THOUGHT BUBBLE MONTH 2026! After an astonishing 15 years Kate Ashwin’s webcomic Widdershins has come to an end and this year she’ll be bringing the final print volume to Thought Bubble in Harrogate. Having tabled at the event every year since 2011 Kate has been a TB fixture so to mark this momentous occasion we chatted with her about why is now the appropriate time to bring the story to an end, the mechanics of satisfying different audiences, and the joys of fan community…
ANDY OLIVER: Fifteen years is an astonishing run for a webcomic. But there will always be people discovering projects for the first time via a Broken Frontier interview. So let’s start by asking you to summarise the premise of Widdershins and tell us about the world it encompasses?
KATE ASHWIN: Thank you! Well, to give my convention pitch – Widdershins is a series of Victorian-era adventure comics, kind of like Indiana Jones, but with wizards! It’s set in a more magically-inclined version of West Yorkshire, and follows the tales of an ensemble cast of failed magicians, grumpy bounty hunters, reluctant hangmen, and many more besides. It’s a little goofy, full of heart, and entirely free to read online at widdershinscomic.com!
AO: Why was this the right moment to say goodbye to the comic? And how does it feel to no longer be guiding characters who have been a part of your life for such a long time?
ASHWIN: It’s always a temptation, especially in webcomics, to keep a beloved project going forever. But honestly there’s a real joy in giving a story a good end, and I felt very much ready to do that. I’m very happy with the journeys each character went on, even if some of them did have to be dragged unwilling through parts of them, and to be able to tell their stories and give a sense of where they all ended up is a privilege!
AO: Let’s talk about process. Webcomics have their own distinct method of delivery so how did you approach that in regards to keeping a serial momentum going without affecting the reading experience when it was collected? What challenges did that involve? And what mediums do you work in to bring your stories to the page?
ASHWIN: Cor, that’s a big question! Oddly enough, I saw Nero Villagallos O’Reilly wrote a great article on this exact thing just the other week, about how in webcomics you’re always writing for three readers – the one who reads page-by-page, the one who reads in several-page chunks, and the one who waits for pretty near the whole thing to be finished.
His thoughts on it are very similar to my own while working on Widdershins, in that you can keep your pacing sharp by ensuring each page has something on it for your page-by-page readers. The downside though, for me at least, is that I ended up with quite dense pages as a result, which made weekly production slow down a little too much towards the end! Page compression vs update speed is something I’ve been thinking on a lot for my next project, as I do intend to try to shift that balance more in favour of faster updates. We’ll see how it works out!
Medium-wise, I love Clip Studio for digital work, and my Huion tablet monitor, though the siren song of working in pen and ink is always calling…
AO: Webcomics build up their own dedicated communities of fans. What have been some of the most rewarding reactions and feedback to the strip over the years, both from digital readers and those who picked up the stories in print?
ASHWIN: I’ve been lucky enough to have a very sweet and kind fan community for Widdershins! Loads of thoughtful comments and brilliant bits of art and fanfic popped up from them throughout the years- at cons I’ve seen hand-stitched puppets, homemade candles, and even cosplays based on the comic! I’ve also been honoured to get some very sweet notes and art from readers in person too, all of which I’ve kept.
As for direct reactions, I’m still very pleased at how the end of the ninth book came together, as I was aiming for the early Guy Ritchie type thing where all the threads of a plot come together in chaos towards the end, and it got a lot of positive comments as people realised what I was doing with it, haha. That was a lot of fun. Also every time I introduced a new set of characters, it was very fun to gradually see the comments about them change from uncertainty to positivity! A delight every time.
Excerpt from Beryl the Peril
AO: You’ve worked on many other comics and properties including such legendary characters as Beryl the Peril, and for the hugely acclaimed The Phoenix weekly. What have been some of the highlights of your comics adventures outside of Widdershins?
ASHWIN: It’s been very cool to work on a legend like Beryl! And The Phoenix were truly lovely to work for too, just a great bunch of people over there, really raising the profile of kids’ comics in general! I’m also lucky enough to do some editing work for Iron Circus Comics, which has been really enjoyable- helping other comic creators shape a story into its best form is something I really get a kick out of!
The Phoenix covers by Kate
AO: What’s next for Kate Ashwin? Are there any hints you can give us about your next big project?
ASHWIN: My reference pile for this one includes The World Atlas of Tattoo, Hirohiko Araki’s Manga in Theory and Practice, and a Dixons catalogue from 1999.
Visit Kate Ashwin’s site and store here
Interview by Andy Oliver
Widdershins/Kate Ashwin is at Table C14 in the 2000 AD Hall at Thought Bubble.
Thought Bubble 2026 runs from November 9th-15th with the convention weekend taking place on the 14th-15th. More details on the Thought Bubble site here.
Read all our Thought Bubble 2026 coverage so far in one place here.
