Are you ready for the wildest vacation of your life? Well, get ready as writer Steve Thompson and artist Gonzalo Ruggieri are bringing Ill Vacation to Comixology on June 17. In the book, two soldiers named Bob and Mary take an experimental drug that completely messes with their reality, mixing dreams and real life in bonkers ways. But for Thompson, the goal was to set the reality, before breaking it.
“I researched locations and people of that period to try and keep it as close to the truth as possible,” Thompson told Comic Book Club over email. “For example, there was a US base on Easter Island, but about a decade later than the one in my story, and that base only had a small group of soldiers on it. They suffered unexplained radio blackouts often, which lends it a slightly spooky air already.”
To find out more about the making of the book, as well as what’s next for the fledgling writer, read on.
Comic Book Club: I was fascinated by the fact that this graphic novel just starts — meaning by the first page, we’re already mid-situation. What led to this approach?
Steve Thompson: Thank you! I’m glad you found that interesting. I loved the idea of throwing the reader in at the deep end and then leaving them to try and figure out where they are. I think you can have a slower build-up to a story, or you can just start halfway in – with it all kicking off – and I thought this was the best approach. That initial scene is also inspired by something that Steven Spielberg does. I first noticed it in Close Encounters and then in Jurassic Park; it’s a trademark of his. He’ll have two characters with a loud noise behind them, such as a sandstorm or a strong wind, and the characters are shouting at each other, trying to be heard. What it does is create this tension where everyone is stressed and fighting to be heard, and it feels hurried and immediate. I loved that and tried to use that effect here with Gonzalo’s sound FX curling around Bob and his commanding officer.
As part of the plot, you’re imposing dream logic on the real world… How do you set up rules for something like this? Where are the guardrails?
That’s a great question, and there are 2 things I did. First, I grounded the fantastical elements in real events and places. I researched locations and people of that period to try and keep it as close to the truth as possible. For example, there was a US base on Easter Island, but about a decade later than the one in my story, and that base only had a small group of soldiers on it. They suffered unexplained radio blackouts often, which lends it a slightly spooky air already. In the book, Bob and Mary are part of a secret experiment to test a new drug, an event which was based on real WWII drug tests that were sometimes harmful or fatal to soldiers who were often also from disadvantaged backgrounds. When the dreamy, nightmare, horror stuff starts, it may seem random, but there’s this underlying pinning of real events. The weird stuff our heroes are seeing are manifestations of real things they’ve witnessed. A tall monster with a big eye like a lighthouse or a flying, whining creature with markings like a ballistic missile, for example.
You’ve got your two protagonists, Bob and Mary… What went into crafting them?
When we start the story, the rest of Bob and Mary’s company are shipping out and leaving the two of them to guard the base. We don’t know why, but they are in a hurry and they’ve obviously been freaked out by something. They leave the two soldiers they see as most expendable to deal with the whole island. On top of that, Bob is a warrant officer, the lowest of the officer class, but they leave the mechanic, Mary, in charge to add insult to injury. As Bob is a good person, he doesn’t complain, he gets on with guarding the island, and when things start to fall apart, he doesn’t cower or run away; he stands up to it. Same with Mary, she is shocked by these monsters appearing, but she takes it in her stride, with courage and fortitude. Both our heroes are shaped by trauma already, as we later learn in chapter two, but it doesn’t mean they go to pieces or forget their responsibilities. Those are the characters I love to craft, people who do what is right when all is wrong.
What was it like working with Gonzalo Ruggieri on this book, particularly given how important the visuals are to the story (I mean, they always are for comics, but here you’ve got to mix surreal fantasy and reality)?
Gonzalo was recommended to me by another artist I was already working with on a self-published book. I’d already seen his work elsewhere, and loved it, but had been too nervous to approach him as I thought he’d be too famous to work with a newish writer. When I eventually mailed him the information and asked if he’d like to work on it, he was very excited, and so was I, as I’d found the perfect artist for the story. The working process was very simple; he’d send roughs of each page, and sometimes he’d have suggestions for better panel layout or different angles than described and almost all the time, his suggestions worked better visually. I described all these fabulous monsters, and he got back to me with amazing designs for them. On top of that, this style lends itself well to the swirling, multi-colour clouds that surround the island more and more as the story progresses.
Ill Vacation is your first graphic novel… What did you learn from the experience?
It is my first, and as I have been developing the script for my second, I have been putting all I have learned into that. The writing classes I took years ago always emphasised how you should write what pleases you, not what you think people want, and I did that for Ill Vacation, and as it worked, I will try to do that again. It also taught me to listen to how people talk in real life, and when I plan dialogue, I speak it all aloud to see if it feels natural, and this book has taught me to keep doing that. Lastly, it taught me the power of collaboration, and I always try to treat my collaborators well and listen to their suggestions rather than dismissing them as not being part of my vision, and I’ll make that a key part of the production process going forward.
Now that you have that in the bag, though, will we see more graphic novels from you? Maybe Ill European Vacation, Ill Christmas Vacation, and Ill Vegas Vacation?
Ha ha! I would love to have the Griswolds appear in future Vacation books, but I planned to write a prequel about the 2 German characters in the book – Elvira and Per – who had a life before this story as investigators of the supernatural, travelling the world looking into all kinds of odd happenings. I’ve put that on hold for now and will continue writing ‘Flight of the Turtle’, the working title for a graphic novel about a fantastical land which is disappearing bit by bit for a very unexpected reason. I have an artist lined up for that who I’ve worked with before, and looking forward to finishing it and having people read it.
Ill Vacation will be available on Comixology on June 17, 2025.
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