“I drew my first issue of ‘The Walking Dead’ in two weeks!” – Charlie Adlard at the Edinburgh International Book Festival

Artist Charlie Adlard, best known for his epic ten-year (and counting) run on The Walking Dead comics, was in Edinburgh last week to discuss his work and inspirations at the International Book Festival.  Interviewed by David Bishop, his former editor at Judge Dredd Megazine, Adlard spoke about collaborating with Walking Dead scribe Robert Kirkman, the thrill of seeing his creations brought to life on the TV screen, and the meandering career path he took to reach the world of comics.

Although he remembers loving drawing at a young age, and being blown away by his first taste of comics with The Mighty World of Marvel #1, Adlard said that it was only after a detour to film school that he decided to embrace the medium and try to establish himself as a comics artist.  A gruelling couple of years on the convention circuit followed, before he got his first big break drawing a 1992 Judge Dredd story written by Alan Grant.  Quickly developing a reputation for being “the fastest artist in British comics”, Adlard became a journeyman, working on a whole range of different titles including the official X-Files comic.  This, it turned out, was something of a licensing nightmare for which his artwork required approval from several different production companies – an experience, he said, that he’s never been keen to repeat.  The story of his coming to work on The Walking Dead in 2004 is, he admits, rather boring – “Robert just asked me; I said ‘yeah, alright'” – but he’s proud of the fact that he and Kirkman are now officially the longest-running continuous partnership in comics history, and of how his work’s been adapted by the hugely successful AMC television series.  There’s a strict delineation on the comic, he said, between the role of artist and writer, but although Kirkman has occasionally had to talk him into illustrating some of the series’ more gruesome sequences, it’s a job that he still very much enjoys.

So what’s the average working day like for the artist of one of the world’s most popular comics?  Adlard said that he treats it like a normal 9-5, trying to keep regular working hours, but that he’s actually at his happiest when toiling away in his studio.  He is, he said, very aware of how privileged he is to be doing what he loves for a living.  The huge success of the TV adaptation has ensured that The Walking Dead remains a tremendously popular comic, and Adlard wants to keep drawing it for many years to come, but at the same time he’s recently given up doing inks on the series so that he has time to pursue some other projects.  What these might be he didn’t say, but an artist of Adlard’s calibre will always be worth looking out for in future.