Hello. My name is Jason Concepcion and welcome back to X ray Vision, the podcast where we dive deep into your favorite shows, movies, comics, and pop culture. Coming to you from iHeart Podcast, where we're bringing you to two action packed episodes every Tuesday and Thursday. On this very special episode, I will be interviewing Rosie Knight ever heard of her in comics illu shirtter Oliver Ono about their latest project, Godzilla Monster Island Summer Camp, which is out
now wherever you get your comic books. We're delighted to welcome to the program Rosie Knight, who co hosts the program How is Me and her creative collaborate Ali Rono.
It is so great to have you here, Oliver, thank you for joining us.
Always a pleasure. Thanks so much for having me back on. It's been what two years since the last time.
Right, Yeah, unbelievable, But it's now and it feels really wild because we would always be when the book hadn't been announced. Me and Jason would always be like teasing it on the Xtra Vision. We'd be like, Rosie has something but we can't say what it is. But now the book is coming out in like you know, six days or something. So it's really fun to be able to kind of celebrate it with you guys.
How did Godzilla Monster Island Summer Camp come to be?
Well, I so a while ago, like a couple of years ago. Now, idw and Tohoe with trying to find a way to do like kids Godzilla comics that they really wanted to do like a middle grade book or
a kind of more youth focused graphic novel. So I pitched this idea of Manila's Manila Godzilla's Sun going to summer camp and kind of this adventure, and in my head I visualized this like one panel of him wearing like a little you know, like a little hat, like he's like a camper and he's got a neckerchief on, and that was really like and it's in the book and it's my favorite page and it was the first
page that I visualized. So then like a year after I pitched it, I heard back and they were like, we're going to do it, and me and Oliver were like, oh, okay, cool, that's sick, And then we started working on it and it was but it was definitely an extension of what we started with Rivals with Battra because we came to find because we've still been doing signings for that book.
We've been still speaking to people about that book, and we really found that the audience was a lot younger than some of the other Rivals books, Like kids really liked that book, and we were definitely channeling that kind of slower studio ghibli vibe, but with cool monsters. So I think this is just like an extension of that.
Oliver, what was when the story and the idea was presented to you, did you have any ideas about like the artistic palette, the things that you wanted to see immediately, Like what what kind of ideas popped into your head?
Yeah, so it definitely came when when Rosie brought it to me. I brought up the idea. At first, it was she just kind of feeleded it, like hey, like just so you know, I I put in this story for like Godzilla's Sun goes to like summer camp and then he just has like a good time. And at the time, you know, it was I think that was like right after we finished up Batra, and I was like, that is the weirdest story ever. I don't know how it's gonna get made. But yeah, that sounds that sounds lovely.
That sounds like a nice mix up, and especially with with Batcher, it was, uh that was it was such a like a muted palette. It was kind of a dark story. It was, you know, Bacher's like like one of the more goth sides of of of the Kaiju. Definitely, so it was definitely a challenge to to shift in. But I after drawing like a like a gray English seaside town, like, it was definitely a fun idea to like jump into something that was gonna be very very poppy,
breezy sort of situation, you know. So yeah, I mean that definitely just the idea of trying to make it feel as warm and summery as possible like that. That that affected the color palette, and that's I think one of the one of the biggest things that we've gotten feedback on from everyone is people people talk about how the colors came together and and made the whole book feel just that that that summer ReVibe, you know.
Yeah, that's everyone who's We got a great quote from the fantastic Stephanie Williams, who I love, who is behind some comics like Nubia and Mungo Double Dinosaur, and that was the first thing. She was like, it's like this hazy summer vibe and I was like, yes, I want people to read it and just feel like that breeze in the air and wanting to be at Monstrawland summer Camp. You know, that was the big thing, and all of
it just absolutely smashed it. Also, Oliver, why don't you talk a little bit about, like, what was it like redesigning Manila for the book? Because he has like a very distinct and ugly look and I love him, but he does so like, what was it like trying to reimagine him for the for this audience and this book.
Yeah. So I mean, of course, like I've come into being a big general Toho Godzilla fan throughout working on all these projects, but largely I was coming from outside the fan base when I started, and so I think I have this kind of like third party viewpoint, or at least I did now Now the more that I do it, the more I'm like, no, it should look
exactly how it looks in the movies. I'm kind of in that, but but yeah, I mean coming into it knowing that it's going to be four kids and a lot of kids these days, unless unless they are you know, the kids, the grandkids of the original fans that watched you know, Manila as as a kid. You know, they have that same sort of viewpoint. And Manila again is lovably ugly, but definitely ugly, you know. So I knew that I wanted to kind of soften them up a bit.
And it's always a weird thing trying to make you know, even I think about what the original designers of the suits were thinking, and it's not like they created the
exact thing that was in their heads either. They were trying to come up with this feeling of like a little Godzilla, And so I think pivoting and thinking about it from that point and seeing how I can refine still the same energy that was originally that in those old suits, but also turn it into something that maybe couldn't exist in real life and sheep wise simplify it down and give him a little bit more like character.
So it was a balance of trying to keep it even even with the original old design, but also trying to kind of revamp it so that it would be accessible to like a broader audience. So they wouldn't be like, Ooh, what's this weird guy? They there's at least like oh because he's a weird guy, but he's also like a cute weird guy, you know what I mean.
You mentioned kind of the the cute factor, the warmth of the book, in the color palette, and the design. How do you make I mean, there's monsters in this book, and some scary ones, but how do you how do you make cute scary monsters?
Like?
What is your strategy for doing that? Because I think it's one of the things you've really accomplished, is creating this like warm, inviting story that also contains scary monsters, but that appear they fit within the overall design world.
Yeah, you know it. It's one of those things I didn't wanna. I didn't wanna. Certainly, the monsters are still very much like the monsters from the movies, like and I wanted overall the world to still be like just that full Toho kaiju world with big implications, big big consequences. It's just that our story takes place in kind of
a happy corner of that world, you know what I mean? So, yeah, I I didn't Other than other than again, I kept the I kept the colors very fun and honestly, like, at least with like uh eby Rah, he was still very much I mean, I'm almost I almost made him even a little more chunky and gnarly looking, you know. But I don't know. I I think I I think I did lean on the colors a lot. I think I think that maybe all of the all the all the monsters look a little bit more like the animals
that inspired them in the first place as well. I did push them more in that like, oh, this is like the real like the real counterpart of that of that Kaiju, the real animal counterpart, and it's just a big version. But yeah, I don't know. I think I think the colors do a lot to do that. Well.
Were it back after a short break to talk more Godzilla Monster on the summer Camp and ros you know, and we're back, tell us a little bit more about the story set it up. We understand that it's a summer camp story, but how did the story take shape?
So I was like, where what would be cute? That was definitely my first thought, like what do I want to read and what would be cute and what would be good for all of his art. So I thought of this kind of classical idea of the American summer camp, of the kind of you know one that you see movies where it could In the daytime, it looks so beautiful and it looks like it could be from you know, a cool movie that you would want to go there, but at nighttime you're like, oh it could. This is
also where Friday the thirteenth could be set. You know, those are my real touchstones. Is kind of more of a movie experience. I never went to an American summer camp because I didn't grow up in America, but those were my touch points, and I really wanted to tell a story that was basically just about kids having a good time. I wanted to have disabled leads. I wanted
to have them in this unexpected space. Because the general setup of the book is Zelda, who's our main character, goes to this camp, thinks it's going to be an art camp where she can make comics all summer, and then she gets there and it's been taken over by like a nefarious corporation. So instead of make it summer camp, it's more ink summer camp. And those were two Those were the kind of first things I set up was like, how can I have this summer camp have the same
initials as Monster Island. I was like, it has to have that, and I was thinking a lot about There's this old Disney movie that I just really really loved called Heavyweights with Ben Stiller, and he plays this kind of evil He's like an evil fitness guy who goes to a fat camp and tries to make all the kids lose weight, and they kind of rebel against him. So that was definitely in my mind, but I wanted to take it more to that futuristic kind of sci
fi space where more Ink was. Their version of being a corporation was very brutalist and very much like destroying nature. And then I was thinking, you know, what's the biggest ecological threat?
Now?
You know, when the original Godzilla was made, it was a response to the nuclear bomb, so I was like, oh, well,
it has to be fracking, you know. So that was kind of where I where it all started, and it was just such a joy to write it and to get to know that Oliver was going to draw it meant that I could really be specific in the things that I wanted to bring to life that I knew he would be great at like the monsters, and also like he draws the coolest clothes, so all the kids have these like super rad outfits.
You know.
This is the one where I feel like maybe in like five years, we could be at a comic con and we'd see someone in like a version, like a chill version of one of the costumes, because they like the way the kids are designed so well. And Oliver really brought that energy of like when you watch a cartoon and people either always dress in the same colors or they have the same costume every time, like Bart Simpson.
So I think it still has that vibe where they all have a very clear aesthetic and even at the end of the book where we kind of see a little bit of the future, they still have that. And I just thought it was so cool and also just to get to write a book that is so out of any kind of continuity like we and know that kids are going to get to find it and explore it. And we've had like really lovely feedback. We did a
really cool event in Chicago that Music Box Theater. They did a giant Godzilla filmfest there that was so fantastic, and my friend Katie Riiche was a brilliant programmer and film critic, invited us to go and be there, and we tabled at the film festal like one in the morning from eleven in the morning and gave out like hundreds of little zines about this, and so many people were just so excited to see Manila. I mean, we
are in a Godzilla renaissance for sure. And it was so funny because when the book was announced, so many people were just like, oh my god, I would wish I could make this, Like I love Manila so much, and they're doing like all these cool fan arts in Manila. I found so many great different artists through the book being announced, and some people were like, hey, let Minilla be ugly, and I was like, I get it, man I love that little ugly guy, like I've got him
tired on my body. But like, Oliver drew a cover for this book that is so enticing. I feel like it has such a pick up ability factor, and I think that's because of how beautiful his Manilla is and then how cool Ramiko, Wheezy and Zelda, who are our main cast, look on that front cover, like you want to be there, you want to be on this adventure with them. So yeah, I'm really excited for people to get to read the whole thing.
I wanted to talk about the outfits. Do we have a favorite outfit from Oliver the book?
Okay, my favorite outfit of anyone in the book that I wrote in the script. I wrote such a funny, silly thing in the script. It's there is a moment.
There's two moments where Manila is in disguise, right, and the first one is the first one is my favorite outfit because I was like in the script, I was like, Oliver, He's going to be in skis like that classic you know, Raphael in Ninja ta Ors, the thing in Fantastic four, like RoboCop, that classic thing where you put on a trench coat and you put on a hat and nobody can recognize you. So Oliver did that, and he did a version where it's like a baseball cap with sunglasses.
So you also have that Avengers costume where whenever the Avengers are in civilian attire, they just wear aviators in a baseball cap. And then Manila has the the trench coat and that that image is just makes me laugh every single time. So like the humans have cool outfits. But for me, it's definitely that like Manila in Disguise. He looks so sassy like and obviously it's a dinosaur, but that's the magic of storytelling. You know, nobody can nobody can recognize him.
Oliver, you have a favorite, you know?
I yes, like definitely and and also just to add with with the Manila in Disguise outfit, like I also with those sunglasses. I always loved the squirrel squad from like the first the Persons, and yeah, so I gave I gave him the Squirrels squad sunglasses. Those are definitely this yeah uh. But at the same time, I also personally, I really like there's a midway through outfit that Roomy co wears with like the cut off like jersey with the three on it, And yeah, I really like that one.
Uh uh? Which is it? There's a few, a few like small details. That was I think probably the most detailed one, but it was the one that I wanted to You know, anytime that you're adding all this stuff, it ends up being you regret it by the end. By the end, like yeah, because you have to keep drawing. But like that one was like her little like hype beast outfit like.
Cool.
Yeah. I gave her like the three on the front of the jersey because I always liked Hey Arnold growing up and Gerald wears Gerald wears that like uh sweatshirt with the three on it and Uh. I made like a little a little her shorts have and I think also the jersey has has it. I made like a like a spoof Nike thing where it says Meeky that's that's like the name of the boy from uh from uh? Which one I always get the two the two Manila movies mixed up.
Yeah, yeah, it's it's in or monsters there it is, It's yeah, it's your Yeah, So I love that.
I wanted to put a little lots of there's lots of little Easter eggs if you, if you, if you read into it. But but yeah, that was probably my favorite one.
I definitely think your favorite hair was Wheezy's hair. You love drawing that hair is like so outrageous. Yeah, you love like a giant ball of hair.
Let's say, Uh, somebody picks this up and they love it, but maybe they're not versed in Godzilla lore in the way that y'all are. What's the next place they should turn. If they're like I love this, What's the next Godzilla project that I should check out?
I think definitely the Rivals series. There's so many different types of storytelling, so I think that anyone who enjoys Godzilla could find a story for them that. Obviously our Batra issue is very similar in tone, but all of the Godzilla Rivals books, which I believe there's now three volumes of Round one, Round two, and Round three, they all have really great cool in in roads to Godzilla.
I would also say, like, watch the old movies. Obviously we are dreaming that we I already have like two sequels planned out if they did, if it does well enough that people want to read them. But I think Rivals. There's also a Godzilla comic called Monsters and Protectors, which is like kind of a more Ya vibe, and I like a lot of the rules that we had to follow for this, like the Monsters, how Zelda communicates with
the monsters and stuff. Monsters and Protectors was kind of a framework because they of what they were allowed to do, then we could probably do a similar thing. But honestly, Toho was like super chill, like the funniest note that I've ever gotten was from this project and it was one of like three notes Toho gave and it was like,
Godzilla can't do a thumbs up. I was like, I've seen him do it on the TV, but no, Godzilla's like very uh, He's very serious in this book, I will say, I mean the book is called Godzilla, so as you could have met Godzilla, monster and someone, as you can imagine, Zilla is in the book. And I do want to say, if you're listening to this and you have kids, or you're a teacher, or you're a librarian, please read this book. I would love that that is
the aim of the book. But if you are an adult who loves Godzilla and wants to see really cool, intricate, fantastic Godzilla, are also read this book because when Godzilla shows up, the way Oliver brings Godzilla to life is just so fantastic. And some of those pages I still just look at in total awe. And there is also mechs because Oliver always has to draw a mix, so we found we found a way to build those mechs in So yeah, I do think really IDW has done
a great job. One of our favorite artists James Stoko. He did a very iconic Godzilla story there, which, even though it's very tonally different, I would say if you like the idea of seeing different artists just getting to go hamm and kind of have an auta vision his Godzilla books, like he did the issue Godilla in Hell and he did godzill one thousand Year War, and those are just so fantastic. So there is a Smaugas board of fantastic Godzilla storytelling, and we're hoping that this will become,
you know, a part of it. We've had a lot of really cool feedback from people being like, hey, you should turn this into an anime or something, and me and Oliver are like, yes, please please do that.
Like we would see so many people when we when they announced it, like because I think it they just they initially and I think you had to read further context, but initially they just dropped the cover and so so many people thought it was straight up like just the poster for like a new anime series, and I was like, okay, job job, job, job done. Like we've putting our little tendrils into the into the possibilities here, So yeah, it'd be really cool though, Well, were it.
Back after a short break to talk more Godzilla Monster Own Summer Camp with Rosy and yeah, and we're back. The book is fantastic and it's been so wonderful to have you both here. And we end every episode with variety of fast moving segments. Today, Oliver, we're gonna do Who's Who, and I'm gonna ask you for your favorite Let's say, do you want to do three your power ranking?
Your favorite?
Your three favorite obscure kai Jews slash monsters of any type, okay, of any kind, not even obscure, just like your top three favorite Kaiju slash monsters.
And this is in general, this is this is this in general. So outside of Toho as well, anywhere have one. I have one very deep cut okay, funky Boy from the Redline movie.
Not aware a funky boy, but his name.
Come on and and oh yeah, funky Boy from the Red Line movie. That that that hits for me.
Oh funky Boy is quite quite weird looking.
And I love funky Boy number two very well.
Oh yeah, he's like a like a golden brain.
Yeah, he's a big golden brains. He's trapped into like a gelatinous cube. Uh and then and then they drop like I think, like an orbital cannon on him. He uh oh he's great. Oh number two. Honestly, I love Space Godzilla. I really love the design of Space Godzilla. I like I like a crystal.
Yeah, it's like ultimately cool.
That That is my That is my thirteen year old boy. Pick right there. It's just it's just Godzilla, but with like extra stuff all over him.
Yeah, more buff Yeah.
Oh yeah, he's more ribbed. He's been at the gym, he's been grinding. Number three number three. Oh, I can't remember his name. There's one episode of Space Standy where the robot in Sandy like grows massive and becomes like a Kaiju when they have a Kaiju fight. That's also a weird.
Also, everyone should go and watch Space Standy like wash, I love.
Space Dandy, but the robot which I cannot remember his name, but he becomes a Kaiju for an episode, essentially like a robot Kaiju. Oh qt t there he is. He is a cutie. That's true.
Love that guy, Rosie.
What about you?
I'm gonna actually, because I mentioned Godzilla and Hell, I always remember the first time I read that book, and there's a nuclear reactor demon that's like a demon from a nuclear plant that turns into a giant kaiju and it is like so creepy and fantastic, and it literally like bursts. I remember watching reading the page and it like bursts out of the nuclear reactor. It's just so cool.
So definitely that one that's a comic book hit weird I love obviously, Manila is my number one weird kaiju, though I feel like now he is like quite far from deep cut, so I'm gonna do like you know, people love him now like they love that guy. Ibierra used to be another one, because like, who doesn't love
that weird guy? But another, probably my second good weird one is in the old Godzilla comics from Marvel, which I've been kind of They're rereleasing a lot of where Jewels from see Greg Quarters saved me, like the sick poster of the first first issue, which they're going to be reprinting I think for the first time in a
long time. In the like issue three, he fights this thing that looks like a It kind of looks like a mixture between a snake and a venus fly trap, kind of like a feed me Seymour Vibe, and his name's just like Rheannon. It's like it's like it's like our our h I a r h i a h n. And I'm like, how do you even pronounce that? But it's like his head ends up getting chopped off. But I always think he's got like a flying saucer head,
so I'm always kind of thinking of him. I'll join you by doing one like one that I just think is really cool. I love like ky Ruver of Meca Gozilla where he's got like the guns on his shoulders and he's just like, that's my thirteen year old boy. Like definitely, Jason, do you have a favorite weird kaiju?
Oh, gosh, mine are gonna be much less deep cut than you. I'm gonna say, Manila, who I originally as Baby.
Godzilla, Baby Godzilla, Yeah, that.
Was I think.
I I think I had. I had a bunch of the like sixties and seventies tojo stuff like on vhs my dad actually, and that one was just labeled baby Godzilla. Next, I'm gonna uh and again apologies if these are not the correct name, but the smog Monster from uh oh yeah, Hedora, I called him the smog Monster. And what I really remember that about that movie was like this Austin powers et segments where hetero would like smog g It's like oohs over people, and then there'd be like this people, yeah,
go go dancing and stuff. And then finally Jet Jaguar, who is was just like a super cool robot that like fought with and against Godzilla.
In a variety of.
Funny little end He's a very very cool legend, awesome little suit. This was like pre Voltron and in like my eyes, like when I later saw Vultron, I was like, oh, Jet Jaguar. And again these aren't like super deep cuts, but they are representative of my history with Kaiju's and Godzilla.
Yeah, I love those picks.
Rosy and Oliver, thanks so much for talking to me today about Godzilla, Monster Island summer Camp. A reminder comics out now wherever you get your comics. On next week's episode of X ray Vision, We're headed to Middle Earth remember for season two of Amazon's Rings of Power. That's it today's episode.
Thanks for listening.
X ray Vision is hosted by Jason Kenseepsion and Rosie Knight and is a production of iHeart podcasts. Our executive producers are Joelle Smith and Aaron Kaufman. Our supervising producer is a Boo Zafar. Our producers are Carmen Laurent and Mia Taylor. Our theme song is by Brian Basquez.
Special thanks to Soul Rubin and Chris Laude, Kenny Goodman and Heidi Our discoll moderata