started to take hold in the later Showa-era Godzilla films: an island exists where all of Earth’s monsters live together, not so much in harmony but with some level of coexistence.” For Gregory, the appeal was not only nostalgic. It went back to one of the most irresistible ideas in the Godzilla series. “As a kid, the idea of an island filled with my favorite kaiju characters all roaming around was about the coolest thing in the world,” Gregory said.

The poster debuted at MONDO’s Godzilla-focused DesignerCon booth and quickly became a hit. Gregory said the piece “basically sold out online the next day.” The mural version came together later, when contacts at San Francisco’s Japantown Community Benefit District and Japan Center Malls began looking for another Godzilla installation. In September 2024, two large Godzilla murals by master illustrator E.J. Su were installed on the walls of the East Mall. The next goal was to bring something to the West Mall.

There were practical limits. Creating a completely new piece within the available time and budget was not feasible, especially with the goal of installing something before the April Sakura Festival weekend. The completed “Monster Island” image offered a solution. “As a solution, I donated my poster image to the mall to immediately use as a mural,” Gregory said. “The rest is history!”

Now, the piece has moved from collectible poster to public art, giving SF Japantown a major must-see Godzilla landmark. With “Monster Island,” the new mural does more than add an additional kaiju image to the mall. It brings a whole kaiju universe into Japantown, connecting childhood imagination, craft, and community space in one breathtaking image.