Interview: Nick Edwards

Nick Edwards is a cartoonist, illustrator and comic-maker from Brighton who specialises in science fiction puzzle adventures, dinosaurs, robotics, cats and owl-men. We spent five minutes picking Nick's brains to talk about his work and freelancing life...

What are you currently up to? Are there any exciting projects ongoing?

Ongoing I'm working on my next comic. It is a sci-fi story about a universe ruled by insects. My goal is to create a believable, living universe with a lot of detail and characters and life-cycles all going on at once. I am already more than half-way through the intro for it.

Who or what inspires you?

Comics! I just recently got both issues of “Gang Bang Bong”. I also received a copy of “Go For Gold 4” which is a sketchbook collection put out by Meathaus (which I am in). There is a lot of inspiring stuff happening in comics at the moment. Especially her in the UK. Luke Pearson is a young comics guy and he is the real deal, his work is fantastic. Jack Teagle is another brit whose work always inspires me. but whenever I'm stuck for inspiration I can always go back to my stack of Tintin books and Krazy Kat collections.

What’s your best project/work to date?

My first properly published comic DINOPOPOLOUS which is coming out with Blank Slate Books next month. You can pre-order it now here and I am very excited about it. It is essentially about a 13-year-old boy and his dinosaur who hunt down a mythical bird.

Anything new going on? Or in the pipeline?

I am working on my story for Solipsistic Pop 4. My story is hard to describe. It has a triangular headed man that eats too much. It is sort of psychedelic, but Solipsistic Pop is excellent. If you haven't heard of it, it is run by tom Humberstone and it showcases loads of UK comic artists in a nicely printed and totally unique and inventive way. I am very proud to be a part of it. Big up UK.

When you’re not working, what do you like to do?

Watch films. Recently been watching Jim Henson's Labyrinth and Dark Crystal over and over again. I also just saw Troll Hunter at the cinema which was a lot of fun. Anything to do with nature or monsters and I'm into it.

Finally, what tips or advice could you give to other creatives, just starting out?

Put your work online for free. Keep a consistent and active presence on the internet for a good amount of time and soon the work will come to you, as will the following. Obviously the work also has to be good quality. Thanks to the internet I've never had to use any other medium to get jobs. It's brilliant.

To find out more about Nick, visit his blog at Nick-edwards.blogspot.com.