Writer: Steve Thompson
Artist & Colorist: Gonzalo Ruggieri
Letterers: Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou & Gonzalo Ruggieri
Design & Layout: Gonzalo Ruggieri
Flatter: Eliana Bustamante
Editor: Rebecca Stone
Publisher: Comixology
Price: $6.99
Release Date: June 17, 2025
Bob Backus and Mary Krisztik serve at a US base on Easter Island. When strange lights appear in the night sky, the rest of the soldiers can’t leave quickly enough. Why have their superiors left them behind? And are Bob and Mary alone on Easter Island? Let’s leap into Ill Vacation and find out!
Story
An eyeball hovers in the sky in 1942. Creatures rise from the ocean to stride across the earth. Two British agents escape the cell on the base and observe all this taking place. When strange creatures invade the base, their superiors order Bob and Mary not to attack. Amid the invasion, a giant creature detonates a nuclear blast. A tsunami sweeps across the base, trapping Bob and Mary within.
While all this occurs, two people travel to Easter Island by rowboat. One believes she can stop the situation from escalating. But nothing is what it seems in Ill Vacation.
Art
As Steve Thompson’s story unfolds, Gonzalo Ruggieri reveals Bob and Mary undergoing tests at the Pacific Fleet Headquarters in Hawaii. His relaxed penciling shows the medical staff injecting Bob and Mary. As with the Allies’ prisoners Per and Elvira, duplicity and misdirection occur during the procedure. Bob and Mary are guinea pigs. Instead of building atomic bombs, the doctors are making the warrant officer and airplane mechanic into living weapons.
Colored light streams from Bob and Mary’s heads amid trauma. A giant narwhal flies over the island in Ill Vacation. A duck-man helps the two abandoned soldiers at times. And a plane sprouts legs and chases after a kill squad clad in biohazard suits. Gonzalo Ruggieri’s coloring is as wild, fluorescent, and electrifying as his nightmarish visions.
As the chaos raging on Easter Island threatens to spread across the world, Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou and Gonzalo Ruggieri place uppercase black letters in white weather balloons anchored by long strings. Sound effects soar through panels, heightening this atmospheric story about underhanded plots, otherworldly transformations, and the power of love. Thanks to Superfan Promotions and Comixology for providing a review copy.
Final Thoughts
Your greatest weapon is not a gun or bomb. You have the power to create new futures or destroy everyone and everything around you. Ill Vacation ponders the potential effects of experimenting with the unlimited potential of the human mind.
Rating 8/10
P.S. Despite the immersive, imaginative, and thought-provoking story, the low resolution of the review copy strained my eyes. The blurry artwork and lettering made it hard to recognize characters. My review copy was 18.8 MB, while Amazon lists the sale copy as 461.9 MB. Ill Vacation may merit a higher rating.
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