Ed, despite the likeness in name, is in fact NOT a Mary Sue character. To deny that the character is based on me would be foolish, but the character is not me today, but rather the me I would be had I not taken a different path in life, If I kept the wide eyed innocence of my pre-pubescent self and not been forced to grow up.
In Ed’s world, the sky is the limit, nothing is impossible and everything is probable. Magic is as real as science, and out of the ordinary things like ninja attacks and talking raccoons are thrown to the side, while mundane issues like asking out a girl or brewing a pot of coffee become all encompassing. There is no middle of the road for Ed; everything is all or nothing at all.
Ed tends to think in broad strokes. He’ll invent something to save the world, not make a lot of money. He’ll search for true love, rather than some fun on Saturday night. Ed tends to be either happy as a clam, or down on himself to Charles Shultz like proportions
If you look at the tarot, Ed is basically a living embodiment of card #0, The Fool.
The original design of Ed is based on a character of me, created by my highly artistic friend Scott Werdal (an amazing artist in Grade 3, as I’m sure he still is today). The two of us would create comics based around our selves. I would come up with the craziest idea or dream, and Scott would take it and a few weeks later hand me a comic based on my ideas. The two of us were inseparable.
When the school system finally separated us in grade 6, and I could no longer rely on Scott’s artistic skill, I picked up the pen myself. I discovered that I was at best a mediocre artist, but I did have the skills to write. English became my favorite subject, during which I turned in plenty of Littlewood stories, about two anthropomorphic raccoon cousins, Rick-O (Scott) and Rock-O (Ed). In grade 7, during a project requiring us to design a comic strip, I created the first Ed’s R Us. The gag I used in my second strip ever (in grade 8) can actually be seen on April 16, 2008. My drawing skills slowly began to improve, as did my desire to be a cartoonist.
In 1997, while attending Simon Fraser University for a Criminology Degree, I met Glen Callender who worked with the student newspaper The PEAK. Through him, I was introduced to the wonderful world of print, as well as some of the basic rules of strip construction and drawing conventions.
After Graduation, I became a security guard. This gave me lots of free time to work on character design. I eventually began to blend in my original “Garfield” based ideas, with a new Anime style that I was beginning to adapt. The eyes are especially important in this, and are basically the same as Ataru’s from Urusai Yatsura. This allowed me to have a wide eyed, inept look of “Garfield’s” Jon, while keeping a lot of the anime facial features.
On the final character design before launch, I chose to eliminate any hard edges around Ed’s body and jaw line and go for a more round, childlike look, in order to emphasize his wide eyed look on the world.
