An 8ft albino gorilla driving a dune buggy takes on Colombian drug barons and slimy Arab princes in a new digital comic series that could only come out of the Monkeybrain Comics stable. Like a 21st century mash up of Tank Girl and Every Which Way But Loose, GoGetters is the brainchild of writer Shawn Aldridge and Chris Paterson and is another quirky gem from the digital first publishers who brought us Bandette, Masks and Mobsters and Knuckleheads. Keen to find out the secret to making an albino ape a leading man we got in touch with Shawn to get the lowdown and find out out who would win in a fight between a gorilla and a t-rex!

Tell us a bit about the inspiration for GoGetters?  Was it the desire to create a story with a plucky female character at the centre, or was the big white gorilla the start of it all?

SA: The idea first came about from a sketch Christopher had done a few years back, before I met him. He was showing old concept sketches and such one night and that one stuck in my head for some reason. When we were trying to figure out what to pitch to Monkeybrain that sketch popped back in my head. From there we bounced ideas back and forth, talked about tone, and how we wanted a kid-friendly book. Saturday morning cartoons, Goonies, Johnny Quest are a few of the touchstone inspirations.

How important is the relationship between George Harrison the gorilla and Maya to the world of GoGetters?

SA: I think Maya and George Harrison are both equally important to the world of GoGetters. George Harrison is really the reader’s first visual clue that this world isn’t like ours at all. It’s a world where an 8 ft albino gorilla can drive a dune buggy. Maya acts as a grounding element, or perhaps more precisely an acknowledgement that for all the weirdness a person can function in this world.

George Harrison is undoubtedly the star turn of the first issue, so what inspired you to make that your main character and how did the character evolve? And why name him after a Beatle, and why not Ringo or Paul? 

SA: George Harrison is my favorite Beatle, so that was one deciding factor in his name. It also happened to, by luck, give us name for the dune buggy – Big Lucy. Christopher suggested we name the buggy after George Harrison’s guitar – Lucy.

Christopher and I from the start knew we wanted George Harrison (the gorilla) to have enough personality to hold the co-lead position in the series. We didn’t want him to be just a gorilla or just “the muscle.” We wanted him to have his own quirks, mannerisms, etc. He needed to be a character and not just a prop. Plus, with Maya’s personality being so big, we needed make sure he didn’t get lost in her shadow.

What’s with the obsession of shortening people’s names [a running joke in the first issue], is that a particular bugbear of yours?!

SA: The shortening of names bit kinda came about by accident. My wife’s name is Gwendolyn, but people always want to shorten it to Gwen. She constantly has to tell people “My name isn’t Gwen. It’s Gwendolyn.” Christopher’s name is another where people just default to Chris. I’m lucky in that Shawn can’t really be shortened. It’s not that I mind people shortening others names if they’ve asked the person permission. It just always seemed odd to me that someone introduces themselves as Robert and people just default to Bob or Bobby or Rob. It’s like, “You know what, your name is too long for me to say, so I’m going to call you this other name”.

The first issue is really action packed and fast paced, how important was it for you to set the tone of the series straight away?

SA: We definitely wanted to set the tone early on, because the tone is kinda oddball. We honestly didn’t know how people were going to respond to it. Would the get what we were trying to do? And if they did, would they like it? But, in general, the book will remain pretty fast paced. There are slow-down, quieter moments coming, but for the most part I didn’t want the book to be too decompressed.

Part of that reasoning is the issues are a bit shorter than you’re standard 20-22 page comic, as most of the Monkeybrain books. Our first issue is 18 pages, #2 is 16 pages. Being only four pages short of a standard comic doesn’t seem like much, but it is a lot more story space than you might think. Because of that, a few quiet pages may seem longer in that setting. That’s not to say it’s all full blown punching and quips.

Will the series be ongoing or is there an end in sight?

SA: The series will be ongoing. Chris and I love the characters so much that we can’t foresee stopping after six issues. Granted other factors may come into play, but as of now it’s ongoing.

Tell us a bit about how the you and artist Chris Peterson met, have you worked together before?

SA: Chris and I met via twitter, oddly enough. He had tweeted that he was looking for a writer to work with on a pitch. I checked out his website and was blown away by his art. I was like, is this guy a loon or something? Why doesn’t he have fifty writers busting down his door? I took a chance and replied that I was interested. Turns out he isn’t a loon. Tweets became emails and we became really good friends. We’ve worked together on a few things together. The first was that pitch he was looking to do, which was about a girl and a bear on the run from the KGB in the 1980s. Though it may sound like we’re all about girls and animal sidekicks, that pitch was radically different in tone and themes than GoGetters. We’ve also done two shorts for the fantastic FUBAR anthologies.

How did you come to be involved with Monkeybrain Comics ? What do they bring to the table as far as you’re concerned?

SA: Working with Monkeybrain came about at last year’s Emerald City Con. I was introduced to Chris Roberson by Chris Sebela (man, there’s a lot of Chris’s involved in this story). I conversed with Roberson for a bit. He was familiar with my other creator-owned work, Vic Boone. As luck would have it, I had had just enought beers to ask if I could pitch to them. As for what they bring to the table, first is a love of comics and a genuine want to further the medium. Also Allison and Chris are both supportive of what YOU want to do in your book. They’re both just wonderful people and that’s always a plus. As for the “company” aspect, I think the name Monkeybrain has become known for quality digital comics.

Will we see George Harrison take on any more animal based opponents in the future or will he remain the only animal enforcer?

SA:  Is a yeti considered an animal? A T-rex? If so… There’s actually a scene in issue 4 I believe that talks about George Harrison going against other animals/creatures and why he always has an advantage. Obviously, that’s spoiler talk, so we’ll leave it at that.

GoGetters is available now from MonkeyBrain Comics via ComiXology for £0.69/$0.99