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Latest news!

Our recent Kickstarter campaign for The Hard Switch by Owen D. Pomery was a huge success! We went more than five times above our goal, and were able to upgrade production of the book to include a beautifully-designed dust jacket and extra features. A huge thank you to those that made this book possible. For those of you who missed the Kickstarter, don’t fret, you can still pre-order this science fiction tale via our web shop here!

Below are some sneak peeks at the design and production work that’s going into making this book extra beautiful!

Owen has also designed some exclusive bookplates for the wonderful OK Comics in Leeds, so pre-order from them here and you’ll get this signed bookplate edition while stocks last!

Also newly-available to pre-order in our shop is The Wilderness Collection by Claire Scully. This will be another beautiful hardback book with a dust jacket! Pre-order your copy here.

Another shop that currently has signed copies of recent books in stock is Topping and Company in Bath. They have some signed copies of Ellice Weaver’s Big Ugly in stock!


Finally, we’re currently nominated for as Best Small Press/Independent Publisher in this year’s Tripwire Awards! Please take a second out of your day to vote for us here!

Signals From The Hill #49 – Tillie Walden on ‘On a Sunbeam’

In this episode we talk to Tillie Walden in honour of the five year anniversary of the release of her hugely successful graphic novel On a Sunbeam.
We chat with Tillie about the early origins of the comic, we go deep into some parts of the story and characters, and we even speculate about a potential sequel! (Spoiler alert – it’s probably not going to happen…)

Graphic Novels for Everyone!

This week is the American Library Association annual conference. We partnered with the amazing publisher Silver Sprocket to create a super cool handout about why comics are important and exciting.
It covers topics including:

Why Build a Graphic Novel Collection?
Librarians Talk Graphic Novels!
Where are Graphic Novels Now?
The Future of Graphic Novels

If you’d like to read it, you can download a copy here!

Signals From The Hill #48 – Ellice Weaver on ‘Big Ugly’

In this episode we talk to Ellice Weaver, the creator of Big Ugly. We talk world-building, being part of a cartooning couple, and loving your characters!

Tom Humberstone interviews K. Briggs about ‘Macbeth!’


K. Briggs’s stunning adaptation of Macbeth comes out on the 25th of July! You can pre-order a copy here.

Below they’re interviewed about the book by Tom Humberstone, creator of the wonderful Suzanne – The Jazz Age Goddess of Tennis.

Tom: Macbeth is one of the most popular of Shakespeare’s plays for stage and screen adaptations. As with any Shakespeare adaptation, I would imagine there’s something both thrilling and daunting about being in conversation with centuries of other people’s interpretations. Were there any choices that other adaptations make that you were keen to avoid, or things that inspired or influenced your own approach? Have you felt frustrated that other adaptations misunderstood or missed a certain aspect that you felt was crucial to the play? Do you have a favourite? (except for yours of course!)

Briggs: It is absolutely one of the most popular Shakespeare plays for adaptation! As I was working on mine not one, but two Macbeth films came out; both of which I avoided so as not to influence my interpretation mid-process.  From the outset I wanted to pay close attention to the women of the play – what are their motivations? What are their relationships to power in this world? And then, what about the peasant population of Scotland? Where do they fit into these wars and upheavals? I’ve felt frustrated by their absence in other interpretations, and also the motivations of the Weird Sisters, Lady Macbeth, and Lady MacDuff being just “women are crazy”. I have a favorite! Throne of Blood, directed by Akira Kurosawa; Toshiro Mifune is sublime.

Tom: Am I right in saying that you drew a lot of this during lockdown? Did that impact the way you approached the adaptation or impact the way you felt about the play in any way?

Briggs: Ooft, lockdown kind of blurs together, if I’m honest. But this book was pure escapism for me; I got to dive headfirst into my medieval art obsession and transport myself back to Scotland, which I miss terribly.

Tom: On the page, there’s a lot of playful symbolism, experimental panel structures, and of course your gorgeous use of collage. I’m curious – was that all there in script-form before putting pencil to paper? Or did you discover things on the page? Or was it a mix of the two? I suppose I’m curious about your process here. How did you go from manuscript to finished comic?

Briggs: The first step was to put page breaks in the script; how much information and dialogue could I logistically fit on a single page? I think Alan Moore once said no more than 250 words per page, so I started there, then considered what would make a complete thought on a single page. That takes time, and as I worked I changed a few things here and there, added an extra page to give space, etc.  When it comes to the art, I think my process comes from my painter background – I don’t do a roughs pass, I just work up a page from start to finish, discovering it as I go. And I work out of order; since I have the script figured out already, I work on whatever page strikes my fancy on a given day. If I forced myself to work in order I’d get bored or rebellious; if I felt like drawing witches, I’d draw witches, simple as that. And then as far as the content of the pages, there’s what’s been said/done and there’s what it means. I try to incorporate something of what it means in every page. What going on between the words?  

Tom: The comics medium is an entirely different beast to the stage. Why did you decide that Macbeth needed to be told as a comic? And what do you think the medium was able to bring to the play that other mediums would struggle with? What were the challenges?

Briggs: It’s a partially selfish answer – because I thought it was cool. Also, this book began life as a entry to the inaugural Graphic Shakespeare Competition back in 2016. There was a call for entries, so I sent in Act 1, Scene 1. There’s already an academic interest in Shakepeare as sequential art, and I can understand why. It’s the perfect balance – a reader of the play can’t get the extra information an actor’s interpretation would provide, a watcher of the play can’t go back and re-read a passage they didn’t quite catch, a watcher of a film adaptation is locked into the film’s pacing (unless they’re quick with the pause button). A comic has both visual and textual information and the reader is empowered to approach Shakespeare at their own pace. But a challenge that came up right away was sound effects; bells, thunder, lightning, and wailing all play important plot roles in Macbeth.

Tom: Do you have plans/hopes to adapt other Shakespeare plays as comics? Is there something about Macbeth that you felt worked especially well in comic form that wouldn’t work as well with other plays?

Briggs: I have an idea I’m putting together about The Tempest. Another one of my favorites, it has multiple stories going on simultaneously that the play switches back and forth showing. It’d be great to do it with a few other artists, each of us getting to interpret a subplot of our own.  The Tempest and Macbeth are some of the shorter Shakespeare plays, so that counts for something – 180 pages is the longest comics I’ve ever done!

Tom: There’s an incredibly tactile quality to your art. With paint, tape, newsprint, pencils, gold leaf pens and countless other beautiful, tangible details. In my experience it can be hard capturing the quality of these things when scanning or photographing finished art. Was that tricky at all? Or is this something you are used to at this point?

Briggs: Thank you, I appreciate that. I really enjoy creating those layered textures. It’d get tricky only when my collage got too deep for the scanner to pick up, then it’s a matter of setting up the most even lighting possible and taking a bunch of photographs to try to capture the effect. But as far as weird collage stuff, I’m used to it. And my long-suffering scanner can attest to the many hours its been subjected to me pressing down a collage as hard as I can onto its glass.

Tom: Another thing I noticed about your panel layouts: No two were exactly the same throughout the book. Was that always the plan going in? Did you associate certain layouts/colours/panel shapes with certain characters? For instance, I noticed the witches were portrayed using just black, white and red and the pages were divided into segments of three.

Briggs: Yes, the Weird Sisters are always in grey tones with pitch-black robes and blood-red accents. I wanted them to be out of time and space with the rest of the book – they’re beyond time and the material plane, operating on their own dimension they sometimes allow Macbeth to access. In the very first scene they’re calling down the blood-red that will serve as a symbol for evil and nefarious deeds throughout the whole book. And yes, it was always the plan to not have a plan, to let every page and panel layout be in service to the text. However I felt I could be interpret what was going on internally and externally, that’d be the panel layout.

Tom: A lot of the pages, by design, called to mind the Bayeux tapestry and stained glass windows. Are those art styles that have always fascinated you or was it more a case that they were especially suited for this story?

Briggs: Yes! And medieval illuminate manuscripts. Western comics traditions are rooted in all of these, because they’re examples of sequential art, too. Comics, thanks to paper and the printing press, are just more accessible versions of these art making traditions.  I’ve been obsessed with medieval European art for a long time, it’s so fraught and a brilliant combination of stylization and realism. What are the rules of medieval art? What’s a lion look like? Who knows! I love it.  And then on top of that, the real historical Macbeth ascended to the throne of Scotland in 1040, so I wanted to also draw from what would have been his contemporary art cultures, such as the Book of Kells.

Tom: A well-known aspect of making comics is that the artist is doubling as actor, make-up artist, costumer, set-designer, director, cinematographer, colourist, editor, stunt co-ordinator etc. – while that’s the case for all comics, it feels especially relevant here. As you sat down to work on a page, did the sense that you were putting on a full theatrical production on your own feel intimidating? Exciting? A combination of the two?

Briggs: So exciting. As a teen I was a theater nerd, especially living for the Shakespeare performances we’d do once or twice a year. This comics became my own production of Macbeth, and of course I cast myself as the best part – Lady Macbeth.  The most intimidating part was the fight scenes, I didn’t feel very confident in drawing bodies in action. So, practice! I drew pages and pages of gesture drawings to build up my skills.

Tom: At 180 pages, this was a huge undertaking. How did you keep yourself motivated, disciplined and on schedule? Did you have a strict routine? Any tips for how you tackled the mental and physical ups and downs of a long-form project like this?

Briggs: Hoo boy, it was an undertaking indeed. But I tried to keep a “how do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time” mentality. Figure out how many pages per week I should ideally complete, and then celebrate every time I finished one. There’s a big dose of Know Thyself in there as well – I genuinely get a dopamine hit when I check something of a list, so I had multiple lists going. On my wall, in my sketchbook; every page done checked off somewhere where I could see my progress accumulating.  I also kept production to standard business hours and didn’t make art on weekends; my partner works a 9-5 so it was important to me to make time to hang out together and have hobbies and downtime.  Breaks and time off aren’t a luxury you “earn”, they’re a necessity to human life and the creative process. But it was intense. After I finished I took a whole month off to do nothing, and it took another three months after that before I wanted to drawing anything. 

Order your copy of Macbeth here!

Tom Humberstone’s Suzanne came out in 2022. It tells the incredible story of Suzanne Lenglen, a woman who changed the face of sport and society in the trailblazing jazz age. This beautiful graphic novel explores how a figure both enormously influential and too-often overlooked battled her father’s ambition, bias in sporting journalism, and her own divisive personality, to forge a new path – and to change sport forever.

Grab a copy here!

Clio Isadora interviews Ellice Weaver about ‘Big Ugly!’

Ellice Weaver’s beautiful book Big Ugly comes out on the 20th June! You can pre-order a copy here.

Below she’s interviewed about the book by Clio Isadora, creator of the wonderful Sour Pickles.

If you’re London-based, there’s going to be a launch party and exhibition for Big Ugly at the fantastic Jam Bookshop on the 22nd June! The exhibition will run until the 9th of July.


Clio: Congratulations on your new book! I loved reading Big Ugly and really enjoyed seeing the sibling dynamics progress throughout all the vibrant illustrated scenes. Where did you find the inspiration when developing Big Ugly?

Ellice: I visited my own relationships. Although this book isn’t at all autobiographical, I took inspiration of the sibling dynamic from my relationship with my own sibling. I’m also turning 30 and was reflecting a lot of what that felt like. Certain age milestones have different atmospheres about them. The early 30s feel like a transitionary time. Like a no man’s land age.

Clio: Your previous comic with Avery Hill, Something City came out in 2017. Do you feel your comic making process has changed between making your new book?

Ellice: I swapped from 50% analogue/50% digital to full digital. I used to paint everything and then put it together later in photoshop. But now I find it gives me the most freedom to just work digitally. I move around a lot and not needing the materials is a huge plus.

Clio: I loved your use of colour and how it transitions through the different scenes. Did you work with a set colour pallet or did you develop it as the story progressed?

Ellice: I developed it as the story progressed but always went back to weigh it next to the other palettes. Somehow colour palettes always end up being the most work during a project and I remember sweating over them haha. I’m glad they came together even though there are quite a few.

Clio: I enjoyed the dynamic between the two siblings in the story. Was this inspired by any real life relationships?

Ellice: I’ve been thinking back to a lot of sibling dynamics that I’ve watched over the years and drew from a few of them. They’re just quite funny. I remember going to friends’ houses as a kid and seeing the most dramatic fights breaking out between sisters, I’ve rivaled with my own brother too. Sibling relationships can reduce sensible adults to full-blown toddlers. They just bring out something in someone which can be a bit ugly but also deep and sweet.

Clio: Big Ugly features an interesting character who does Human Design Coaching. I was curious to know how you developed this idea?

Ellice: When developing the characters I listened to a podcast that happened to be about human design and I was like, ‘hm which character is which human design profile’. It’s a cool way to get the characters across because you can literally tell the reader this is their human design profile whether the character agrees with it or not.

Clio: The story references that one of the main characters Matt has a podcast, although we never learn what it is about. I’m curious to know what you think his podcast could be about?

Ellice: I opted to keep that info out of the story. There’s also some childhood trauma that gets referenced in the book and I choose not to include it… I liked the idea that the past has happened and the characters are dealing with the fallout of that, like everyone does. I quite like keeping bits of information out of narratives. But I did toy with the idea of Matt’s podcast being a confidence coaching podcast.

Clio: As another comic creator, I’m always curious to know how long it took to make a finished graphic novel. How long did it take you to make Big Ugly, from the initial idea until final submission?

Ellice: I’m not actually sure because I never worked on it solidly. Once I took 6 months off and often I’d pick it up when I could but I started in September 2018 – 1690 days. But who knows?

Clio: Lastly, do you have any funny anecdotes about making this comic you’d like to share?

Ellice: There was a house construction going on next to my studio and it was completed from start to finish before I got the 20th page done. Every day I’d look out the window and be like ‘comics are weird.’

Get your copy of Big Ugly here!

Clio Isadora’s Sour Pickles came out in 2021. It’s s semi-autobiographical graphic novel about a girl struggling to finish the final year of art school, while surrounded by wealthy peers who have all the privilege and connections that she doesn’t. Grab a copy here!

Signals From The Hill #47 – Nicole Goux on ‘Pet Peeves’

In this episode we talk to Nicole Goux, the creator of Pet Peeves. We talk storytelling, manga, the struggle to make things… and writing embarrassing songs in college!

Latest Avery Hill News

We can now announce three new books for autumn 2023!

The Hard Switch by Owen D. Pomery

Curses by George Wylesol

The Wilderness Collection by Claire Scully

The Hard Switch will be hardback, 100 pages.
An engrossing science fiction graphic novel about a spaceship’s crew tackling the changes in their lives and work at the moment when they – and everyone else in the galaxy – begin to run out of fuel.

Curses will be paperback, 240 pages.
A new collection of surreal, subversive, magical realist stories from one of comics’ most inventive voices.

The Wilderness Collection will be hardback with a dust jacket – 100 pages.
A gorgeous collection of Claire Scully’s three previously published Wilderness books, in a luxurious new edition printed at a larger size.

Latest Avery Hill News!

Our third book of 2023 is now available to pre-order in the shop – Macbeth by K. Briggs!

The first 75 orders will come with a gorgeous foil embossed bookmark.

Pre-order here!

Hardcover, 180 pages, full Colour

A vivid graphic novel adaptation of Macbeth, with Shakespeare’s full, unabridged text.

When three witches prophecy to Macbeth that he will one day become the King of Scotland, an epic of unhappiness, treachery, and blood begins. Macbeth and Lady Macbeth’s ambitions lead to an ever-growing path of murder as Macbeth grows ever-closer to the throne. But where will it all end? Only with death – and with madness.

Influenced by the witches and magic of Macbeth, K. Briggs’s lush new graphic novel rendition of the classic provides a new interpretation of the Scottish play. Briggs, as a Shakespeare reader (and performer) from age twelve, brings their lifelong love of the Bard to this work.

Get your copy now!

We also now have Big Ugly by Ellice Weaver back from the printer, and it’s absolutely stunning!

Order a copy here.