Avery Hill Publishing stands out as a truly innovative comics publisher, bringing new and diverse talent to international audiences. Their commitment to championing fresh voices has been instrumental in launching the careers of many celebrated artists, including renowned creators such as Tillie Walden and Zoe Thorogood.
Avery Hill are also dedicated to bringing new readers to comics, raising the profile of the medium across different audiences.
Last Autumn, Avery Hill launched an innovative new graphic novel exhibition, ‘Vision and Labour: Making Comics’ at the Mercer Gallery in Harrogate, Yorkshire. Coinciding with the renowned Thought Bubble Comic Art Festival, the exhibition ran until Spring 2026, aiming to introduce comic books to a completely fresh audience.
Through a mix of artist spotlights, interactive multimedia and a touring library initiative, the project celebrated the immense craft behind comic art and opened up comics to new readers.
REDEFINING ‘ADULT COMICS’
For decades, comic art has often been misinterpreted as purely for children, superhero enthusiasts or those looking for nostalgia. With the ‘Vision and Labour’ exhibition, Avery Hill aimed to bridge the gap between traditional gallery-goers and the nuanced world of independent and adult graphic novels, while also showcasing contemporary work to show how this is an evolving and thoroughly modern art form.
The team at Avery Hill had two main objectives:
- Educating a novice audience: Effectively demonstrating how to read comics and appreciate their unique storytelling properties.
- Highlighting the labour of love: Appreciating comics as fine art by revealing the sheer volume of work required to produce a single graphic novel.
MULTI-LAYERED ENGAGEMENT
The ‘Vision and Labour’ exhibition featured a carefully curated mix of fine-art gallery display, educational tools, and geographic outreach, pulling back the curtain on the comics ecosystem and detailing the technical skill, drafting, and time required to create a work of comic art.
Flowcharts, large illustrations and videos told the story of a graphic novel from initial script to final print.
Keen to ensure that the exhibition experience shouldn’t end at the gallery doors, the team also designed a custom Z-fold leaflet titled ‘A World of Comics Awaits’. This handout offered clear ‘next steps’ for newly minted fans looking to explore comics further.
To take the exhibition to new audiences, the team built a highly portable, mini version of the exhibition stand. This compact display toured libraries across Yorkshire, bringing the magic of graphic novels directly into local communities.
IMPACT AND KEY RESULTS
The project received outstanding feedback from both the comic community and the general public, with 4,000 visitors in the first month alone, demonstrating how exhibitions, galleries and libraries can be an effective way to get the word out about comics to brand new audiences.
“Visiting this exhibition has been a privilege. I was deeply moved by the talent, imagination and skill gathered in one space. I am leaving inspired, more attentive to detail, and profoundly grateful for witnessing such an explosion of creativity. This is truly one of the most beautiful exhibitions I’ve ever seen.”
EXHIBITION VISITOR
Following the massive success of the Mercer Gallery run, Avery Hill are eager to re-use and adapt these materials for future spaces, using this brilliant blueprint for how to successfully cross-pollinate comic culture with traditional art spaces.
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