Eddie Wow, when did it first begin? Ultimately it began drawing caricatures at six flags in Georgia. I was 25 years old, worked under my manager Tom Richmond who is now Mad magazine’s top caricature artist. It was the first time I made significant money — a living off drawing. Before then I’d done little illustrations here and there and had been paid but I think my artistic career really got started then in 1990.

Eddie I was still trying to get my way through college; I was on the ten year plan, and eventually I said, “well, I think I’m done.”

Eddie It wasn’t important in the sense — I don’t have a degree. However that hasn’t kept me from actually teaching in art school. I’ve taught at Ringling, I’ve taught for the Academy of Art University in San Francisco. I’d still like to have a degree some day. I went to Georgia State University. The art department was not real strong. There were a couple of people there who were really good. One of them, Ralph Gilbert was a master draftsman, and he taught me a lot about drawing and more importantly how to learn by studying masters, which ironically I’d been doing all my life. I started by drawing cartoon characters from the Sunday comics, snoopy out of the paperback books. So I’d been studying masters all my life, but now Ralph had showed me this is how you study from a Michaelangelo and you understand the process and you put yourself in the place of the artist. And I applied that the rest of my career. I didn’t learn that much from school, and when I decided I wanted to get into Disney animation, that’s when I realized, ok, I need to learn how to draw from life. And there were no teachers around so I needed to apply what I learned in college. Ultimately, it was helpful but not in the way that most people probably find college helpful.

Eddie I have no idea. And I’m sure they regretted it. *laughs*. Disney hired me because — not being politically correct — they needed some monkeys to hold pencils because we were in crunch time on Mulan. There was about a year to go on production of Mulan and they usually got about six artists a year to go through a three month training program and then ease them into production. They were so desperate for people that there were 18 of us that got in, the last group to get in on Mulan, and they trained us for four weeks and then threw us into production. And we were working 12 hour days in the heat of crunch time. Disney hired me to fill a seat to do clean up.

Eddie They didn’t want to see me draw Mickey Mouse, that’s for sure. They were very clear about that back in those days. They wanted to see me draw life drawings. they wanted to see that I could draw the human figure both academically and in its natural environment, so cafe sketches and drawings like that where you’re seeing people that are actually emoting and reacting to everyday life. Storytelling. And animal drawings. So that was mainly what they wanted to see for the bulk of your portfolio because Disney felt that if you knew how to draw from life, if you could make observations and draw what you saw, they could teach you to draw their characters.

Eddie I had to leave the company. That’s how it works. Unfortunately when I came in, it was on the downward slide of Disney Feature Animation. The apex was Lion King, everything after Lion King was down hill. So by the time I came along, there were no promotions happening — very little promotions. And I didn’t really want to grow in clean up; I didn’t want to be a clean up artist, which was the department I was in — Clean up by the way is doing that final line that basically is what you see on the movie screen; so we’re taking the animator’s roughs and we’re cleaning it up, putting it “on model.” There were very few story jobs. California wanted to control story out there. The only reason we had a story department on Lilo and Stitch is the fact that the directors were the story department and they were out here with us [in Florida]. And then Brother Bear, another film that was directed here [in Florida] — we had a story department but very few promotions into that and I didn’t show them what I needed to.

Eddie I did. I left Disney. After 3 years I’d had it. I didn’t want to be a clean up artist.

Eddie Yeah, I was very frustrated because it was not a happy time. I did not enjoy for the most part being in the Florida studio. It was a very tight knit group. And most of them had gone to art school and had relationships and all started very young and it was hard to fit in to that since I didn’t go to an art school and didn’t know a lot of these people. And everyone my age was a supervisor. Here I was coming in to train; I was 30 when I got into Disney and I’m training with people who are straight out of college. So it was kind of hard. I still have friends, very good friends from that era, but at the time it was difficult. And I wanted to be something other than a clean up artist. Flash forward ten plus years later when I get a call from Dan Povenmire one of the creators of Phineas and Ferb and he wants me to come out and work on his show. That’s a different time; now I have the experience of working on a show that I felt like I can see my fingerprints on.

Eddie Well it was 2011 when I got the call from Dan, so eleven years.

Eddie I met Dan back in 1985, Dan went to USC with a good friend of mine from High School. And Dan remembered a comic I had made as being funny which it was not. it was not funny at all, but Dan’s memory was that it was funny, and so he asked me to come out and write and draw on his show, to be a story artist and a writer as well which was the way they did it on Phineas and Ferb, which is a rare gig these days.

Eddie Yeah. Story artist is storyboards and we’re writing the episode as we go. So we’d have a writing team as well who would actually come up with scenarios for the episodes. But then Dan and Swampy – Jeff Swampy Marsh, the other creator of the show — said if you have ideas to take the story in a different direction, feel free to throw out the outline. And a lot of times that happened.

Eddie The show had come to an end and living in LA was not a perfect fit for my family. My kids were born in Florida, and they missed home. So it was good opportunity to split. And at the time I was developing my webcomic and wanted to publish it as a graphic novel.

Eddie Yup. I was starting to pitch it to book publishers and through that I got my dream agent and he ended up selling it to my friend Charles Kochman at Abrams.

Eddie It’s not a kids book, that’s the thing. The thing about publishing is they have to put kids book on it, or they have to put middle grade ages on it, because they have to know what book shelf to put it on. But I don’t write kids books. This is my Pixar film. I write this for everyone. And just like Phineas and Ferb, we didn’t write Phineas and Ferb for kids; we wrote it to make each other laugh and to make Dan and Swampy laugh. And this was Dan and Swampy’s premise: if we could make each other laugh we would have something funny. So Red’s Planet is not for kids; it’s for everybody.

Eddie So… wow. Publishing books is not any different for the most part than playing the lottery. The only difference is that you believe in yourself and what you’re creating. And you’re hopeful that what you’re creating is a winning ticket. And it’s hit or miss. I mean there’s so few book authors who actually make a living writing books.

Eddie I am not. I did not make a living writing books. You would have to sell… I don’t know what the number is, but probably hundreds of thousands of copies of books to make a living. That’s just the nature of publishing. And if you look at the number of books that are published every year, its huge. So I think that answers it, I would love for Red’s Planet to be well known; I would love for it to be getting attention, I would love to see an animated film, and I would love to take a vacation *laughs* that I could afford. To a nice place. But that’s the nature of the business; and the reason I’m so honest about that is its important for people who want to be authors to know the reality of it. They say “don’t quit your day job.” The only difference is when you’re a graphic novelist, you can’t help but make it your day job. If you’re aspiring to be JK Rowling, you can spend 3 hours a day writing when you’re not working or you’ve put the kids to bed. But when you’re a graphic novelist, there’s 12 to 16 hours per page. And I can’t do that when the kids are asleep.

Eddie It’s getting harder. I’ll be honest, the older I get it’s getting much harder. But once I’m in crunch; I’m usually so far behind deadline, that’s the pace I have to keep.

Eddie I’m in the layout stage; going a little differently on this one, I’ve written a very detailed outline and a rough draft of most of it, but things always change in a graphic novel. Traditionally, I write it first as a movie script because I’m a filmmaker at heart. I see things as a film, and then once I write it like that, I break it down into chapters, and then I break it down per page. And the important thing there is that unlike writing traditional prose, in a graphic novel I know here my page starts and where it begins. JK Rowling doesn’t know what word is going to end off what page because it’s all typeset. I know how to move into a page, and at the end of the page I want to hook the reader or have a button of some kind that makes the reader laugh or creates a mystery to make them want to turn the page and keep going. When you break down that script into a graphic novel, you’re editing dialog, creating gags, and making sure that it’s moving through with the correct pace and the right things to help the reader turn the page.

Eddie I’m sorry what’s a deadline? *laughs* Yes. And I’ve been struggling recently with deadlines, which I have not done in so many years. But I’ve got a wonderful editor who has stuck up for me and believed in me and is still my friend for some reason after missing so many deadlines. But yeah, there are deadlines and the big one I think we have to hit by fall of next year to make our publication deadline. Everything will need to be done and sent to the printer by then.

Eddie My advice to writers is the same advice that I was given when I wanted to be a writer: to write. And when I got that advice from a well known novelist, I felt cheated that that was the advice he gave me. Because I wanted to know how do I get published; but I hadn’t really written anything! What you want to do is you want to write, write as often as you can — write everyday. And if you have an idea for one book, great, but you better have an idea for a second book and third and a fourth, because that’s how you get better. Make sure you read. Read everything. And write.

Eddie Draw. It’s never been easier to learn to draw and to create good art. The internet has made it possible. You don’t even need education from an art school anymore. Ultimately, your calling card is your portfolio. And there are so many tutorials on youtube and following Instagram artists. The inspirations are out there. Draw every day because with every drawing you get better and better.

Eddie Wow. Yes to drawing caricatures. I had a decision to make: was I going to screen print t-shirts that summer or do caricatures? If I screen printed t-shirts I would have made enough money to go to Ringling; but I wouldn’t have met a lot of really great creative people, some of which have actually furthered my career throughout the years. Now at the time, we’re all a bunch of screwed up kids, but in later years, a lot of them became professionals so it’s good to have that. So that was the first yes. Yes to trying out for Disney after I’d pretty much given up, because I didn’t think they would hire someone who hadn’t gone to art school. And yes — the third and probably best yes — saying yes to Dan Povenmire to go to Las Angeles and work on Phineas and Ferb.