Kickstarting Comics: Get Tillie Walden’s Beautiful Coming Of Age ‘Spinning’ In A New Hardcover Edition

A new hardcover edition of Tillie Walden’s acclaimed coming-of-age drama, Spinning, funding right now from Avery Hill Publishing on Kickstarter.

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Walden and Avery Hill have a long history together – it was the British small publisher that gave us our very first look at Walden’s work, publishing the Ignatz Award-winning The End of Summer back in 2015, followed by the similarly Ignatz Award-winning I Love This Part in 2015, and A City Inside in 2016.

Avery Hill have a habit of doing this – taking a chance on a great, new artist and their record on finding and publishing the next generation of incredible comic makers is so good.

Walden has gone on from success to success, becoming a huge name in comics with the likes of the Eisner Award-winnig Spinning in 2017 (published by First Second), On A Sunbeam in 2018 (published by First Second and Avery Hill), Are You Listening in 2019 (First Second), and working with Emma Hunsinger on My Parents Won’t Stop Talking! in 2022 (First Second), and collaborating with Tegan and Sara on Junior High in 2023 (Farrar, Straus and Giroux). Avery Hill also published the collection Alone In Space, republishing The End of Summer, I Love This Part, and A City Inside in a single book in 2021

Now Avery Hill are launching a new UK edition of Walden’s acclaimed memoir Spinning, with a new cover design and in a gorgeous hardback edition.

If you haven’t already got this absolutely beautiful book in your collection already, now’s the time to get behind this latest AH Kickstarter. And if you have, well, you’ll know just how good it is and are probably very tempted to upgrade your edition right here.

Spinning is a memoir of Walden’s time as a competitive figure skater, mixing the daily commitments to skate, to practice, to compete, with school and family – but it’s also a poignant and heartfelt coming of age tale, with Walden’s life changing as she meets her first girlfriend. This life changing event sets Walden on a new path, breaks her out of the enforced routines of figure skating’s strict path, and eventually led Walden onto the road to making art.

It’s a truly incredible book that’s about life, reinvention, commitment, what it feels like to be in that first blush of young love, and the pressures of growing up.

Intimate, touching, thoughtful, and, at the times when it needs to be, powerful and hard-hitting. A genuine queer coming of age tale, it’s one that could and should be enjoyed by anyone who appreciates just how expansive and diverse and plain wonderful the comics medium can be.

The 400 page hardback book is funding on Kickstarter right now. Obviously, the book is the main draw, but Avery Hill have also produced a number of extras to go along with it. There’s a set of A5 bookplates that will be numbered and signed by Walden; a limited number (30) of signed and sketched in books; plus the opportunity to add the rest of Walden’s Avery Hill library to your pledge, and the Avery Hill 10 Year anniversary A4 print.

Tillie Walden’s Spinning – Hardcover Edition is funding on Kickstarter right now – the campaign runs until Friday 13 September