Godzilla: Monster Island Summer Camp (2024)
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Godzilla: Monster Island Summer Camp is an original graphic novel from IDW Publishing, written by Rosie Knight and illustrated by Oliver Ono. It was released on August 20, 2024.[1]
Description
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This fresh Godzilla OGN proves that kaiju are for kids. Especially the ones who’d rather befriend beasts than fight them.
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! Welcome to Monster Island, Zelda! 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.[1] |
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Plot
Zelda is on a bus to summer camp to hone her talents as a cartoonist, her mother's hard-won birthday gift to her. The bus comes to a screeching halt at their camp and a counselor, Jack, comes aboard to confiscate the campers' cell phones. Having dropped her art supplies and cane, she earns his ire by being the last one on the bus, and he stuns her with a reference to More Inc. Sports Camp. He explains that the company took over the camp this year, after her mother made the reservation, but kept all existing reservations. He describes the camp's expansive facilities, glossing over three large devices in the water as they walk past them, and leads her to her cabin. Inside, she meets Rumiko and Weezy. Rumiko came to the camp aware of its rebrand; Weezy, while also good at sports, was expecting an art camp like Zelda. They also are resentful of a comment Jack made about their red prosthetic arm, which was built by their sister and programmed with different grip patterns for brushes and pens. Her cabinmates are both highly impressed. Just as they begin to discuss Zelda's comics, with Rumiko asking if she's ever made any with monsters
At the dining hall, Rumiko explains that she asked about monster comics due to her love of cryptids. Jack again interrupts them, introducing himself and his fellow counselors, Dane and Morgan, then ordering the campers to run laps. Zelda refuses, citing her health, and Weezy isn't interested. The counselors threaten to make Rumiko do triple the exercise in their place, which she agrees to with gusto, and restrict them to one person in their cabin at a time outside of sleeping hours. Zelda tells Weezy that they can go back to the cabin first, as their easel is there, while she explores the wilderness around the camp. She enters a cave and approaches a strange column of water suspended in the air. A clawed hand pulls her through it - and into another realm. She follows the small monster into the woods, but dents her cane against a tree. She finds them attempting to hide by a river. With the monster unable to understand her speech, she draws a cartoon of herself and her dented cane and asks for help. The monster walks over to a statue, breaks off the scepter the figure is holding, and offers it to her. She presses it into the ground and is shocked when it shoots out sparks. The monster, whose roars she can now understand, explains that it's a magical artifact. They elaborate that the two of them are on Monster Island, which was peaceful until strange men appeared on the other side of the portal and the ground began to shake, angering many of the monsters. She offers to help them, but knows she needs to return to camp soon before her absence is noticed. As she leaves, the monster introduces themself as Minilla. She's excited to tell Weezy and Rumiko what happened, only to find them both already asleep.
She wakes up to the earth shaking and counselors frantically talking, one cutting off another from saying a certain word. Over the next five days, she continues visiting Monster Island, teaching Minilla to draw. Rumiko and Weezy notice her absence and find it odd, especially since the counselors aren't really enforcing their rules. Both have enjoyed their time at camp so far, but are worried she's off bored by herself. They resolve to follow her the next morning. That same morning, Zelda resolves to Minilla to tell her cabinmates the truth. Suddenly, Kamacuras appears, chasing them back to the portal. Minilla protectively ushers her through and stays behind, despite her worries that Monster Island is no longer safe for them either. She finds Rumiko and Weezy on the other side, and the trio flee the cave as it quakes from Kamacuras's wrath. She tells them about Monster Island, thrilling Rumiko. Back at their cabin, they compare notes about the counselors and the earthquakes, finding both suspicious. Weezy investigates a creaking outside and finds Walter, another camper. He tells them that the new cabins automatically turn off their lights at 9 PM, and because he always reads before going to bed, he's being trekking over to use the lights outside their older cabin. He heads out, not wanting one of the counselors to catch him, but agrees to return tomorrow night, calling it a date to Weezy and her cabinmates' delight.
The next day, Rumiko brings out her monster almanac to look up Kamacuras. A gust of wind flips the book's pages to the entry on Godzilla, who Rumiko explains is the King of the Monsters. Ororo, another camper, takes notice of the page. After being introduced to Zelda and Weezy, she dashingly reveals that she also owns a copy of the almanac. Zelda has a dream of Minilla calling to her for help as a bulldozer blade reaches towards them. Hearing the same cry for her scepter, she resolves to return to Monster Island. Rumiko and Weezy tag along, with Rumiko bringing a bat to ward off the counselors. Jack finds them first, but is quickly joined by Morgan and Dane. The counselors escort the kids to the Behemoth, a gargantuan sports testing facility - which has never been tested itself. Their first obstacle is a rock climbing wall. Zelda is worried that she won't be able to scale it with her hip, so Rumiko and Weezy hold onto opposite handles of a bag to support her. In the next level, they face a line of machines firing dodgeballs, which Weezy angrily deflects. Level three entails hopping across raised platforms as giant axes swing at them, which the trio instantly agrees is impassible. Reasoning that the counselors wouldn't be willing to brave this level themselves, Zelda finds the level to an escape hatch in the floor. They use a zipline to reach solid ground, with Rumiko exhilarated by the adventure and Weezy and Zelda aghast at the camp's disregard for their safety. A man in a black suit spots them entering the cave and reports back to his superiors.
Minilla is nowhere to be seen on Monster Island - but the trio soon encounters Ebirah. As Rumiko explains the etymology of his name, the kaiju notices them and swings a claw. They hastily return to the cave, where they find Minilla. They relate their escape from Ebirah to Zelda, who sketches it moments before his claw reaches for them through the portal. With Monster Island increasingly dangerous, the trio decides to bring Minilla back with them to camp, disguising them with a hat, sunglasses, and a trench coat. They find the camp oddly deserted. After another quake strikes while they're in their cabin. Minilla was unaware that the earthquakes were also happening on the humans' side of the portal, and the trio concludes that More Inc. must be somehow responsible, as the area has no history of seismic activity. They plan to break into the counselors' lodge during the campfire celebration that night. For this excursion, Minilla dons a sunhat and bandana, which they adore. The group navigates through the expansive celebration, where a rock band is performing, hot dog tempt Minilla, Morgan tells a scary story, and Weezy catches up with Walter. Jack finds Weezy breaking away from the crowd and, to their surprise, takes them straight to the lodge while he searches for their friends. They leave with a set of blueprints, aided by Ororo and Rumiko. Jack plants Zelda at the campfire, but Minilla comes to her rescue, interrupting Morgan just as they reach the climax of their monster story. Jack, thinking Minilla is a fake, charges at the group. He trips, but snatches the blueprints away.
Minilla leads the four kids to their hideout in the cave. Weezy reports that the blueprints showed a hydraulic fracking rig - More Inc. must be using the camp as a cover to illegally frack an oil well, which is what's causing the earthquakes. Rumiko and Ororo suggest asking for Godzilla's help to stop the rig, as despite his violent reputation, he's also a protector of nature. Redrawing the rig from memory, Weezy realizes that fracking is the true function of the Behemoth. Rumiko recalls that her monster almanac mentioned that Godzilla uses tunnels to reach an underground hibernation pool. Minilla recalls such tunnels from their infancy - but they're filled with water. Minilla leads the kids to a installation inside the cave containing four More Inc. mech suits for diving. The kids climb into the suits and Minilla launches them into the water. They pass giant fish, then are ensnared in a giant jellyfish's tentacles. Minilla, knowing the jellyfish, convinces it to release them. Finally they reach Godzilla, who Minilla awakens by roaring. They relay the kids' plea for Godzilla to destroy the wellhole with his heat ray. Godzilla quickly sets off, leading them past fissures caused by the fracking before surfacing in a chamber containing the end of the wellhole. He fires his heat ray straight through the wellhole, which destroys the Behemoth once it reaches the surface. As the chamber collapses, the kids grab onto Godzilla and he takes them back to Monster Island.
Minilla no longer senses the other monsters' anger. Kamacuras, Ebirah, and King Caesar soon appear before them, but King Caesar bows to show his thanks and the trio departs. Godzilla vanishes into the sea. Before the kids can enjoy their victory, however, they are confronted by a More Inc. executive, accompanied by Jack, Dane, and more men in black suits. He brands them eco-terrorists and notes that even though there were no witnesses to the wellhole's destruction, they still stole the diving suits. He thanks them, however, for leading the company to Monster Island, which he plans to exploit, outraging the kids. Before his goons can grab the kids, however, Mothra appears overhead, blowing the villains away with a single flap of her wings. The kids and Minilla share their plans with Mothra to transform the camp into a place to teach people about monsters. The kids embrace Minilla, with Zelda especially reluctant to part ways, and head back through the portal, with Minilla taking a ride on Mothra's back. Not ready to find out what's become of the camp and how much trouble they're in just yet, the kids sleep in Minilla's cave. Zelda and Weezy reflect that despite all the hardships, it was the best summer ever. The next day, they find the kids running wild across the camp and Morgan shouting, "More Inc. sucks!" from a rooftop. Walter, handing out free books, explains that after the Behemoth exploded, the counselors locked the kids in their cabins. Minilla, however, appeared to help them escape and stage a takeover. They find a large group of campers protesting the company as Minilla finishes rounding up the loyalist counselors. Mothra flies over the scene.
One year later, Zelda and her friends have returned to the camp, which has been dramatically transformed into Monster Island Summer Camp. Some kids paint, others play soccer, and monsters are everywhere, including Minilla, Mothra, King Caesar, Kamacuras, and Ebirah. The land's original stewards granted them the camp to teach humanity about conservation; with their first year a massive success, they're eagerly awaiting even more campers next year.
Appearances
Monsters
Characters
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Weapons, vehicles, races, and organizations
Locations
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Gallery
Concept art
Character sheet by Oliver Ono
Covers
Cover by Oliver Ono
Back cover
Online exclusive hardcover edition by Oliver Ono
Trivia
- Rosie Knight and Oliver Ono previously collaborated on the one-shot comic Godzilla Rivals: Vs. Battra.
- The graphic novel's three main human characters are named after female comic writers and/or artists: Zelda after Jackie Ormes (born Zelda Marvin Jackson), Weezy after Louise "Weezie" Simonson, and Rumiko after Rumiko Takahashi. Descriptions of their lives and careers are included at the end of the book.
- Ororo's parents named her after Storm (Ororo Munroe) of Marvel Comics' X-Men. Before climbing into a diving suit, she paraphrases the team's rallying cry, "To me, my X-Men!"
- Rumiko refers to Ebirah with the epithet "Horror of the Deep", referencing the international title of the monster's debut film, Ebirah, Horror of the Deep.
- Rumiko mistakes a giant jellyfish for Dogora, the first acknowledgement of the kaiju in any printed American Godzilla story.
References
This is a list of references for Godzilla: Monster Island Summer Camp. These citations are used to identify the reliable sources on which this article is based. These references appear inside articles in the form of superscript numbers, which look like this: [1]
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