The making of graphic novel [Re]Start: It's Never Too Late
02 March 2023
Eddy Nicholls, Julia Cockerham and Alex Copeman – all Illustration BA(Hons) graduates – recently launched [Re]Start: It’s Never Too Late, a collaborative graphic novel project the trio have been involved in creating for several years. The book has been designed to help young people think creatively about their futures. We spoke to them about the project, their experiences working on the book and their plans for the future.
Tell us about [Re]Start: It’s Never Too Late
Eddy: “[Re]Start is really a combination of a few things. It’s a graphic novel meets a journal meets a guidebook. The founder James [Pattinson], conceptualised it and it follows seven young characters, from a big variety of backgrounds, in London and their various struggles in life and the obstacles they have to overcome. Through following their stories, the characters all end up on this course called [Re]Start. So, in the process of reading the book, the reader vicariously takes the course through the characters.
You’re learning through each character and, while you may not relate to all of them, different parts of each character are relatable and you can learn through them.
“The benefit of this is that it’s not just a book telling you how to live your life based on a single perspective. And it’s also not just in a void giving advice because it’s tested in the narrative worlds of these different characters and their struggles.”
Julia: “You’re learning through each character and, while you may not relate to all of them, different parts of each character are relatable and you can learn through them.”
Eddy: “It’s incognito learning, really. It’s entertaining and it’s gripping and it tricks you into bettering yourself.”
Did you know each other before [Re]Start and how did you all get involved with the project?
Alex: “I lived in the same halls as Eddy at uni and Julia was in my crit group – so we all knew of each other.”
Julia: “Eddy and I applied for the opportunity through the University and then a year later we met on the project and it was just a really fun coincidence. Then, a bit later on, we needed more illustrators and we thought, who do we know? And Alex’s work speaks for itself – it's phenomenal – so we asked if he was up for the opportunity.”
What have you learned from working on [Re]Start?
Alex: “There are a lot of lessons within the book that have actually helped me throughout the process. I’d be drawing a page and find that the content is coinciding with how I felt at that time – so it has been quite a good activity in terms of working through how I feel.”
Eddy: “Even though I’ve wanted to be an illustrator, and do comics specifically, for a decade or so now, I still found some new truths in myself from reading the script at various points of the process. Beyond that, just a huge amount of environment drawing, project management and things like that.”
Julia: “Time management is the main thing that has yet to been mentioned. Going from having very little during an entire pandemic to working full forty-hour weeks – it was crazy. I loved every minute of it.”
Eddy: “And there were a lot of minutes of it!”
How did your time studying Illustration at Falmouth help you to develop the skills you needed to succeed in your industry?
Eddy: “The way we worked at Falmouth often informed the structure of how we worked on [Re]Start. For example, our weekly review process came from a similar thing we used to do at Falmouth.”
Alex: “The group element at Falmouth has really helped me going forward – especially with this project. Getting into the routine of receiving constructive feedback at university has been so important and it has pushed me to create some of my favourite works.”
What advice would you give students looking to enter the industry?
Eddy: “For comics specifically, I'd say you need to be making work before you get any work. There’s this misconception where you think you can just practice drawing still images and characters without making a story and then one day it’ll just work out. Making books is incredibly important. Visual storytelling over a long period of time is almost a whole other skillset. If you make the work, you’ll eventually get good enough that you won’t have to search for jobs because people will search for you.”
If you make the work, you’ll eventually get good enough that you won’t have to search for jobs because people will search for you.
Julia: “I’d say, just follow up on any leads you have out there. I applied for [Re]Start and got very positive feedback but that was followed by a long period of time where I didn’t hear anything. But James told Eddy and I that one of the reasons he hired us was because we followed up and actively chased our applications."
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