Andi Watson: ‘Working hard and having fun hopefully go hand in hand…’

By Maryann Yin 

Andi WatsonHave you ever written a scary story? In honor of the Halloween season, we are interviewing horror writers to learn about the craft of scaring readers.

Throughout his career, cartoonist Andi Watson has written and illustrated dozens of comics and graphic novels. Right now, Watson is working on a spooky children’s story called Princess Decomposia and Count Spatula. Check out the highlights from our interview below…

Q: How did you land your first book deal?
A: Because I’m a cartoonist, my first opportunity of being published came through physically mailing my mini-comics to publishers. Six months after sending them out a company called Slave Labor Graphics agreed to publish me. This was a good two decades ago when publishers would look at unsolicited submissions without needing to sign legal disclaimers. Having said that, after experiencing something of the book publishing world, it’s still an awful lot easier to make contact with graphic novel publishers than it is in the traditional prose world. Putting work online and attending cons is a good way to make contacts. As in all areas of work, it helps to know people.

Q: What’s your advice for aspiring horror writers?
A: It would be the same advice as I’d give to anyone looking to work in the arts. Work hard, be polite and have fun. Working hard and having fun hopefully go hand in hand if you enjoy what you’re doing. If you’re not enjoying the challenges, then why do what you do? You may as well take a different job you don’t enjoy and make a decent living with regular hours. Be polite, because no likes a jerk. Don’t beat yourself up, creating anything is hard enough as it is. Most importantly, ask yourself if you like writing more than you like a car or houses or a steady income or holidays or other things. If you do, cool. Keep writing.

Q: In your opinion, what’s the best way to self-edit?
A: Because comics are absurdly labor intensive, I try and plan out as much as I can in advance. Spot problems early and I have a better chance of fixing them. Writing, thumbnailing (roughly sketching out the story beforehand), penciling and then inking all act as successive opportunities to edit. Once a book is finished I like to put it aside for a while, work on something else and then return to it. The first read through is important as it’s fresh again, so you can spot any problems or inconsistencies that you missed before.

Q: What’s next for you?
A: Right this minute I’m drawing a short Princess Decomposia and Count Spatula story. That’s a lot of fun as I’m getting to hang out with those characters again. After that I’m working on a brand new spooky graphic novel that I’ve had sloshing around in the back of my mind and can’t wait to get started on.

Q: What are your favorite scary books?
A: I guess really scary books are the ones I haven’t finished. I like to read before bed and had to give up on Cormac McCarthy’s Blood Meridian because it was giving me nightmares. A book I finished that burrowed its way into my subconscious was Beautiful Darkness by Fabien Vehlmann & Kerascoet. It’s a graphic novel that begins in Borrowers territory and rapidly spirals downward becoming more unsettling as it goes.