Avery Hill Publishing – ” a small yet perfectly formed publishing company” – has announced the publication of Grey Area Issue 1, by British 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, and is the first issue of an ongoing series featuring 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 he takes 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.
“I took the tube to places across town,” he says of creating the story. “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,” he continues. “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.”
Tim, who lives in South London, is a prolific web comic creator whose works include It’s A Bird’s Life, about the things that happen in his life – some important, some mundane, some funny and some serious.
“My comics take inspiration from the minutiae of city life,” he says, “the stories found amid urban domesticity, the friends and family that I surround myself with.”
He has also drawn comics that feature in Tiny Dancing and Reads, both published by Avery Hill Publishing, and contributed to the 69 Love Songs, Illustrated project; and a short comic to the first issue of Off Life, the UK’s first street press comics magazine.
• Grey Area Issue 1 is printed in A4 size, features 28 black and white pages with a Cairn Board cover, and is available now from the Avery Hill Publishing shop: www.bigcartel.averyhillpublishing.com
• Tim Bird’s official web site is at www.timothybird.co.uk
• Avery Hill Publishing: www.averyhillpublishing.com
- About the Author
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The founder of downthetubes, which he established in 1998. John works as a comics and magazine editor, writer, and on promotional work for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. He is currently editor of Star Trek Explorer, published by Titan – his third tour of duty on the title originally titled Star Trek Magazine.
Working in British comics publishing since the 1980s, his credits include editor of titles such as Doctor Who Magazine, Babylon 5 Magazine, and more. He also edited the comics anthology STRIP Magazine and edited several audio comics for ROK Comics. He has also edited several comic collections, including volumes of “Charley’s War” and “Dan Dare”.
He’s the writer of “Pilgrim: Secrets and Lies” for B7 Comics; “Crucible”, a creator-owned project with 2000AD artist Smuzz; and “Death Duty” and “Skow Dogs” with Dave Hailwood.
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