Steve Edwards Papers

Steve Edwards is a cartoonist who specializes in documenting life in the Midwest. Originally his cartoons, titled It Could Be Worse…, emphasized life in the Red River Valley of North Dakota. More recently, aligned with his move to Montana and western Washington, the cartoon has expanded to include aspects of life in the Northwest. Edwards is originally from Southern Illinois. His resume shows much diversity; he was a holiday UPS delivery man, grocery store stocker, librarian, director of admissions at Gordon State College in Georgia, interim chamber of commerce director, a coal miner for thirteen years and taught within the College of Business and Public Administration at the University of North Dakota. After his wife decided to enter the seminary they left their jobs, sold their house and relocated to Decatur, Georgia.  His wife’s first call was to three yoked churches (Gilby, Forest River and Inkster) northwest of Grand Forks, North Dakota.  In Gilby, North Dakota, Steve Edwards made new friends in the local hardware store where he began getting ideas that inspired him to start It Could Be Worse... The cartoons were initially picked up by a Grand Forks Herald publication, Yesteryears, in 2001. Edwards then became an editorial cartoonist for the Grand Forks Herald. Since then he has been asked to do work for the University of North Dakota, North Dakota city commissions, special projects, and for several other North Dakota, western Minnesota, and Montana publications.  In 2011, he and his wife left Montana and moved to Arlington, Washington, to be close to their daughter and her family.  In late 2012, he began drawing the cartoon strip for the North County Outlook, a newspaper covering several towns north of Everett, Washington.  In Arlington he added to his list of jobs: row boss at a strawberry farm and helping run a pumpkin patch and corn maze during the Halloween season.  It was at the corn maze that he got to see one of his drawings turned into a six acre corn maze. -Written by Steve Edwards and Sarah Matter, Special Collections Intern

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