Andi Watson is a British comics writer and artist who is responsible for some of the most critically-praised comic books in recent times. He has received several Eisner nominations¹, particularly for Best Limited Series, for Breakfast After Noon.

Breakfast After Noon is Watson's most famous work to date. It is a 'slice-of-life' comic about a couple about to be married who are both made redundant from their jobs, and it concentrates on the different ways they both try to cope with this sudden change to their lives. It is by turns funny, thought provoking and moving, and it is always extremely easy to identify with - particularly if you've ever found yourself eating breakfast after noon!

Watson's first work was Skeleton Key, a story that started as a fantasy about a bored teenager in Saskatchewan who finds a magic key that allows her to go dimension-hopping, and meets a Japanese fox spirit who becomes her best friend. It gradually settled (losing most of the fantasy elements on the way) into being a sharply observed character-driven coming-of-age tale. Skeleton Key is also currently in the process of being made into an animated series by Nickelodeon.

The latest (and at the time of writing, still ongoing) creation by Watson is Slow News Day, an insightful and wry look at a clash of cultures when a high-flying American journalist arrives to work in the UK at the Wheatstone Herald, and finds it is much smaller than she expected.

Watson's other achievements include Geisha (a science-fiction comic about an artificial girl who wants to be an artist, and her struggle to overcome the stigma of being an android), writing for the Buffy the Vampire Slayer comic and doing miscellaneous covers and colouring for various other comic-book titles, which doesn't exactly yet add up to massive 'mainstream' success. However, if the animated series of Skeleton Key does well, it's quite possible that the world might hear a lot more about Andi Watson...

Related BBC Link

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