About

The site

This website showcases my comics work from the 1980s and 1990s; I published numerous small press comics in the UK from 1982 onwards and was particularly active up until the early 1990s. The site features covers, downloads, and other samples of my work. Most of these comics were produced in very small print runs and are long sold out; what you see here comes from my personal archives.

Since about 2011, I’ve been producing new stories and books at about the rate of one a year, most of them published as print-on-demand books. These can be found in the Recent work category.

UK Small Press

I also edited Fast Fiction magazine from 1984 onwards (taking over that role from Phil Elliott); and ran the Fast Fiction mail order / distribution service 1987-1990, taking over that role from Paul Gravett. You can see a set of Fast Fiction covers here. You can browse galleries of small press covers here.

About my work

I am the creator of characters such as Windy Wilberforce, Primitif, Henrietta La Folle, Ramollo, Illegal Batman, Drake Ullingsworth, Vladimir the Medico, and numerous peculiar short stories, fables, and poetic comics. My comics are highly personal and idiosyncratic, created largely for my own enjoyment and to give full expression to my interior worlds and imagination. All of my characters are real to me, and their adventures have guided me throughout my life.

Publications

Most of my comics were self-published, but my work has also appeared in Escape Magazine, Knockabout Comics, Fox Comics in Australia, Sortez La Chienne in France, and Honk! in the USA.

Quotes

“Ed really is one of the GREAT cartoonists of all time. Deserves to be high in everyone’s canon.” – DYLAN HORROCKS, Hicksville

“He is a true artist”

“Ed is interesting for a couple of reasons. Firstly he was not just a creator but a key figure on the scene, running the Fast Fiction anthology in the 1980s which would lead to Zum and Slab and everything else that followed. He was one of the seekers and connectors that pulled and held it all together.

“More importantly he is a true artist. His work is special but also, I feel, important as Ed appears to have no obvious influences within the field. He has spent his career carving out something that is unique and very English in a way I’d never seen before and have rarely seen since. I’m not ashamed to say his work often went over my head, coming as it seemed from literary traditions I wasn’t literate in, but when I persevered it always rewarded.” – PETE ASHTON, I Am Pete Ashton

“Ed Pinsent’s website is a treasure trove that I don’t think I’ll ever escape.” – RICHIE BAEZ

“One of the underground greats of the medium”

“For a long time, through the 80s, Pinsent was a mainstay and prime mover of the UK small press comics scene as a regular contributor to Escape magazine, editor of Fast Fiction, handling the distribution service of the same name, as well as self-publishing his own work in a stream of diverse one-off titles which eventually included the copyright-defying Illegal Batman and Silver Age Superman. For many people interested in creating their own comics, Ed was a first point of contact. I was one of them, and although my own efforts were pretty hopeless I always found a source of support and inspiration in Ed. He led by example, proving that however bizarre your imagination you stand a chance of putting it across in your own comic. In recent years Pinsent has stepped away from comics and now concentrates on his music magazine The Sound Projector, which nevertheless comes lavishly illustrated with his mind-bending images…maybe Ed P’s unique, visionary world of comics is an acquired taste, but for me he is one of the underground greats of the medium.” – MR SLOANE, Bookmunch

“A Many-Hatted Fellow”

“Ed Pinsent is a fascinatingly many-hatted fellow: comic artist (contributing to Escape and editing Fast Fiction); publisher of fourteen-issues-and-counting music magazine The Sound Projector; player in “free-improvised-found-sound-collage”-makers Pestrepeller alongside Savage Pencil and Peter Hope-Evans of hitmakers (and pop quiz answer: Which act beat Pink Floyd to the album title Dark Side Of The Moon?) Medicine Head; and Resonance FM broadcaster, spinning everything from Shirley Collins to Swans in a murder-and-death-themed show, and ninety-minute-tributing luminaries such as Derek Bailey and Miles Davis.” – STEPHEN DRENNAN, Bypass

“An allegorical frame of mind”

“Every comic creator has an illustrating style, whether it be wholly their own or adapted from the work of another. Mainstream comics tend to encourage formulaic styles as companies ride the latest fad to death. Small press provides a wider scope for artists to develop their own styles because they can do what they want. This is what Ed does in Mysterioso with artwork that is full of energy. His style is a cross between Egyptian hieroglyphics and German surrealist imagery. The stories in Mysterioso, which dates from 1985, suggests that Ed was in an allegorical frame of mind. The first story follows a man-owl through his life as he looks for love but always manages to somehow want more than he can find with his wife and children. In the second story Friedrich finds that an aspect of himself has fallen into a deep sleep and nothing that he or the doctors do can awaken it, so even though he can function normally he can appreciate much of what life has to offer. Ed has an imaginative approach to story telling that means his stories come across like fables for adults.” – DARREN SCHROEDER, Silver Bullet

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