Vision and Labour - the Art of making Comics

Vision & Labour: Making Comics
The Art Of Avery Hill Publishing
An exhibition at the Mercer Art Gallery, Harrogate
18 Oct 2025 to 26 April 2026
 
Kristyna Baczynski, Tim Bird, Katriona Chapman, Tom Humberstone, Charlot Kristensen, B. Mure, Owen D. Pomery, Claire Scully, J. Webster Sharp, Rachael Smith, Lizzy Stewart, Lucy Sullivan, Zoe Thorogood, Donya Todd, Tillie Walden, George Wylesol.
 
Harrogate’s Mercer Art Gallery has teamed up with indie publisher Avery Hill Publishing to create an exhibition showcasing some of today’s most exciting comics creators. Opening in October in time for this year’s Thought Bubble Comic Art Festival, the exhibition offers a fascinating glimpse into the work of leading comic artists, and an important snapshot of the UK comics landscape over the past decade.


From the early superhero comics of the 1930s underground comix scenes of the ‘60s, ‘70s, and ‘80s, to the rise of manga and Art Spiegelman’s Pulitzer Prize winning Maus in the ‘90s, generations have grown up reading comics. It is a medium that inspires diverse groups of people to a life-long love of reading, and has filtered into education, health, public art, video games, movies, and many more parts of life today.
 
Comics writers and artists work in a wide variety of ways, from solo creators who write and draw their own books, to collaborations between several creators. Comics can be short, accessible stories of just 30 pages, or lengthy graphic novels, hundreds of pages long. It is a medium with something for everyone—literary fiction, memoir, non-fiction, sci-fi, horror, and more. As it grows, so does its recognition, with graphic novels winning prestigious awards and being adapted to film and TV.
 
On display in the exhibition will be original artwork by sixteen diverse artists, shown alongside the finished books. The exhibition will offer insights into the creative process of making comics, and the different working practices of each artist, ranging from meticulous ink drawings to spectacular digitally created imagery, including video footage of the creators at work. There will also be photo opportunities with life-size recreations of some of the book covers, an interactive game designed by artist and designer George Wylesol. The various design elements pulling it all together are by comics artist Kristyna Baczynski who has created infographics, including a description of the various stages of journey from the original idea of the creator to the finished physical book
 
The audience will come away with an appreciation of the talent and vision of the creators and a new understanding of the labour involved in creating the art and making the finished book.

Karen Southworth, Exhibitions Curator at the Mercer explains “Through working with Thought Bubble and Avery Hill Publishing, we’ve come to appreciate that comics and graphic novels are a valuable, but often overlooked, part of our literary culture. We know this exhibition will inspire fans of comic art but we hope it will open lots more people’s eyes to discover this vibrant and accessible art form”. 
 
Avery Hill Publishing co-founder Ricky Miller says “This exhibition is an exciting way for us to extend our remit of helping new creators into comics and a great chance for us to look back on what we’ve created over the years. Somehow we’ve achieved this despite having no publishing experience, juggling demanding day jobs and major life-changes, in what was supposed to be a fun side-project that accidentally got out of control”.
 
The exhibition has been organised in partnership with Thought Bubble, the UK’s largest comic art festival which takes place in Harrogate annually in November. Thought Bubble’s Martha Julian says “To see the work of these incredible creators in one place should be grasped with both hands! Avery Hill Publishing have been a stalwart of the indie comics community for well over a decade, and we couldn’t be prouder to be including this celebratory exhibition as part of this year’s Thought Bubble Festival”.




 
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For further information please contact:

Katriona Chapman at Avery Hill Publishing [email protected] and
Karen Southworth at the Mercer Art Gallery, North Yorkshire Council [email protected]
 
 
 
Notes to Editors

About Avery Hill
Avery Hill Publishing are a London-based independent publisher of comics, graphic novels and art books. Best known for being the first to publish work by breakout comics stars like Tillie Walden and Zoe Thorogood, they’ve gone on to develop an exciting slate of up-and-coming artists, a catalogue of diverse and compelling books, and have won numerous awards and acclaim along the way. With a love for the unusual and an eye for creators with potential, Avery Hill have carved a niche as a home for remarkable, offbeat books and are proud of their role in nurturing new talent.
 
More Info: Avery Hill Publishing
 
About the Mercer Art Gallery
The Mercer Art Gallery is Harrogate’s public art gallery. It opened in 1991, housed in the 200 year old Promenade Rooms, one of Harrogate’s first purpose built spa buildings. The Gallery’s name comes from the water-colourist Sidney Agnew Mercer who lived most of his life in Yorkshire and whose sons contributed funds towards the new art gallery. The gallery is managed by North Yorkshire Council; it offers a changing programme of temporary exhibitions  of modern and contemporary art alternating with displays of Works from the Harrogate Fine Art Collection, which is also available to view online at artuk.org, the digital home for art from every public collection in the United Kingdom.
 
More info:  Mercer Art Gallery


About Thought Bubble Comic Art Festival
Thought Bubble is THE Yorkshire Comic Art Festival! A week-long celebration of comics, illustration and more spread across the whole of Yorkshire, finishing in a huge two-day comic convention in Harrogate. We use our festival week to promote the power of comics! We believe they can inspire, educate and bring people together like no other medium, so whether you're a longtime fan of comic art or have never picked up a graphic novel before, you’ll find something for you.

More info: Thought Bubble Festival
 

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