Avery Hill Publishing’s Spring 2024 Slate Of Great-Looking Books Announced

The new year may be a way off but we’re already looking at a quartet of rather fabulous books from one of my favourite publishers – Avery Hill Publishing…

 

Avery Hill Publishing is one British publisher who really just never seem to put a foot wrong. Over all the years I’ve been looking at their books I don’t think I’ve ever had a bad books. A couple that haven’t connected, sure, but never a bad book. And they have a rather excellent hit rate for finding things and authors that I absolutely love.

They publish a wonderful variety of comic works, diverse, interesting, experimental things, and wonderful things. I honestly cannot remember a simple one of their titles that hasn’t impressed me.

For heaven’s sake, they’re the publisher that first brought you Tillie Walden. They’ve published Rachael Smith, Nicole Goux, Tom Humberstone, Gareth Brookes, Claire Scully, Jules Scheele, Kat Chapman, Owen D. Pomery, and many more incredibly good creators over the years.

And now we have a quartet of new (well, 3/4 new) titles to parade before you that will be coming out in Spring 2024.

Co-Publisher and Commissioning Editor Ricky Miller had this to say about what’s coming:

“Continuing our tradition of discovering and nurturing new talent, Avery Hill presents three creators with debut graphic novels, and a fifth book from B. Mure, who we were the first to publish. This is the strongest line-up of stories Avery Hill has ever put together — if you like powerful writing, psychologically fascinating characters, amazing world-building, and epic scope, then we have it for you in Spring 2024!”

So, here are the first four titles from this premier Brit publisher’s spring slate of books in 2024…

 

Barking by Lucy Sullivan

Out 27th February 2024 – 124 pages, hardback, black and white

A must-read story on mental health and the failures of the medical system to treat people dealing with grief, depression, and trauma. Unforgettable artwork and a deeply meaningful story.

A tale of grief, madness and the ghosts that haunt us.

You may have heard the name Lucy Sullivan, may have heard about Barking. You certainly should have, as it was a stunning debut from an important new voice in comics. First published in limited numbers following a crowdfunding campaign and with support from the Lakes International Comic Art Festival and public funding by the National Lottery through Arts Council England, it’s a stark exploration of mental health and a book that will profoundly affect you once read.

Having it in a mass-market edition from Avery Hill should see this powerful book reach the audience it absolutely deserves.

Alix Otto is in a bad, bad place. It’s one year after her friend’s body was found in the river and she’s being followed, chased, pursued by a giant black dog. In a mental crisis, Alix is sectioned under the Mental Health Act and placed into an institution. But through her treatment, the black dog just will not leave her alone, and now she’s also being visited by a vision of her dead friend.

It’s a story very close to home for Sullivan, one in which she’s explored her own mental health problems, something which only gives what is a terrifyingly brutal and nightmarish tale an even harder and frightening edge.

Here’s the AH PR…

“A year after the death of her friend, Alix’s depression and grief still hound her in this personally-inspired graphic novel.

Loopy . . . cuckoo . . . stark raving. . . .

When the depression and grief Alix feels over the death of her friend overwhelm her, she’s institutionalized. But inside a psychiatric ward, things don’t get better for her—now she has nowhere to get away from her rapidly-spiraling thoughts. As Alix navigates disinterested attendants, group therapy, and isolation, she must build herself a new equilibrium and tame the black dog of her depression.

Inspired by her own struggles with mental health, Lucy Sullivan tells a powerful, emotional story about the problems that sometimes overwhelm us all—and the failures in the mental health system we depend on.”

 

Safer Places by Kit Anderson

Out 26th March 2024 – 208 pages, paperback, full colour

A surreal and magical short story collection, and a prelude to Kit’s debut long-form graphic novel which Avery Hill will be publishing in 2025.

The 18 tales in Safer Places range from two to 34 pages long, and are built around themes of memory, isolation, liminal spaces, and small magic.

Kit Anderson’s a cartoonist, editor, and designer from Boulder, Colorado and now based near Zürich. She received her MFA from the Center for Cartoon Studies in 2022 – of which the 18 shorts in Safer Places constituted her thesis. She’s also published several short comics, including the Ignatz nominated Weeds from Parsifal Press in 2022.

The AH PR…

“From road trips to doctors’ offices to the mysterious spaces under the house, Kit Anderson’s short stories explore the secrets and magic typically unseen in everyday life.

A walk through the forest, a family move, a day in a normal life Anderson’s depictions of these ordinary moments transform them with a double-take, revealing the strangeness, surreality, and transformation within.

With powerful and personal emotional writing and art, thoughtfully combining magic and life as we all know it—these stories establish Kit Anderson as a presence in short comics-format fiction.”

 

Infinite Wheatpaste Vol. 1 – Catalytic Conversions by L. Pidge

Out 30th May 2024 – 264 pages, paperback, full colour

The first volume of an epic space fantasy, with more volumes to come!

Sorry, don’t know much about this one – I shall find out more! But again, the Avery Hill PR…

“An epic graphic novel adventure through space and time.

Welcome to your journey into the Infinite Wheatpaste, the home of a universe-spanning sci-fi adventure.

Relationships . . . androids . . . car repair . . . time travel . . . gods—these interconnected stories set on the edges of human experience share the little bits of life that feel less than real.

Abby and Lilah are a couple drifting apart. Jeff is a flaming star. Soe is a student who has a complicated relationship with her overbearing grandmother. Casimir is a man with a past and Abe is in his future; maybe in everyone’s future. Otis is a grief-stricken android on a road to enlightenment. Groob is fun-loving and salt of the earth. Some are slowly making their way to each other, but some are breaking apart.”

 

Disciples of the Soil by B. Mure

Out 9th July 2024 – 88 pages, paperback, full colour

The beginning of the two volume finale to Mure’s epic Ismyre saga, one published here in the spring and one in the fall.

It’s going to be more of the same – and that’s just fine, more beauty, more stunning storytelling, mixing gentle fantasy with eco-awareness and anti-establishment protest.

Again, and for the last time… AH PR…

“A graphic novel fantasy about a new rail line scheduled to be built across Ismyre that threatens to disrupt both the stability of the land and the god who lies beneath the soil.

When the Prime Minister announces a new rail line in Ismyre, there are protests: from the wizards, who are concerned about the country’s magic, from the naturalists, who fear the damage to the soil, plants, and animals, and from the Sisters of Our Lady Who Slumbers Under the Earth, who would prefer their giant serpent deity to rest peacefully.

As the railway proceeds, the worries of the wizards and the naturalists come to pass . . . and the earth has begun to shake. . . .

A new book in the creative, fantastical Ismyre series drawn in pencil and watercolor by Bristol-based creator B. Mure. Mure continues to expand the Ismyre universe, this time with a story of industry and ecology.”