Our Titles

Signals From The Hill #61 – an interview with Tim Bird, creator of ‘Adrift on a Painted Sea’

In this episode we talk to Tim Bird, the creator of Adrift on a Painted Sea, which came out on the 1st October 2024. Kat talks to Tim about family, memory, loss, art… and making quiet comics.

Signals From The Hill #60 – an interview with J. Webster Sharp, creator of ‘The Scrapbook of Life and Death’


In this episode we talk to J. Webster Sharp, the creator of The Scrapbook of Life and Death, which came out on the 3rd September 2024. We talk about newspaper clippings, the secret lives of humans, and art as exorcism.

Signals From The Hill #59 – Katriona Chapman (author of ‘Breakwater’ and ‘Follow Me In’) about the cultural influences on her work in comics

In this episode, Avery Hill Publishing’s Ricky Miller talks to Katriona about the cultural influences on her work in comics. Kat picks a favourite book, play, film, comic, and TV show to discuss.

Signals From The Hill #58 – Pidge on the culture and media that have influenced ‘Infinite Wheatpaste!’

In this episode, Avery Hill Publishing’s Ricky Miller talks to Pidge about the cultural influences on her work in comics. Pidge picks a favourite book, film, comic, TV show and podcast to discuss.

Our Kickstarter for Tillie Walden’s ‘Spinning’

The Kickstarter for the new UK edition of Tillie Walden’s Spinning has just gone live, and we’re thrilled to share this deeply personal and beautifully illustrated memoir with you! This incredible hardback edition brings together Tillie’s Eisner Award-winning graphic novel in a stunning new format with an all-new cover design.
There are also some great bonus items to accompany the book, so read on…

A competitive figure skater for twelve years, every day was the same for Tillie Walden. Sports, school, and family, with no chance for her to stop and think. But when Tillie met her first girlfriend, it changed her whole life. She broke out of the reinforced sameness of a routine into a new relationship and a new interest in making art. She began to be sure her life should be different.

A poignant, honest autobiographical graphic novel about realising you can reinvent your life.

Specifications: 400 pages, hardback with a brand new cover design, 153 x 216mm

Praise for Spinning:

“A coming-of-age classic.” – The Guardian
“Gripping.” – The Washington Post
“A queer coming-of-age memoir that’s hauntingly, vividly resonant.” – Publishers Weekly
“An engrossing, gorgeously quiet memoir.” – The New York Times
“A stirring, gorgeously illustrated story of finding the strength to follow one’s own path.” – Booklist
“A raw and intimate memoir.” – The Daily Dot

Back the book here: Spinning Kickstarter

About Tillie:

Tillie Walden is a cartoonist and illustrator from Austin, Texas. Her gorgeously illustrated, deeply personal graphic novels have won the Eisner Award and the LA Times Book Prize. She teaches at the Centre for Cartoon Studies and lives in Vermont, where she is the state Cartoonist Laureate.


We’ve produced a set of A5 bookplates featuring line art by Tillie based on the book. These will be numbered and signed.

We’ll also have a limited number (30) of signed/sketched copies of the book available!

More details here!

In addition, you can add Tillie’s existing Avery Hill books and prints to your order at checkout… individually or as a bundle.

Help support the kickstarter here!

Signals From The Hill #57 – Lizzy Stewart on ‘Walking Distance’ and some of her cultural influences!

In this episode, Avery Hill Publishing’s Ricky Miller talks to Lizzy Stewart about her book ‘Walking Distance’ and the cultural influences on her work in comics. Lizzy picks a favourite book, film, comic, TV show and piece of music to discuss.

Signals From The Hill #56 – Kit Anderson on ‘Safer Places’ and some of her cultural influences!

In this episode, Avery Hill Publishing’s Ricky Miller talks to Kit Anderson about her book ‘Safer Places’ and the cultural influences on her work in comics. Kit picks a favourite book, film, comic, TV show and piece of music to discuss.


Kickstarter for ‘Adrift on a Painted Sea’ by Tim Bird!

Our Kickstarter for Tim Bird’s Adrift on a Painted Sea has just gone live and we’re really excited to share this gorgeous, moving story with you!

Tim’s been with us since the very start of Avery Hill and it’s been one of our greatest pleasures as a publisher to see him grow as an artist. Adrift on a Painted Sea is his most personal and engaging book yet.

A poignant, thoughtful graphic memoir that explores family, loss, and art through the author’s relationship with his mother, who painted as a hobby throughout her life.

Sue Bird was always painting: botanical art, landscapes, still lifes, and especially the sea.

She took classes, kept countless sketchbooks, and filled the house with art. From their neighborhood to their family trips, all the moments of her life were memorialized in her artwork. Throughout her life, she never sold a piece—she gave art to family and friends, and shared her work online, but never received wider recognition for her work.

This graphic novel by her son, Tim Bird, explores their family life and her creative explorations through a mix of her paintings and Tim’s comics, depicting their relationship and her life from teenagehood to her struggle with cancer at the height of the covid pandemic. After her death, this graphic novel at last showcases her work.

Back the book here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/averyhillpublishing/adrift-on-a-painted-sea-by-tim-bird/

Specifications: 84 pages, softcover with French flaps, 168 x 239mm

Praise for Adrift on a Painted Sea:

“This is such a beautiful and touching work about the persistent power of love, the mirrors of memory and the endless narratives of the sea. When I’d read it I had to stop what I was doing and gaze out of the window for a while until my soul stopped trembling.”

– Ian McMillan

About Tim:

Tim Bird is an illustrator and comic artist based in Winchester, who’s finishing an MA in Illustration at Falmouth University in 2024. He’s published a number of comics through Avery Hill Publishing as well as self-published zines and webcomics such as Rock & Pop, and It’s a Bird’s Life. He’s contributed work to a diverse range of anthologies. His comic From the City to the Sea won best comic at the British Comic Awards in 2015.

Tim’s made some lovely exclusives for the campaign that you can add on at checkout—there’s a behind-the-scenes zine showing the making of the book and a postcard set featuring Sue’s paintings. You can also get copies signed and sketched in by Tim.

We’ve also created a ‘Personal Stories Bundle’ including five Avery Hill titles that we think complement Tim’s book beatifully:

  • Follow Me In by Katriona Chapman
  • Walking Distance by Lizzie Stewart
  • I Love This Part by Tillie Walden
  • Barking by Lucy Sullivan
  • Sleeping While Standing by Taki Soma

Help support the project here!

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/averyhillpublishing/adrift-on-a-painted-sea-by-tim-bird

Latest news – autumn 2024 books

We’re very proud to announce our line-up for autumn 2024!

The Scrapbook of Life and Death by J. Webster Sharp
Adrift on a Painted Sea by Tim Bird

The Scrapbook of Life and Death by J. Webster Sharp – Out 3rd September 2024

88 pages, paperback, black and white, 210 x 297mm


The monstrosity of life explored through the strangeness of Edwardian England and
the cartoonist’s own mental illness.


‘Dentist Robs Women of Teeth’ — ‘Death Chair for Nice Old Man’ —
‘Mother Feeds Son Like Bird’
The British newspaper clipping collection of egalitarian George Ives, collected between
1892 and 1949, ranged from murder and theories of crime to cricket scores. He was
fascinated by the unusual, the gothic, the sexual, and the melodramatic.
In this graphic novel, acclaimed cartoonist J. Webster Sharp shares some of the most
bizarre stories from his archives, in silent comics form. With often shocking, visceral black
and white artwork, the strangeness and eccentricity of the Edwardian era then provides a
backdrop for Sharp’s own struggles with mental health. The Scrapbook of Life and Death
is a fascinating, personal window into forgotten historical views of eccentric and socially
transcendent and disturbing behaviours—and their resonance in life today.

Adrift on a Painted Sea by Tim Bird – Out 1st October 2024
84 pages, softcover with French flaps, full colour throughout, 168 x 239mm


A poignant, thoughtful graphic memoir that explores family, loss, and art through the
author’s relationship with his mother, who painted as a hobby throughout her life.


Sue Bird was always painting: botanical art, landscapes, still lifes, and especially the sea.
She took classes, kept countless sketchbooks, and filled the house with art. From their
neighbourhood to their family trips, all the moments of her life were memorialized in her
artwork. Throughout her life, she never sold a piece—she gave art to family and friends,
and shared her work online, but never received wider recognition for her work.
This graphic novel by her son, Tim Bird, explores their family life and her creative
explorations through a mix of her paintings and Tim’s comics, depicting their relationship
and her life from teenagehood to her struggle with cancer at the height of the covid
pandemic. After her death, this graphic novel at last showcases her work.
At its heart a book about creativity and family relationships, Adrift on a Painted Sea tells a
story about the things we overlook in the people closest to us.


Press Coverage!

  • Kerry Vineberg reviewed Safer Places by Kit Anderson for The Beat: “Each individual story stands strong, leaving me enriched with insight, deep emotions, and sometimes a knowing laugh. It’s everything I could wish for in a collection.”
  • Infinite Wheatpaste vol. 1: Catalytic Conversions by L. Pidge was reviewed on Comicon: “A wonderful comic, full of invention and great characters with a light, fluidy art style that’s packed with colour and attitude. Infinite Wheatpaste is 280+ pages of great, great comics that take us into some far-out places of wonder.”
  • Curses by George Wylesol was reviewed on Slings and Arrows: “It’s deliberately disorienting yet magnificent for the sheer power of Wylesol’s imagination. His is a unique voice to be cherished.”
  • Slings and Arrows also reviewed Barking by Lucy Sullivan: “Barking is powerful as both mental illness testament, and graphic story-telling.”