Avery Hill Publishing, the independent comics publisher located in South London, has just announced their 2019 graphic novel line-up. It’s nice to see them make good on their mission statement of “helping aspiring creators reach their potential and (be) a home to the geniuses that the mainstream has yet to recognise”, particularly after publishing the extremely successful On a Sunbeam by Tillie Walden. As usual for Avery Hill, they are publishing a mix of emerging artists, such as Shanti Rai and Scott Jason Smith (both getting their debut graphic novel here) and more established indie comics artists like George Wylesol and Claire Scully. I’m particularly interested in the follow-up to Wylesol’s Ghosts Etc., I reviewed that book last year and was pleasantly surprised by how odd, obtuse and engaging it was. Avery Hill will be an interesting publisher to follow in the coming years as they’re expanding their presence in North America and bringing their great publications with them.

See below for the full line-up and excerpt from their press release:

Desolation Wilderness
By Claire Scully
32 pages, full colour
Release date: 13 June 2019
Desolation Wilderness is part of an ongoing project looking at landscape and memory – our relationship with the environment, effects we have on the world and space around us and in turn it’s profound affect on our own memory and emotions. Each of these landscapes is a starting point to a much bigger adventure that strives to answer the question of what lays beyond the horizon.
This book is the second part of a series that began in Internal Wilderness, Claire’s piece from 2016 that examined memory and imagination through visual ideas and explored the idea that within the space on each sheet of paper a world can be created either from a distant memory of a childhood holiday or from the desire to see parts of the world that for now are only dreamed about.
Sennen
By Shanti Rai
100 pages, full colour
Release date: 13 June 2019
Sennen’s life is mostly perfect – spending her days tending the fields in her idyllic village and her evenings with her beloved family, all tucked into the crook of a green and beautiful valley. And if it wasn’t for the masked figures descending from the hills with increasingly regularity to take their harvested food to deliver to their Gods, she’d have no worries at all. But when the demands for tribute strike closer to home, Sennen is forced to flee the paradise of her valley and venture into the home of the Gods to save her family and their way of life – only to discover that those we worship are not always what they seem, and the lives we lead are not always so simplistic after all.
Sennen, the debut graphic novel from exciting new British author and artist Shanti Rai, tells a timeless tale of adventure, and the discoveries we make as we explore beyond the boundaries of our childhood, into the uncertainty of the adult world.
Marble Cake
By Scott Jason Smith
108 pages, full colour
Release date: 13 June 2019
Have you ever wished you could glimpse into the lives of strangers – those anonymous faces passed in the produce aisle of the local supermarket, those shadows lurking behind the closed curtains of their homes? Would you be surprised by the rich mixture of personalities, the strange habits and the unexpected insecurities? Perhaps like you they’re also baking blind, no recipe to follow. You might produce a perfect cake, or you might end up throwing the mix in the trash and starting again. And again. And again.
Marble Cake, the debut graphic novel from acclaimed British author and artist Scott Jason Smith, cuts a slice through everyday life and takes a bite out of the layers concealed beneath the icing, all told with the acerbic wit and keen eye of a truly exciting new creator.
Internet Crusader
By George Wylesol
100 pages, full colour
Release date: September 2019
Ever have one of those days where you’re talking to a smokin’ hot chick online and she turns out to be a robot working for an evil cult… and that hot chick sends a computer virus masked as dirty pictures… and that computer virus allows Satan to come through everyone’s computers and hypnotise them… but the family computer has parental locks on it so you don’t get the virus… and then God messages you to say you’re the only person on earth who can save human existence? Anyway, that’s the set up for this part art book, part graphic novel and 100% true, deep dive into early internet culture from creator of Ghosts, Etc. George Wylesol!
“yo. ur abt to read 1 of the greatest storys ever told. its the story abt how i went on the internet and single handedly saved the world, killed the devil and made friends w god. i call this story INTERNET CRUSADER.” – BSKskator191