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"Denham's Quest" is the first issue of the 1991 comic series, King Kong. It is an adaptation of the 1932 novelization, and is written and illustrated by Donald Simpson. It was released in February of 1991.
Plot
Aboard the Vastator in a New Jersey harbor along the Hudson River, Captain Englehorn and first mate Jack Driscoll await the arrival of filmmaker Carl Denham, who was still in the city trying to find a lead actress for his movie, and they are becoming impatient. As the last of the sailors arrive, the crew reaches a number three times that of another ship, Denham is in lower Manhattan, outraged that his agent Mr. Weston had not secured him an actress. Evidently, no legitimate actress would agree to work for a director with such a reputation for recklessness. Furthermore, Denham's being secretive about his current endeavor had scared away every agent. Denham is admittedly loathe to include a female star in his picture, but laments that the studios have advised him to add some romance to boost public reception. Weston advises the director to drop his insistence on delivering real nature scenes and to instead make a more traditional picture with sets and a script, causing Denham to storm out, ordering his assistant Wally to take his equipment to the ship, while he goes out to search the city for a lead.
Denham stops for cigarettes at a local vendor named Roy's stall, lamenting his rotten luck, when the shopkeeper captures a would-be thief trying to steal an apple. The woman who wanted to steal Roy's fruit faints after Denham pays Roy to leave her alone, and he takes her to a restaurant. Her name is revealed to be Ann Darrow, and she used to do work as an extra before movies moved to Hollywood. As inspired as he is desperate, Denham offers her the role, and with nothing in her life to stay in town for, she accepts. Despite a brief mishap with Driscoll, Ann is quite comfortable on the ship as it crosses the Pacific Ocean. During the journey, she begins a flirtation with Driscoll, and becomes friends with the sailor Lumpy and his monkey Ignatz. Denham teases Jack for falling for Ann, likening his situation to his film's "Beauty and the Beast" motif, before taking the actress to do some test shots.
Now far west of Sumatra, Englehorn and Driscoll finally learn from Denham about their destination: Skull Island. Denham explains what little about its history he knows, and of Kong, a figure Englehorn recognizes from Malay folklore.
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