Avery Hill Publishing are over the moon to announce the publication of Grey Area Issue 1 by British comics writer and artist Tim Bird.

Titled ‘While The City Sleeps’, Tim’s first full length comic is a paean to London and the culmination of an obsession that started when he moved to Golders Green in 2005.

“I took the tube to places across town. Places with familiar names, unusual names, places where friends lived, places where there were good comic book shops, or second hand record shops. Tottenham Court Road, Mudchute, Kilburn, Camden Town, Finchley. I wore comfortable shoes and carried my camera everywhere. I photographed graffiti, bus stops, abandoned supermarket trolleys, tower blocks, barbed wire and construction sites. I would walk along the Regent’s Canal from the Thames up to Little Italy, or along the Lea Valley from Tottenham Marshes out past the M25 into Essex – Waltham Abbey where shops close on Sundays.”

This first issue of an ongoing series features three vignettes exploring the metropolis at night. Anyone familiar with Tim’s work will recognise the poetic yet documentary eye and the confident lines that have garnered comparisons with the likes of Daniel Clowes, Seth and Craig Thompson, as we take a tour above ground and below, through the then and now, and across the spectrum of stark anonymity and hazy society that coexist in our cities while some of us slumber.

Grey Area Issue 1 is printed in A4 size, and features 28 black and white pages with a lovely Cairn Board cover. Priced at a bargainous £3.00, it’s available now from the Avery Hill Publishing online shop and selected comic and book shops.