The following is an interview with writer/artist Louie Joyce (Haphaven, A Fistful of Pain) regarding the upcoming conclusion of Godzilla: Skate or Die with IDW Publishing. In this interview, Fanbase Press Editor-in-Chief Barbra Dillon chats with Joyce about his personal connection to the story in shining a light on Australia’s skateboarding community, where you can find more of his work, and more!
Barbra Dillon, Fanbase Press Editor-in-Chief: Congratulations on the upcoming release of the final issue! In looking back at the development and creation of the series, what can you share with us about your creative process that really made this series unique from your already incredible body of work?
Louie Joyce: Thank you! It’s been such an exciting, challenging, and rewarding project to work on, it’s hard to believe it’s all wrapped up!
The thing that really set this apart from my other longer-format comic work (such as Haphaven or Past the Last Mountain) is that I was pretty much doing everything! Writing, drawing and colours. (Thankfully, I had Rus Wooten on letters and Jake Williams’ amazing guidance as an editor, otherwise I’d probably have gone insane!) While I often create shorter-form stories and zines where I do everything, I’ve not written anything of this length before, and for an established IP of this scale. Freaking Godzilla, King of the Monsters!!
So, it was an intimidating project to be sure, and a major learning curve. But I balanced all that by really focusing in on this ultra-niche story and location that wrapped up all these things I love about skating and growing up in Australia, against the backdrop of an epic Kaiju showdown. Honestly, a dream project for sure!
BD: With Skate or Die, you brought an element of “home” to the series in celebrating the vibrant skateboarding community in Australia, especially after this year’s Olympic gold medal win. Do you have a close personal connection to skateboarding, and what did you feel was most important to represent with regard to skateboarding in the narrative?
LJ: Absolutely! So much of this story is inspired by memories of me and my mates skating around when I was younger and now my reignited passion for rollerblading as I’ve gotten back into it later in life. There’s something so powerful and freeing about cruising around with wheels under your feet and that was a major element of what I wanted to share through this story.
Another aspect I really wanted to touch on is the sense of community that comes with skating. When I was blading as a teenager, skateboarders and rollerbladers really didn’t get along. Early 2000s, the hate was at its peak and everyone stuck to their cliques. But I was part of a crew that had bladers, bmxers, and skateboarders in it, so I never understood the hate. I just loved that we were all frothing on skating of some kind! And now getting back into it in recent years, the skatepark is a much more accepting and community driven place. Especially if it’s a DIY skatepark! You’ve got quad skaters, bladers, scooter kids, etc. All kinds of wheels, one shared passion! It’s great.
There’s so many positives to skating. It’s active. It’s creative. It connects you to people. Often, stories like this will involve huge mechas and psychic abilities, these kind of superpower tropes (which I do touch on in the story), but the real super power of this comic is skating itself. It’s what allows the kids to navigate this crazy situation they’ve found themselves in. Skating affects how they view the world and empowers them to make choices they believe in. That’s often what skating can feel like, whether it’s fanging down a huge hill as a kid and surviving, or building a rad DIY spot with your mates!
BD: At Fanbase Press, our #StoriesMatter initiative endeavors to highlight the impact that stories can have on audiences of various mediums. How do you feel that the story has connected with and impacted readers, especially in light of the incredible critical and fan response?
LJ: Yeah, that was something I was really interested to see early on with the project, because it is this very niche skater story and it’s very Australian, but it’s also a Godzilla story and has to navigate all the expectations that come with that character and world. I wasn’t sure exactly how people would respond, but the response has been great overall! I think a lot of that has to do with how niche the story is. It’s not always gonna hit with every reader, but for those it does, it hits hard! It’s a very personal expression at its core and most of the time that’s what people respond to.
I’ve had great responses from skaters and non-skaters alike, which is really cool! Hardcore Godzilla fans who are loving it, and people from where it’s set telling me how amazing it is to see their local town in a Godzilla comic!
BD: Are there any other projects – past or current – that you would like to highlight for our readers?
LJ: Definitely! If people have enjoyed my work on Godzilla: Skate or Die, I would recommend a graphic novella I illustrated last year called A Fistful of Pain! Written by fellow Aussie Ryan K Lindsay and published by ComiXTribe. It’s a standalone story about two sisters fighting over the family dragon and is very much a love letter to martial arts films I loved as a kid (in the same way that Skate or Die is a love letter to skating). It’s also a STUNNING hardcover with die cut and gold foil and whatnot so it’s a lovely artifact to hold and read.
The other one would be Haphaven, a fantastic YA story about a superstitious young girl who steps on a crack and actually breaks her mother’s back! It’s written by Norm Harper, published by Oni Press. It’s one of my favourite things I’ve drawn, and I still read it with my kids all the time. A beautiful, new hardcover edition came out earlier this year, too!
Otherwise you can scope a bunch more stuff at louiejoyce.com.
BD: Lastly, what would you like to tell fans who want to learn more about the final issue of Godzilla: Skate or Die?
LJ: It’s out this week (November 20th)! And it goes out with a bang (and a Skreonk or two)!
