How the US rustbelt inspired Godzilla Rivals artist's retro futurist kaijus and mechas

The character artist and illustrator Oliver Ono worked on Godzilla Rivals II: Battra, written by Rosie Knight and published by IDW, and has created promotional art for clothing brand Garuda, editorial art for the magazine Read-Only Memory and a short in Spitball II: A Comic Anthology, for which he worked with Eisner Award nominee Jonathan Hickman.

He excels at depicting retro futurist kaijus and mechas, and Oliver thinks was partly inspired by his growing up in the American Rust Belt, where the environment reflects a more industrious past. This led to him injecting his characters and stories with a sense of history that’s often left for the viewer to decipher.

Now based in the Little Tokyo neighborhood of Los Angeles, he uses both Photoshop and traditional materials (see our pick of the best pens for artists). Below, he tells us about four examples of his work, including art that he made for his own project, Arma Cursor.

Oliver's also working on a manga-style series, They’re After Aster, the first leg of which is set to appear in the second volume of the Manga anthology, Project Big Hype.

Kiryu Mechagodzilla

Of his design of Kiryu Mechagodzilla, Oliver says he “was trying to draw robots that felt alive”. That led to his current project, Starship Godzilla.

Arma Cursor

This was the first image made for Oliver's personal work Arma Cursor. “I blended inspiration from Japanese woodblock prints and US Comics,” he says.

Ondeen

This sequential artwork is from a horror retelling of the mermaid myth that Oliver is working on with his brother. “This shows the lead-up to the first meeting between the prince and the mermaid,” Oliver says.

Vira

“A panel taken from my current series!,” Oliver says. “The best and most difficult thing about working on kaiju is getting to play with scale.”

You can see more of Oliver's work on his website.

For more inspiration, see our feature what is concept art? Also check out this Blender sketch that people can't believe is 3D.

This article originally appeared in ImagineFX. Subscribe to ImagineFX to never miss an issue. Print and digital subscriptions are available.