Ed Firth is the East London artist and writer behind the Pound Shop zine cycle and the ongoing Horny & High anthology comic series exploring British chemsex subculture among gay men in 2010’s London. Vol 1 was shortlisted for the Myriad First Graphic Novel Competition out of 115 entries, and described by queer comics legend Ralf König as telling “a truth only the bowels can understand”. Of Vol 2, Attitude magazine said "Subject matter, storytelling and sheer artistry collide with exquisite dexterity... The endless chase of the high... the cruel psychosis of comedown... powerfully captured here. Incredible work.” A graphic novel reviewer from a leftwing broadsheet said, “too, er... 'graphic' for a family newspaper!!” In 2022 his autobiographical comic The Lift placed second in the Observer/Faber & Faber Graphic Short Story competition, and recently he was declared by Broken Frontier as one of their “Six To Watch” emerging Small Press creators 2023. Vol 1 and 2 will be released in Germany in 2024 in a translated edition via the publishing house Salzgeber Buchverlage, and in the USA through Northwest Press. He is currently writing volume 3 of H&H in between portrait and illustration commissions, as well as volunteering for Controlling Chemsex as a Support Keyworker, suppporting people making changes in their life around sex and drug use.
In 2024 Ed will be be tabling at Pride in Panels in San Francisco, presenting a talk on his comics career as a guest speaker at LDC, and will spend Winter as a Resident Artist at The Tom of Finland Foundation in Los Angeles.