London-based publisher Avery Hill needs about $16,000 to publish their Spring 2022 line-up, and they’ve launched a Kickstarter campaign to raise the funds.
Avery Hill Publishing came into being about 10 years ago, when Ricky Miller and Dave White began self-publishing comics like Tiny Dancing and Reads. Eventually their small-press efforts evolved into a full publishing house, bringing comics and graphic novels by Tillie Walden, George Wylesol, Zoe Thorogood, Tim Bird and more to press. They describe themselves as a publisher that “helps aspiring creators reach their potential and is a home to the geniuses that the mainstream has yet to recognise.”
Their Spring books include three titles: 2120 by Wylesol, Sleeping While Standing by Taki Soma and Outer Wilderness by Claire Scully.
2120 by George Wyesol
Internet Crusader creator George Wylesol returns with a new graphic novel described as “a blend of classic ‘choose your own adventure’ stories and point and click escape games, the epic 2120 offers readers the chance to explore these liminal spaces and, at the same time, take an existential journey of discovery…”
You’re Wade, a schlubby middle-aged computer repairman, sent to fix a computer in a vacant, nondescript office building. When you get inside the door locks behind you, and you can’t get out. Now the adventure begins! You have to explore this building and try to find your way home. The building is huge on the inside with a lot of sprawling hallways and empty rooms but your only hope is to uncover clues and try to work out the mystery this whole experience hangs on.
Sleeping While Standing by Taki Soma
Taki Soma’s resume includes work from Marvel, Image, DC, Dark Horse and webcomics like The After Realm. This new graphic novel is a collection of autobiographical stories written and drawn by her:
A series of short autobiographical strips, dropping in at important events throughout her life that shaped who she is today, told in a compelling and humorous authorial voice. We are led by Taki through her early childhood in Japan in the early 80s, to moving to Minnesota, the separation of her parents, childhood trauma, teenage angst, death, drugs, comics, health issues, love, fertility, pets and zombies; all of life is here in this book! It’s a picture of a highly regarded creator, with an unflinching look at some particularly harrowing moments, but threaded through with levity and love.
Outer Wilderness by Claire Scully
Outer Wilderness is the third in the Wilderness series by Scully; Avery Hill previously published Internal Wilderness and Desolation Wilderness by the creator. Each book is described as “a standalone, wordless collection of illustrations that examine our relationship with the spaces we occupy.”
Outer Wilderness is the third and final instalment of a journey that began with introspective self-imagined places (Internal Wilderness), followed by a passage of experience and memory (Desolation Wilderness) and now looks further away to the edges of the universe and into the unknown. Each of these landscapes are inspired from a mix of science fiction, imagination and space documentaries which builds into a journey through a fantastical environment.
As far as rewards go, Avery Hill is giving backers the opportunity to purchase a single book from the line-up or all three in one bundle. Other tiers offer Avery Hill’s previous titles from 2020 and 2021.
You can learn more about the project on its Kickstarter page, by visiting the Avery Hill Publishing website or by checking out this interview conducted by From Cover to Cover that was posted earlier today.