It’s been a while since Godzilla visited Australia. The last time was during 2004’s Godzilla: Final Wars when he destroyed both the Sydney Opera House and Zilla – AKA the titular monster from Roland Emmerich’s much-derided 1998 Godzilla flick. But after 20 years, the King of the Monsters is back on Australian shores – in Port Kembla, to be specific.
In Godzilla: Skate or Die , a five-issue mini-series written and drawn by Australian cartoonist Louie Joyce , the titular monster will face off against one of his lesser-known opponents, Varan. As these two colossal beasts face off against one another, we follow a group of friends who attempt to save their local DIY skate spot from encroaching kaiju chaos. With the first issue of Godzilla: Skate or Die set to shred its way into comic stores soon, we spoke with Louie about the series’ origin, his influences when creating it and the kaiju-sized task of tackling such an iconic character.
“Skateboarders facing off against Godzilla in Port Kembla” is a pretty unique pitch for the character. How did the concept for Godzilla: Skate or Die come about? Louie : Originally I was contacted by Jazmine Joyner, who was an editor for IDW at that time. They asked me to pitch an idea for the Godzilla Rivals series, where each issue is self-contained.
It’s like 40 pages, and you have a list of kaiju you can pick from. Around that time, I got back into rollerblading. I grew up skating around Newie and Sydney, and I got back into it .
