For slain comics writer, a promising career, a downward spiral

Stephen Perry, who had spun surreal stories at the height of his career, was at the end of a long, downward spiral when he arrived at the green and white house on Eighth Avenue in Zephyrhills.

Once renowned for writing episodes of the "Thundercats" animated TV series and the cult classic comic book "Timespirits," Perry had been fired from his job running an apartment complex in Dade City. He was broke. His girlfriend - the mother of his 5-year-old boy Leo - had left him. To help with expenses, he had taken in as housemates a couple with criminal backgrounds.

And he was dying.

For years, the only writing Perry had done was rambling e-mails complaining about his failing health, his financial woes, his roommates and the meltdown of his relationship with his ex.

His friends and collaborators, people such as Steve Bissette in Vermont and Tom Yeates in California, gave Perry money and helped him sell the rights to his earlier work. Eventually, Nat Gertler, a comic book and prose writer who owns a small publishing house called About Comics, convinced Perry to return to writing.

To Gertler and Perry, the results were surprising.

Titled "Baby," the 10,716-word tome, finished on March 9, "was more substantial in length and content than either of us had anticipated," said Gertler. Featuring characters struggling with drug addiction, disease and taking care of a child, the work seemed quite autobiographical, Gertler said.

"I cannot help but suspect that what we see is Steve's concern about caring for Leo bubbling through."

Perry also liked the results.

"I am proud of this work, Nat," he wrote in an e-mail to Gertler. "Treat it kindly. It is probably my last piece of fiction ever. Cancer has spread badly."

Two months later, the end did come for Perry, as macabre an end as anything he had written. He was murdered, police say. Investigators are trying to determine whether body parts found in Hillsborough and Pasco counties are his. No one has been charged with his death.

He had comic book dreams

Stephen Perry was determined to make it big as a comic book writer.

He possessed a unique blend of talent and drive, said Bissette, who met Perry when the two were students at Johnson State College in Johnson, Vt.

Perry's dream was writing for Marvel Comics, home of Spider-Man, Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk and other superheroes.

Bissette, an artist, collaborated with Perry on a story called "Kultz," about an underground shopping mall in Texas that showed only cult movies. They sold the story to Marvel's Epic line in 1981.

"That was the beginning of Steve being able to work in professional comics," said Bissette. "That opened the door."

For Perry, the zenith came in the mid-'80s.

In 1984, he and Yeates created "Timespirits," about time-traveling Native Americans who some think served as an inspiration for James Cameron's "Avatar." The two men met through Bissette, who shared a house with Yeates in New Jersey.

Perry was "a fascinating, terrific, talented writer," Yeates said. "Really good. Really fearless."

"Timespirits," said Yeates, was unlike anything Marvel produced before or since.

"It was one of the only ongoing series they did where the heroes were not superheroes, in the classic sense," he said. "They weren't big muscle-bound guys always going into 10-page fistfights."

"Timespirits" lasted for eight, bi-monthly issues and is considered a cult classic among comic book fans. Though Yeates considers that work "some of the best of my career," his collaboration with Perry ended along with "Timespirits."

Perry, he said, could be difficult to work with, headstrong and thin-skinned at times. The two got caught up in a growing tension at the time between writers and artists over control and money. The two eventually lost contact, but reconnected in the late '90s, he said.

The popularity of "Timespirits" was tiny compared with the following Perry earned as a writer for "Thundercats," a mystical/sci-fi story about a group of cat-like space travelers escaping from a dying planet. "Thundercats" hit the airwaves in 1985 and became one of the most popular animated series of the time.

Marvel had a licensing agreement to do a "Thundercats" comic, and Perry wrote for that as well.

It was while writing for the "Thundercats" comic book, said Bissette, that things started to sour for Perry.

In an effort to circumvent what had become a cumbersome creative process trying to write for both the cartoon and the comic book, Perry convinced his comic book editor to streamline the process. It was so efficient, said Bissette, that Perry was cut out of the loop altogether.

Perry was crushed.

"He lived to write for Marvel Comics," said Bissette. "It was all he wanted to do. He got his foot in the door, got the shaft and gave up on some basic level."

Alienated from his beloved Marvel and unable to find much work as a freelance writer, Perry turned to an assortment of odd jobs, said Bissette, even delivering milk for WIC, a federal program to support low-income women and children.

Things became worse

Krystal Carroll was not quite 16 when she went in 1998 to a traveling carnival in her hometown of Belchertown, Mass.

She met a carnival worker, Perry, at the concessions. Though nearly three decades her senior, they struck up a friendship.

Carroll said Perry told her he had bounced from job to job but used to be a comic book writer and had written for an animated TV show called "Thundercats."

"At first, I was not sure if I believed him," she said. "I said, 'No, you're lying to me.'"

Over the years, the friendship blossomed into more. The age difference didn't seem much of an obstacle and they worked at carnivals until 2004, when Carroll became pregnant with Leo. The couple moved to Perry's hometown of Waterville, Maine, then to Massachusetts. Perry did odd jobs, said Carroll, while she was a stay-at-home mother.

Perry and Carroll eventually moved to Florida, where they served as managers of apartments in Dade City. But this, too, ended badly.

Perry developed cancer. His relationship with Carroll soured.

Then Perry was fired from his job at the apartment complex, said Carroll. He took off for Indiana for a short period before returning to Florida, where her sister and brother-in-law let him stay at their Zephyrhills home.

But their relationship had devolved into restraining orders. Perry asked a Pasco County circuit judge to grant him a temporary restraining order against Carroll, alleging she hit him. Carroll, who had been given custody of Leo, said she never hurt Perry.

On May 16, guests at the Quality Inn at Bearss Avenue in Tampa noticed a foul smell coming from a blue van. Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office investigators found an arm in a trash container and tracked the van to Zephyrhills.

Zephryhills police say Perry was murdered. James and Roxanne Davis - Perry's two roommates - have been arrested on unrelated, outstanding warrants and have not been charged in connection with Perry's disappearance. On Wednesday, investigators found another piece of human remains, in Wesley Chapel, that may belong to Perry.

Carroll, who said she is cooperating with investigators, said the last time she saw Perry, he was sitting in his van outside her mother's house.

Carroll said she peered at him through the window.

"He was looking down at his own lap," she said. "He looked so sad."