Into the MAGAverse: Trump's Space Force With Tim Lim

by Jamison Ashley
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Timothy Lim is an incredible freelance artist and illustrator who began his career creating artwork for fan art publications and eventually got work producing licensed artwork for merchandise like shirts, posters, prints, and bags. Most notably, Tim has done licensed work for Marvel, Lucasfilm, Hasbro, Valve, and much more, including official merchandise for San Diego Comic-Con, Emerald City Comicon, C2E2, and Alamo City Comic Con. Lim has also done comic book work for various publishers, most recently a tribute to Harold Ramis in Ghostbusters and covers for Back To the Future #1, James Bond VARGR #1, and The Adventures of Archer & Armstrong #1.

Born and raised in Little Rock, Arkansas, he is a first generation American born to Asian immigrants. He gained his doctorate degree in 2011 in Audiology, but found a niche dividing his time between teaching and seeing patients and doing freelance, professional art. His best selling Thump: The First Bundred Days took the children’s book market by storm in late 2017 co-written by Mark Pellegrini. It combined Timothy’s love of bunny rabbits and his admiration for Donald Trump. That same creative team’s next collaboration was for a full-length comic book, My Hero Magademia, and was also a President Trump centered project, which also did very well and was published by Antarctic Press. This past May, the mini-series Black Hops: U.S.A.-G.I. also came out with Mark Pellegrini and co-artist Brian Denham, and covers by the legendary Dave Dorman.

His latest project is also centered around President Trump, and he and his creative team of industry veterans, Chuck Dixon, Dave Dorman, and Brett Smith, are on the last days of a very successful crowdfunding campaign for Trump’s Space Force!

BF: When did you officially get your start in comic illustrating?

TL: I’ve worked as a merchandising artist for almost 8 years, but I didn’t get into comics officially until 2015 when I worked on my first cover for BACK TO THE FUTURE. I was featured as a pinup artist in several books since as far back as 2007, starting with UDON Entertainment. As far as sequential comics are concerned, I didn’t get my first big break until MY HERO MAGADEMIA earlier this year.

BF: You’ve had several recent projects in the last few years that are focused on U.S. President Trump and you’re clearly a fan. What do you like most about Mr. Trump, his personality and his policies?

TL: I am a YUGE fan of President Trump! What I like about him is not only his pragmatism, but his no-holds barred, blunt honesty. He’s a fighter, a PR pugilist. Not since the days of Reagan have we had someone so unapologetically patriotic and focused on America’s best interests. Of all his actions in office in the last 200 days, I would say that his Supreme Court picks are my personal favorites because of their long lasting impact on future generations.

BF: President Trump officially announced a U.S. Space Force on June 18 and you launched the Indiegogo a little more than 3 weeks later. How did it come together so quickly?

TL: President Trump actually first mentioned the “Space Force” in March, in a very quick statement. That’s actually when the book started coming together. It was Chuck’s idea from the beginning and he asked for a team within less than 15 minutes of the announcement. Our timetable was moved up by the June announcement though, since we were originally supposed to launch in September.

BF: Speaking of quick, Keenspot Entertainment actually solicited another Space Force comic within a month of the announcement from John Barron and Shawn Remulac. Did that announcement give you any pause or concern?
TL: No, and I didn’t hear about it until a few weeks ago. Thematically it seems to be a very different book. I think both books are humorous to an extent, but ours is overtly a very romanticized, pro-Trump book by a pro-Trump creative team.

BF: What is the story and what sets it apart from other Trump parody comics?
TL: The story revolves around an ancient alien race known as the Sienn’En whose strategy for Earth’s invasion involves them infiltrating our government and media institutions, weakening their morale and setting Earth up for attack. Donald Trump is given this insight and technology from an opposing, benevolent alien race and he establishes the United States Space Force to meet the threat head on. What separates it from other Trump parody comics is that Chuck Dixon writes it at face value, where the book could still hold up on its own if the reader doesn’t understand every reference that is made in the book.

BF: What’s the next step for Trump’s Space Force comic?
TL: We will shut off all orders this Friday so that we can get a total count for fulfillment. The hats, patches, postcards, trading cards, and books will be shipped together sometime around November / December. The other perks such as the Dorman prints and the Gatsis statues will be fulfilled separately.

BF: Your last comic, My Hero Magademia, was published through Antarctic Press. Any plans for another issue of that? And will Trump’s Space Force be published by Antarctic as well?
TL: Mark and I want to do MY HERO MAGADEMIA 2, but our timetable has it coming out late in 2019. We haven’t even started scripting it yet.

BF: Are you looking beyond Space Force towards your next project? What’s next for Timothy Lim?\
TL: Yes! Next is CASH GRAB with Nerkish and Cecil, which I will start this weekend as soon as the TRUMP’S SPACE FORCE campaign finishes. Concurrently, I will be in pre-production for an unannounced project with another YouTuber, then our big one for next year is the sequel to BLACK HOPS with Mark Pellegrini. Entitled BLACK HOPS: HARETRIGGER, it will be at least an 80 page graphic novel followup to our flagship character.

BF: After doing some notable work for other publishers, how does it feel being an independent creator now?
TL: I like it! It’s fun to work on our own IP. There are some other IPs that I absolutely love and want to come back to repeatedly — UDON’s Street Fighter / Capcom stuff, primarily — but I’m having a blast.

BF: You’ve gotten a lot of pushback from SJWs and NeverTrump types on social media. Do you see any solution to this division in geek fandom? How do you handle it?
TL: I do not. I believe that winning in tangible ways — the economy, book sales, earnings, etc — is a great persuader. If these types have any semblance of reason, more money in their paycheck may get them to think twice about their political views.

BF: What’s the fascination with bunnies?
TL: I like underdog characters in every form: I gravitate towards the most unassuming yet no-less important characters in every medium. My favorite Star Wars character is R2-D2: my favorite Disney character is Dumbo. It only makes sense then that I wouldn’t be a dog or cat person since that’d be a bit too predictable: rabbits are universally known, but not very commonly thought of as a domesticated creature. They have great personalities and are affectionate: they are loyal like a dog, yet unpredictable and independent like a cat. That’s probably why we have 5 of them. You can even potty train them!