Godzilla: Monster Island Summer Camp’s Rosie Knight, Oliver Ono Preview New Graphic Novel (Exclusive)

Godzilla fans are eating well. Not only is Godzilla Minus One in theaters, with Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire debuting in 2024, but the series is about to see the return of a very familiar face from the classic stable of Toho characters. Next year will see Toho and IDW publish Godzilla: Monster Island Summer Camp, a new graphic novel from the Godzilla Rivals II: Vs. Battra team of writer Rosie Knight and artist Oliver Ono (with color assists by Nick Marino, and lettered by Jodie Troutman). ComicBook.com caught up with both of them recently to talk about not only the character of Godzilla as a whole but their new graphic novel, including an exclusive preview which you can find below.

Central to the Godzilla: Monster Island Summer Camp graphic novel is that the Son of Godzilla himself, Minilla, will return and be featured in the story. At the time of Minilla’s introduction into the canon it came at a time when Godzilla himself was starting to lean into the fact that the franchise’s biggest audience were children. With Son of Godzilla and later All Monsters Attack, Toho created a purely kid-focused Godzilla movie, including Minilla as a friend to on-screen kids. His entire purpose was to appeal to kids, and in recent years he’s been derided because of his place, but Godzilla: Monster Island Summer Camp will reclaim him for his original purpose.

“Well, I love Minilla, I actually have Manila tattoo,” Knight revealed. “That’s like a character I always remember. I love the feeling and the idea of kind of a monster as a friend to children, which obviously Minilla is. Also I think one of the things that’s wonderful about the internet, is that there has been a resurgence in kind of love for Minilla, even if it’s ironic or through memes. I feel like people know who he is now, and I’ve actually been kind of blown away by the response to this book. So many people wanted to see a new Minilla story. I just absolutely love the idea that this book could potentially be a space for younger readers to discover kaiju.”

With Minilla at the center of their story, Godzilla: Monster Island Summer Camp will be channeling a specific time in the Godzilla franchise, one that was dominated by miniature sets and guys in rubber suits fighting each other. For Ono, getting to embrace the corner of the Godzilla franchise that was campier was a welcome change for him as a fan. “The funny thing is, I hadn’t really seen too much have any any of the campy side of of Godzilla before getting to work on this,” Ono said. “But I’ve really, I’ve really got a got a got a taste for it now, for sure. I love my little my little round, chubby, baby.”

Ono will be channeling that “guy in suit” energy that was a key pillar of the Showa-era Godzilla movies, and thanks to the nature of the character’s designs as a whole it’s a pretty easy thing to make work. If you try to draw them in any other way it doesn’t always work. He adds: “There’s a language that’s formed because of all of that footage. But, obviously, in the comics format it’s even more free form than if I were to be animating it. So you can do some kind of funky stuff and get away with it, that they might not be able to do in a movie or otherwise. And I think the medium itself allows for it to read clearly, even today.”

A common complaint by some viewers about kaiju movies as a whole, but especially Godzilla movies, is that they often go into the story thinking they don’t care about the human characters. Despite the people always being the biggest part of these stories, it’s been a growing trend for years. For Knight, creating relatable human characters is the most challening part of crafting a Godzilla story, and it’s easy to see why, but luckily many viewers seem to be coming around to it. Not only does Monarch: Legacy of Monsters root itself in the human story of the MonsterVerse, but Godzilla Minus One has also earned major praise for its human side.

“It’s just about finding that in,” Knight said. “I think that having an in character who isn’t just a simple avatar, but instead is someone who’s really passionate about something and has complex but relatable interests, that is always a really good way to start.”

For Godzilla: Monster Island Summer Camp there are three lead characters. Central to the story is Zelda, the cartoonist lead that finds herself trapped in what she thought was an art summer camp but which is actually more of a sports summer camp. “We get to have a lot of fun with that and we kind of play on the notion of being a comic, but she’s also making comics all the time,” Knights.

Flanking her in the story will be Weezy (they/them), a painter (who also has a prosthetic arm), and Rumiko, the “cool jock character” that was well aware their summer camp was for sports and not art. Naturally though there’s another big figure in the story, Minilla himself.

“The good thing is that we do love those characters but as I think the cover really showcases this is also Minilla’s story,” Knight noted. “So he gets to be a main character which is really nice because it is very much in that Son of Godzilla vein of like this is the ally to the child and what is this adventure that they can go on together? If you love monsters, there’s still a lot of monsters but I hope that these characters are good.”

“My design of of Minilla is not necessarily, I say this lovingly, but not quite as jarring as some people find the initial one,” Ono added about his take on the Toho kaiju. “And there are some liberties that I’ve taken. But I wanted to kind of catch a nice medium, between like, I can draw it people that have never seen this character will like it. And people that that no and love Minilla will like it. So there’s a lot of there’s a lot of things that I’ve taken into consideration to try to make it as as lovable of a book as I wanted.”

The center of the story is that there are two sides to the island where this summer camp is taking place, with one of those sides being Monster Island. Trouble is brewing on both sides as well, meaning that while things are going one way for the humans, things are also disturbing the kaiju that live on Monster Island as well. Though we can’t see which of Toho’s classic monsters will appear (the title perhaps gives away one), Ono and Knight assure us that “more monsters than just Minilla” have been drawn. If you want a clue about who else might appear, look back to the other movies that Minilla has appeared in to see who might be showing up (try Son of Godzilla, Destroy All Monsters, and All Monsters Attack). 

“I’m so excited for people to see it,” Knight said with one final tease. “Because when I first envisioned it, I didn’t really imagine differentiating between the two sides of the island, but it has kind of evolved into the most lush, interesting, unique looking book and it is just it’s so cool. I’m really excited for people to see Monster Island in this version of the Godzilla world.”

You can find the full solicitation for Godzilla: Monster Island Summer Camp below:

As an aspiring cartoonist, Zelda has always dreamed of attending an art summer camp, and this year she finally gets to go! But when she arrives to Make It Summer Camp, she’s horrified to see the easels and sketchboards have been replaced with dodgeball and calisthenics. The camp is under new, suspicious management that’s turned it into an extreme sports nightmare.

Determined to salvage her summer, Zelda escapes to a secluded corner of the island. Here she can finally draw in peace. At least until she stumbles into a portal to a fantastic world!

There she makes a connection with baby kaiju Minilla and discovers the beauty of these legendary creatures. However, all is not well on Monster Island. Great evils are stirring and if Zelda can’t protect their home, the kaiju will unleash their wrath on the world.

Godzilla: Monster Island Summer Camp will run 128 pages, retail for $12.99, and be published on August 13, 2024 by IDW.