It’s no exaggeration to say that the Godzilla has reached new heights not just on the big screen with films such as the acclaimed Godzilla Minus One and the highly anticipated sequel Minus Zero, but most especially in publishing thanks to the phenomenal and diverse line of books from IDW Publishing. During New York Comic Con, we had the opportunity to sit down with comic creators Nick Marino, writer of the current Sonic the Hedgehog x Godzilla miniseries, and Oliver Ono, artist of Starship Godzilla. During our conversation, Marino and Ono revealed their prior familiarity with the franchise and discussed why the King of the Monsters still resonates with audiences after more than seventy years.
The interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Taimur Dar: It seems obvious to begin by asking the first time you encountered Godzilla as a character and a franchise?
Oliver Ono: I grew up in a weird pocket. I was born in ’93 so my first technical Godzilla that I saw was the American one with Zilla. It was a weird place. My mental idea of what Godzilla is was always a lot more dinosaur-y than what Godzilla actually is. That was my first entry point. Then I saw Shin and the Legendary movies. I was never really fed into the old stuff. As soon as I got pulled on, I started watching the old movies and I really like it. Power Rangers was my favorite thing growing up as well. That whole tokusatsu-mation thing is something I’m very comfortable with and enjoy. That’s where I come at it from.
Nick Marino: I think my first awareness of Godzilla in a concrete way came from Godzilla vs. Barkley when they did that showdown. I do think if you trace a line from there to what I’m doing now with Sonic x Godzilla, it’s a pretty straight line of what we’re trying to do. Take two things that feel like they shouldn’t be together and have fun putting them together. From there, there wasn’t a lot of access to Godzilla media for me as a young person. I was a teenager in the late ‘90s and I used to enjoy the cartoon based on the American Godzilla film, Godzilla: The Animated Series. I still enjoy it. I love that it’s a monster of the week and they’re all really gross and weird. That hits for me.
I would say the person who got me into Godzilla is somebody who Oliver and I have in common, my ex Rosie Knight. Rosie is a massive Godzilla fan. We got married a decade ago. Godzilla was just something that was always in the house. I had never really gone back and watched the old films like Oliver was saying. But around the time that we knew we might start be working on some of the Godzilla stuff, I was spending a lot more time watching it. Before that, I already watched my favorite Godzilla film which is Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla 1974 with my dude King Caesar. Forever in my heart. [Pounds chest]. Writing Mechagodzilla in this crossover has been so much fun because I’ve had all these dreams and spins about how I could mess with the character. I do wish I found a way to use King Caesar but unfortunately he was not on the table for this one. I love everything Godzilla now. I’ve gone back and watched pretty much all of it but I still have gaps in my knowledge.
Oliver Ono: We got to use King Caesar in Monser Island Summer Camp. That was by request. There were a couple of different options and that was the one I went with.
Nick Marino: Thank you for doing that because that meant a lot to me.
Taimur Dar: Starship Godzilla: Invasion X, the followup series to Starship Godzilla, will feature an upgraded version of the S.S. Mechagodzilla. Oliver, what went into the redesign?
Oliver Ono: It’s the ultimate compliment to be trusted by my editors and Toho to get to draw that and put my own spin on that. Starship Godzilla himself is not really Kiryu. It’s mostly Kiryu focused but even that initial time I was doing it I was changing up some of the shapes. Obviously the proportions are a lot different than a movie accurate version. My big goal for the next five issues was to let them trust me to do it. I kind of had a taste of it when I got to design Gamagera which is a brand-new Toho kaiju to add to the pantheon. That was almost a test run to make something from scratch that felt right.
That being said, it still has to look like the original Starship Godzilla. It’s just an upgrade, repainted Starship Godzilla. I gave a bunch of different concepts and the red [color] was one of them. I think it turned out really good. I got to start from scratch and think what will actually look the best when it transform into spaceship form. How can I make a Godzilla form more [like a] spaceship? I was also trying to get a little more angular and aggressive in general. The wings were something I wanted to put in in the initial idea but I was turned down. Luckily, they let me do it this time.
Nick Marino: I will give a little tease for Beat readers that we will be modifying the inside of Mechagodzilla [in Sonic x Godzilla].
Taimur Dar: Why do you think Godzilla has been experiencing a comeback?
Oliver Ono: I think we’ve been really luck that the current imaginings, both on the Japanese side and the American side, are hitting a bunch of different interests. The quality is as good as it’s ever been as well. Minus One and Minus Zero are very compelling.
Nick Marino: Sophisticated storytelling in those films. That resonates with a mature fanbase who maybe didn’t always have a way to connect with that side of the character before.
Oliver Ono: If you look at something like Shin, that’s almost the cosmic horror of a kaiju. On the other side of it with Legendary, they are almost doing that Shōwa monster bash vibe. There’s a diversity of interests that are bringing people into it and we’ve got high quality stuff coming from all different directions of the fandom. I feel very lucky.
Nick Marino: Speaking of the fandom, they’re the ones who are cluing me into what’s part of the zeitgeist right now. I meet a lot of people between doing these events and the little shop that I run. We’ve done signings at movie theaters and libraries. We’ve taken our Godzilla stories everywhere and it’s been wonderful to meet so many different kinds of people. I’ve noticed that young people are really drawn not just to Godzilla but kaiju in general. My theory on it is I think for kids who are in the ages of 5-15, there’s something about the existential dread of a giant monster that’s punishing you for humanity’s collective sins. The same way that Walking Dead got a chokehold on people because it resonated with their existential fears of the thoughtless. There’s something about a giant monster that really seems to resonate with young people in a way that not a lot of them can explain. But I see them fascinated by it. They love that Godzilla plays both sides of the line. Godzilla is a hero and a villain depending on the situation. That doesn’t stop them for enjoying it. In some ways that’s part of what resonates for them.
Taimur Dar: Finally, anything you want to plug for our readers?
Nick Marino. The week this goes up, we’re going to be dropping our third issue of Sonic x Godzilla. I love what’s in there. Sonic and Knuckles have some crazy. It’s a Shadow focused issue which is really cool for our Shadow fans who are definitely underfed right now. I see you. I hear you. I want to do more Shadow for you. You’re going to get a taste of how I’m writing him in this issue. We’ll wrap our series in November/December. After that, we’ll see what happens.
Oliver Ono: On my end, October 14th is the [release of] Invasion X, the next run of Starship Godzilla where he’s bigger, badder, and red. We’re planning for five issues. On the art side of things, I can say I put a lot more of myself into this than any other project so far. I’m really trying to amp up the scale and stakes. In the last run we were on a lot of barren planets and outposts. This time the war is being brought more into the center of the galaxy.
Stay tuned to The Beat for more news from NYCC ’26.
