We contacted Eddie to learn more about his work. First, the cartoonist answered our tricky question: to describe his series in only three words. In Ward’s opinion, "visual, observational, and funny" are the words that best capture the tone of his strips. The artist explained, starting with the first word: “I would say they are very visual. A captionless cartoon is the pinnacle for me.
I often start my cartoons and comics with a visual idea. It might be something I've seen or thought of. I work around the visual; I’ve always found it easy to communicate visually. growing up I wasn't a very high achiever in school.”
Eddie elaborated and shared that his dyslexia made visuals a crucial tool for communication from an early age. He added: “I think there’s a lot to get your eyes into when looking at one of my cartoons or comics. I love a visual gag and physical humour. I enjoyed watching Mr. Bean and Fawlty Towers when I was very young.”
When asked about observation and its role in his series, the cartoonist responded: “I would say my cartoons and comics are often very observational. I enjoy people-watching and trying to find humour in the mundane and ordinary. I also love subtle humour, so I like subtle gags and often you can find little jokes in my cartoons and comics. I love nuance and detail, little touches that people might miss. I really love that stuff, there's loads of it in The Office, which I enjoyed watching growing up. I spend a lot of time drawing my cartoons and comics and often I get bogged down in details that no one would notice, but I think it's because I love what I do and I'm from a fine art background, so I really enjoy drawing.”
Finally, Eddie told us that he hopes some of his cartoons and comics bring a smile to people's faces or even make them laugh. He added: “I certainly enjoy making them. It really helps me make sense of the world and has been a real source of therapy in difficult times.
I wanted to be an artist but often felt out of place and uncomfortable trying to write artist statements. I find it difficult to take myself seriously! I like the fact I don't have to talk about every cartoon I make because if I had to explain them, then the joke probably hasn’t worked.”
Ward continued: “I like the black and white nature of comedy: you know if it works because you get good feedback. Whereas art is difficult because you don’t really know if it’s working and resonating with an audience. I think cartoons don't take themselves seriously enough. I think it’s the purest form of creativity. I love artists and comic artists, they are the best. It takes lots of different forms of creativity to come up with an original thought or idea then elegantly communicate that idea simply and elegantly to provoke a smile or laughter. What a lovely thing to be able to do!”
When asked about a comic that unexpectedly resonated with his audience in a way he hadn’t anticipated, Eddie responded: “A while back, I made a cartoon about feeling a bit rubbish about becoming a bald middle-aged man. And it seemed to resonate with my audience. It was the cartoon that really started off my journey, cartooning, it was the first bit of success I’ve had with a cartoon or comic really resonating. The idea for the cartoon came to me while walking my dog. I would often stop and talk to other people with dogs and we would talk about our dogs and I came away knowing how I felt about my dog but not knowing what my dog thought about me, and that was really the seed for the idea. Does my dog like me?”
In fact, Ward shared that the previously mentioned cartoon is his personal favorite, and he explained why it's so special to him: “It was very personal and it was the first time I included myself in a cartoon. I found it quite therapeutic, and it’s the first cartoon that really resonated and was well received, which isn’t always the case.”
We were curious if any of Eddie’s ideas had to be scrapped because they didn’t seem to work as a comic. The cartoonist told us: “I’m pretty much always scrapping ideas. I have more ideas that haven’t gone anywhere than ideas that are finished. Even the ideas that I’ve finished sometimes feel like I didn’t quite get there. I seem to always feel there’s a way to make things funnier or better, so I’m sitting on a lot of ideas at the moment. But I think it’s important to play with ideas and go down dead ends in the search for finding something funny and original. I never throw away or discard ideas, as sometimes I think of a solution to make an idea work months or even years later!”
Lastly, the artist shared with us who his dream collaborators would be if he could work on a project with other cartoonists. Eddie revealed that he’s a fan of artists like Roz Chast, Edward Steed, Ellis Rosen, Paul Noth, Jon Adams, Edith Pritchett, Will McPhail, and these are just a few of them. He also mentioned “The Ward Brothers” series, which we featured in a previous Bored Panda post: “I’ve collaborated with my brother for many years and we’ve been quite successful but we seem to have new ideas every week and I think we have about four or five different websites’ worth of creative ideas that haven’t really gone anywhere, so I’m at the point where I just need to focus on one thing rather than do everything and nothing! I’m a single dad with two kids, so finding time to create and collaborate is difficult, but sometime in the future, when my kids no longer want to see me and talk to me, it would be a great time to collaborate on new things!”
