Big Tim Stiles can still remember the day he fell in love with comics; it was back in 1989 at a corner shop near his grandmother’s house. From the stand he saw Captain America, picked it up along with a Silver Surfer comic and never looked back.
“It was around that time that the Ninja Turtles cartoon arrived in Australia, too. So, as a teen looking for identity and ready to have his mind blown, it was just right place, right time kind of stuff. I was a sponge ready to absorb anything, and superheroes and Ninja Turtles were right there ready to be consumed,” Stiles said.
Fast forward 30-something years and Stiles’ own comic series Gorilla My Dreams has recently won its third Best Comic award, in a third continent. All the awards have been from independent film festivals. Stiles believes the reason the series is more popular at film festivals than conventional comic festivals could come down to two things: the style is reminiscent of old pulp fiction novels or something that you would see in a noir film, and the fact that Stiles learned to write working on unproduced screenplays, something which seeps through to the pages of the comics.
“Gorilla My Dreams is really a hard boiled, murder mystery, detective story. Just spiced up with superheroes and clowns and other craziness.”
The main character is, as the title suggests, a gorilla; one that can talk and solve crimes, known only as Knockaround-Guy (KG). The series takes you through a wild ride of the crimes and shady dwellers of Struggle Town. The crime fighting primate also acts as a metaphor for Stiles’ acting career; all he ever wanted was to be an actor, just as KG has only ever wanted to be a superhero.
“The suit is a representation of how he sees himself. Dress for the job you want, not the job you have, right? That’s why I dress like Magnum P.I.” Stiles joked.
Stiles has been part of the acting community for over 20 years, a musical theatre guy from the age of 17 and has been in more musicals than he can remember. He was on the up scoring minor roles in various TV shows, commercials and even a film before a motorcycle accident put a spanner in the works. A shattered humerus put a halt to any acting roles, so Stiles used this time to put pen to paper and start writing his comics. However, it wasn’t smooth sailing; between self-publishing and trying to reclaim his place within the acting scene, depression came creeping in. Hitting rock bottom during rehearsal for a theatre production of the Addams Family, he recalls trying to take his own life with no-one around him aware of how much he was struggling.
“I hid it behind my acting and comic books. My comics, and acting, and writing, my mental health issues, and chronic pain are all very much intertwined.”
He draws on these themes and other life experience when he creates storylines; for example, his edition Lucifer Bim Bom explores the desire to not become like your father, instead becoming something worse. The strange character featured in the comics take on many forms; the inspiration for these was sparked by the hours spent watching Saturday morning cartoons and reading an endless number of comics.
The inspiration for KG came from his fascination with primates, how they can be so like humans but also so blood thirsty and unpredictable. The internal monologue for KG is a desire to be the best human he can be but not fully understanding why he is the only Gorilla who can talk (or is he?) and where he comes from.
Ahmed Raafat, who lives in London partners with Stiles and brings the characters and storylines to life with his dark, gritty drawings. Occasionally the pair will get a guest artist to help with the illustrations, as it is more time and labour intensive for an artist to illustrate the work than it is for a writer to provide the words. They love to see how another artist interprets their characters, saying it’s never hard to find someone willing to help as the comic community is a supportive one.
Will the future hold something bright for KG and Stiles himself? Gorilla My Dreams is soon to go on a team up adventure, working with some of the other heroes that watch over Struggle Town as he works his way up to the clown Prince of Crime, Lucifer Bim Bom.
“Just between us friends, the final two chapters are going to be written by award-winning Canberra writer Ryan K. Lindsay, and Marvel and DC superstar Ron Marz (famous for his work on Green Lantern and Silver Surfer).”
You can catch Tim Stiles and his comics at Gamma.Con at the National Convention Centre this weekend 23-24 July, gammacon.org.au, or follow him at instagram.com/bigtimstiles
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