In recent years, IDW has been relaunching a new line of Godzilla-centric comics with a line known as the Kei-Sei Era, in addition to projects such as Godzilla Vs. America. This anthology series features the King of the Monsters unleashing his wrath on various American cities including Portland, Oregon. As fans are likely aware, Portland is home to many comics creators and publishers such as as Cat Farris. During Rose City Comic Con, The Beat had the chance to sit down with Farris as well as IDW Publishing senior designer Sandy Tanakato discuss their story featured in the Godzilla Vs. Portland comic.
ISAAC SWINDLE: Can you give me a brief rundown of the Godzilla Vs. series? I know that IDW is doing all these Godzilla Vs. projects, give me a brief rundown and how you all came onto the project.
CAT FARRIS:Well, Godzilla vs. Portland is [a one-shot with] four different stories by local Portland comic book artists and writers all telling a tale of Godzilla attacking Portland and how the city fares during said attack. I actually came onto this project because Sandy recommended me and I’m still super flattered about that. My art style doesn’t necessarily scream “Godzilla,” but I am a huge Godzilla fan.
SANDY TANAKA:I’m a senior designer at IDW, so I did the lettering for three out of the four stories. And then did the design of the thing, and then there will be a hard back of Godzilla vs. Portland, and a box set of the different Godzilla Vs. books. So it’s kind of nice.
SWINDLE: Are you a Portland local, too?
TANAKA:Yes, I am.
SWINDLE: Why was Portland chosen as a place for Godzilla’s wrath? I know there are quite a few IDW employees here, too.
TANAKA:Oh, a little bit of that. It seemed like the city that could handle Godzilla? And that we had a lot going on in the news. We’re always in the news.
FARRIS:We’re not landlocked, so it’s easy for Godzilla to get to us. I’m a little confused as to how Godzilla has made it to some of the other states that are fully inland.
SWINDLE: And what is your connection to Portland? Have you all been here for very long?
FARRIS:I was born here, actually, at Portland Adventist. And grew up here, moved away, came back. I’ve been here steadily for the last 20 years.
TANAKA:And I’ve been here for 17 years. I actually moved here when I had my kid and wanted to raise him [here].
SWINDLE: What’s it like working with the other Portland creators on the book? Were you all close beforehand? Did you know any of the others or just tangentially?
FARRIS:I knew everybody. Colleen Coover, who did one of the other stories, is my studio mate. So we were kind of doing ours in tandem but a lot of us did our own. Colleen wrote and drew and colored [her own story], and I think maybe did she letter her own?
TANAKA:Yeah, she did.
FARRIS:She did everything on hers, so we didn’t really collaborate necessarily, but we did get feedback based on what each other was including in their stories. I wanted to have some Sasquatch action, and Jake [Williams], one of the editors, was like, “I’m so sorry but without spoiling anything, Colleen has got Sasquatch covered in hers, and so you need to not add Sasquatch in yours.” I was like, “Coover!” But I also wrote and drew mine, but Sandy lettered it. Which was really cool. I love seeing how other people complete the steps and interpret things. It was really fun. Mark [Russell] and Eryk [Donovan] worked together. Mark Russell did the writing, and my buddy Eric did the art. I think that was the only story where it wasn’t one person doing the writing and the drawing. It was split up. It’s nice knowing that all your friends are also doing stories in this book with you and then you have a thing you can share and be proud of.
SWINDLE: Sandy, being from Portland, did you have any say in who got chosen for the book?
TANAKA:Well, I knew that we were making a book, and I wanted to be really involved in it. So the editors were asking for recommendations. I knew the place. It’s a pretty tight community. We all know each other and we run into each other, so I just knew it was going to be really fun and really good.
Godzilla Vs. Portland released earlier this year and will be collected in a hardcover edition releasing February 16, 2027.
For more coverage of Portland’s Rose City Comic Con, check out our other articles here.
