In 2012, Edd Gould, a former Newgrounds standout and one of the most popular digital content creators in UK, passed away after a lengthy battle with leukemia. At the time of Gould’s death, it was unclear what would happen to Eddsworld, the channel where he posted his animated comedy shorts. Ultimately, Gould’s friend Tom Ridgewell — known to the YouTube masses as TomSka — stepped in and ran Eddsworld for years after Gould’s death.
Ridgewell’s work on Gould’s channel is the subject of “The Eddsworld Legacy,” a new, 40-minute documentary available on Ridgewell’s secondary channel. Through discussions with Gould’s friends, family, and colleagues, the documentary serves as a fitting tribute to Eddsworld, which will now be maintained by Gould’s family after Ridgewell ended his involvement with the channel earlier in March.
“The Eddsworld Legacy” was first conceived as an Indiegogo perk for the campaign Ridgewell launched in 2012, when he sought funding for additional “legacy” episodes on the Eddsworld channel. As Ridgewell notes in a comment on the documentary, what started as a simple behind-the-scenes project turned into something much bigger. “Over time it grew into this 40-minute-marathon and I decided it’d be cool to release it to the public too,” he wrote.
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Ridgewell’s tenure as the driving creative force behind the Eddsworld channel spans more than a dozen videos, beginning a few months after Gould’s death and leading up to a two-part finale called “The End,” which arrived in mid-March. “The End,” fittingly, is Ridgewell’s last hurrah on the Eddsworld channel, but Gould’s fans can still hope for more content in the future. Matt Hargreaves, another creator involved in the production of Eddsworld, wrote on Twitter that he is “not done with it, not by a long shot.” In the meantime, if you’d like to read a more exhaustive tribute to Gould, his work, and his legacy, TenEighty Magazine has you covered.
