Latest Interviews Jon Haward Interview

Tales of the Buddha Before He Got Enlightened is very much an unofficial biography of the religious icon. Well, as far as we know. Maybe his early days really were filled with sex, drugs, violence and cutting mockery of sacred cows. They probably weren’t as funny.

In this exclusive interview with artist Jon Haward we talk about the brand new collected edition of Tales..., the origins of the comic, potential worries of a religious backlash and much more.

Let’s start at the start: where did the idea for the comic come from?

It was Alan’s [Grant, writer] idea. I don't know where he got the spark from but it's a genius concept. I had worked with Alan on several short humour strips for Northern Lightz and I enjoyed them so much I asked Alan if we could work on a regular strip. Alan sent me the first Buddha strip script and I could tell right from the get go he had created something special, he originally wanted it to be a 3 panel gag...