Big Ugly is your second long-form comic with Avery Hill, after Something City in 2017. Did you approach this book differently to the first?

Something city was a book of short comics. It felt easier to go into it without too much of a plan. If the comics worked by themselves they were probably going to work together because they had the setting of the book in common. Big ugly is my first longer comic that tells one story which was something totally new for me. I had to go into it with more of a plan and less crossing my fingers and hoping everything made sense.

You do a lot of freelance illustration work. What are the differences between that type of work and creating your own book? Comparing the two processes… are there things you enjoy and things that are more challenging with each?

With illustration work, there’s a lot of quick satisfaction. You often wrap a project up within 2 weeks to a month max. I always get a kick out of the speed but because of the nature of comics, I feel like there has to be more dedication involved. The satisfaction of finishing a book and finishing an illustration isn’t comparable though. Finishing a book feels like a big life moment. I also feel more vulnerable when creating comics, I definitely put a little more of myself into comics. It’s actually great to switch between both, I’m always really looking forward to returning to drawing comics whilst in an illustration and visa versa.

You call the book a “Post coming-of-Age”; what made you decide to focus on that point in life? Any personal experiences?

I think it’s just a matter of relating more to that phase of life. It’s fun because it’s kind of neither here nor there time. I’m sure every phase of life comes with a lot of questions and thinking but for me, the late 20’s coming into 30 has been a very thought-heavy time. I think without it being autobiographical I put a lot of that into the book.

Your illustration work is full of beautiful characters, did it feel strange working on two specific characters during the creation of Big Ugly? Do you feel like they’re part of your family now too?

Thank you! It didn’t feel strange because of how long I was working on the book. I had massive pauses throughout but I started the book in 2018 so it wasn’t an intense period of drawing the same characters over and over. It felt really joyful to draw the characters and make them feel things and speak. Sort of like how animation brings illustration to life. It’s a proud feeling of like, ‘aw my characters say stuff and I relate to them’.

How did you create the artwork for the book, what tools did you use?

Straight up digital, photoshop. Nothing flashy. I’m always grateful to work digitally. I move around a lot and do a lot of house-sitting and live on a boat so it’s important to be super mobile. I have a little chair extension that makes any seat ergonomic so I take that and my tablet. . . it always feels like a walking studio.

Finally, what do you hope people take away from reading Big Ugly?

I would like to think it was a little funny and hope that the characters are likable even in their less pleasant moments. I think it’s been on my mind a lot lately because I literally had a dream last night that my book came out and it got very good critiques, mostly 5 stars… the only problem was, that it wasn’t a book at all but an actual easter egg. With the cover as a foil and it was super chocolaty. I don’t know what that means…

Back Big Ugly here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/averyhillpublishing/avery-hill-publishing-spring-2023-line

If you follow our social media you will have seen the amazing print that Tillie Walden made for us to celebrate our ten-year anniversary. We’ve now added this as an add-on to the kickstarter campaign, so you can pre-order it by adding it to your pledge on checkout. This print is A4, beautifully printed on quality paper, and a limited run of 200. They’ll be signed/numbered by Tillie.

Pre-order the print by adding it to your kickstarter pledge here!

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/averyhillpublishing/avery-hill-publishing-spring-2023-line