Altered Book of Monsters – #38 – Queen Kong

One of the best movie monsters of all time, certainly one of the most iconic, is King Kong.  I remember watching the 1933 movie as a wee girl and thinking it was amazing.  I also remember that, for all his aggression, violence and threat, I felt really sorry for Kong.  Rather like ‘Frankenstein‘, it was a monster movie where the depiction of the monster was poignant.  One of my favourite volumes of poetry is Carol Ann Duffy’s ‘The World’s Wife’ in which she writes from the perspective of the women associated with famous men.  It’s incredibly witty and thought-provoking.  While my favourite of the collection is ‘Mrs Darwin’, a close contendor is ‘Queen Kong’.  All of which preamble is to explain why the next painting in my altered book is Queen Kong.  She might be related to the gorilla in my 100 Crazy Critters series but she’s a very different personality.  While that gorilla was all smiles, Queen Kong is grumpy and ready to snap.  Probably King Kong has been leaving old dinosaur carcasses lying around the cave and casting flirty glances at tiny blonde women.  Whereas the wee gorilla has a flower in her hair, Queen Kong has a crown made of gilded bones and a necklace of human skulls and bones.  A smack of bright red lipstick completes her power woman look.