[Interview] Writer Duane Swierczynski’s History with GODZILLA

From 2012 to 2013, author (Revolver, John Carpenter's Tales of Science Fiction: Redhead) and screenwriter (he’s currently adapting his short story Lush for Lionsgate) Duane Swierczynski wrote 13 issues of Godzilla: History’s Greatest Monster (now often collected as Godzilla: Ongoing) for IDW Publishing, with art from Simon Gane. The story takes place in a world almost entirely overrun by kaiju (besides our King of the Monsters, joining in on the destruction are Kumonga, Rodan, Anguirus, Battra, Titanosaurus, Mothra, Hedorah, Gigan, Ghidorah… you name ‘em, they show up), which prompts a motley crew of loose cannon specialists to channel their grief into making $7 billion a head for fully immobilizing the monsters.

Swierczynski’s background in crime fiction and his noir influences mix incredibly well with an action-packed monster mash (“my secret pitch to friends was always ‘it's essentially Jason Statham versus Godzilla in an ‘80s action movie’—but not in a legally actionable way.”) The run is darkly comedic and deeply fun, so I thought it’d be a great time to revisit the series and see what bringing Godzilla to life in the American four-color industry was like.

Stephanie Crawford: Were you approached for this gig or did you campaign for it?

Duane Swierczynski: They came to me. I was with Marvel exclusively for a few years prior. Once that ended, I was sort of free to basically be a comics whore. I did work for DC Comics for a little while, but then I was also free to do other things. I was friends with Chris Ryall, the editor-in-chief at the time at IDW. So, I think he thought of me and mentioned me as a possibility to his editors. The thing with comics pitches is “we might want you, so give us your best shot.” I sent three ideas their way just hoping that one of them would stick, and one did.

The trick with that is, with licensed comics, you have to please your publisher, but also go back to the license holder and make sure they're okay with it. I was a little nervous about Toho: it's a pretty big deal. They have to approve my idea, but also the artists have to be approved. I give them so much credit for getting Simon Gane, a great indie-style artist, for a Godzilla comic and it worked out so beautifully.

SC: What’s your history with Godzilla, and how did that impact your approach to this series?

DS: My background with Godzilla was always watching the movies on Saturday afternoons when they’d replay them on VHF stations. And it's not like I remember a dozen different movies. I remember one long Godzilla movie, basically, where they all kind of blurred together for me. So I went back and re-watched them to fully appreciate the difference between the eras and approaches.

I mean, this is me in the ‘70s and early ‘80s watching these things, so I couldn't tell you back then what happened. I decided to research by diving in and kind of really understand what do I love, what do fans love, and can you make mash them all together and kind of feature everybody almost like guest stars on The Love Boat?

SC: How much was Toho involved? Were they very protective?

DS: I think we only heard when things went a little wrong. Honestly, it was mostly minor things. The one thing I remember vividly was that at one point, Simon was drawing Godzilla a little too realistically. And the note was, “make him more like a man in a suit.” Which, of course, is great advice, but I just thought that was funny. I think it's a credit to Simon's artwork that it was still classic yet realistic. But they thought his first few pages were a little too “natural” and not enough of a guy in a suit.

I was pleasantly surprised with what we got away with. I really always try to get myself fired whenever I try to do something to see how far I can push it.

SC: There’s a real rogue’s gallery of kaiju fighting each other in the series. Were there any directives about who you could or couldn’t use, and how did you approach that?

DS: I knew the marching orders from (IDW editor) Bobby Curnow were about trying to squeeze in whoever possible if it feels right for the story. There was no “you have to use X, Y, and Z.” I think our initial idea was that this is going to end up as big of a giant mash up as possible. And any chance to feature fan favorites, go for it, but there never was pressure to say, okay, you have to use these guys. I like those kinds of creative handcuffs. They’re kind of fun because it forces you to make choices.

Left to my own devices, I would have had just Godzilla and Godzilla, Jr. and a small, intimate cast kind of thing. They wanted a spectacle. So, once that was open, it was a free-for-all.

SC: How did writing for Godzilla compare to other IPs you’ve written for?

DS: The best part was just the spectacle. I guess Cable was pretty big, because there’s a lot of killing with a world-ending apocalypse. So I guess it was a return to that after years of smaller-scale projects. Comics are bombastic, but here was the freedom to flatten a city, which you can’t exactly do with Gotham City.

I was especially gleeful about writing a few sentences, and then poor Simon had to draw this shit. I mean, there's some elaborate stuff. Even a knocked-over skyscraper is just so detailed. For me, it's like about a minute to write it, but for poor Simon... He's just great. His detailed work is just incredible. I was blown away.

A lot of the fun was also working in little personal things there, like family and friendship. I love characters who are pushed too far, who have no good options. Just to see what they do when pushed into a corner. They have no help, no weapons, they have one bullet, maybe a toothpick. What do you do? How do you fight back from that? That, to me, is the fun.

SC: Godzilla fans are a passionate lot. What was the feedback from them like?

DS: Godzilla fans are great, but it can also feel like they’re trying to catch you in things. Sometimes, even now, I'll get weird emails or tweets with things like, “Hey, you used SpaceGodzilla, and he did this thing. But in these movies, he didn't.” It's like, wait, hold on. I'm trying to find what exactly they’re referring to, and my brain breaks. Did I mess up? I'm defensive! All of a sudden it’s like, ”Oh, God, I screwed something up. No, I thought it was vetted!” You know, we all went over these things and Toho signed off on them. So I get a little nervous about that kind of stuff. Every time I see an email that has “Godzilla” in the subject, I still get kind of anxious, like, “what did I do to these poor people?”

SC: Did your view of Godzilla change after writing the series?

DS: For sure. Once you spend multiple issues with the characters, it's like you kind of get under their scaly skin a little bit, and it's kind of fun to see that point of view. I have appreciation now of how hard it is to do a good Godzilla movie for a story. It is tough.

SC: What do you think of the new American Godzilla movies with that in mind?

DS: I loved a lot of GODZILLA VS KONG, but a lot of it is the same problem: it's like the human story doesn't quite match the cool epic. I just want pure epic! But you can't do that, because you have to ground it somehow with people, so I guess I have an appreciation for how hard it is to do that.

Having written a series makes me think, “No, you guys don’t understand, it's tough!” when looking at how the Legendary Entertainment movies are negatively talked about online. It's really hard to balance all you know, make it all work, and not have to feel like the human plot is just squeezed in there.

One of my pitches was about getting into Godzilla’s mindset, “Okay, I'm waking up underwater, some things have awoken me. I'm pissed off. There are annoying flies and ants on me.” What is that like? They're oblivious to our human concerns. I guess, when you're watching a Godzilla movie, you want to be in the monster POV corner. You don't care about the humans. Who cares? Step on the cast and it's over in a few minutes if you really want it to be over. So there’s that balancing act is something I've come to appreciate.

SC: Would you want to tackle a Godzilla screenplay?

DS: In a heartbeat. That would also probably give me a bit of a pause too, because now, where do you take it? You already have a lot of preset things that Legendary built that are sort of play in that sandbox. But I would do it, I’d figure out a way. I’m not going to pretend to be Mr. Artsy; I’d love to.

Thank you to Duane Swierczynski for his time and insight! Mr. Swierczynski’s run on Godzilla: Ongoing (also known as Godzilla: History’s Greatest Monster) is available in a collection and through Comixology. For more information about Mr. Swierczynski and his works, please check out his Linktree.