Acid Box Graphic Novel Announcement

 

Here's a graphic novel that UK publisher Avery Hill would like you to consider funding:

Acclaimed UK publisher Avery Hill is launching a Kickstarter for ACID BOX, a brand new, ambitious graphic novel from some of the most exciting UK comics creators working today, featuring over 200 breathtaking pages of comics from writer Sara Kenney, and artists James Devlin, Emma Vieceli, and Ria Grix, with colors by Sofie Dodgson, and lettering by Hassan Otsman-Elhaou. This darkly comic adventure spans space and time and brings club culture onto the comic book page like never before.

“Is your happy place a bouncing dance floor?” asks writer Sara Kenney. “Are you nostalgic for the parties of the ‘90s? Are you determined to have fun even on the brink of disaster? Do messy main characters give you life? Is supporting art communities and youth access to those communities important to you? Do you just love comics? If you answer yes to any of these questions, you will not want to miss ACID BOX.”

In ACID BOX, Jade Nyo just wants to listen to some music and to get wasted. And then, late one night while out clubbing with her brother, Jade meets a mysterious trio of women who call themselves the Liminals, who tell Jade she must help them avert a global disaster. They give Jade an Acid Box, which  controls portals through space and time. Only the Acid Box is broken, and when Jade travels back in time to 1994, she discovers that changing history might be too much for just one person to fix. . . .

"Telling a story that combines music, time travel, and adventure, ACID BOX is an emotional graphic novel about the state of climate change around the globe, and an important commentary on personal responsibility," says Avery Hill Publisher Ricky Miller. "When Sara contacted me about Avery Hill getting involved in putting out this book, I was immediately attracted to the themes and subject matter. It’s a story about power, control, and nature, as well as dancing, recreational drugs and dance music in the 90’s! As someone who is from the 90’s I could identify with this, although I was too nerdy to go to raves; I was probably at home reading comics. This is a really enjoyable read for those who were there in the 90’s and even for those who weren’t there (and if you remember it then you probably weren’t there anyway, right?)."

Here’s what people are saying about ACID BOX:

“Dancefloor history meets family history via psychic reality-skipping quest. Take your brain to another dimension. Pay close attention.” — Kieron Gillen, The Wicked + The Divine

“A monster of a comic.” — Alex Paterson, The Orb

“Love this—as addictive as a TB303 bass line, hits all the right notes.” 

– Jon More, Coldcut & Co-Founder Ninja Tune

“An arresting and eclectic mind-bending time-altering journey through club culture. Drugs, rave, unity, growth, and geological disasters that could destroy the planet. . . The team behind ACID BOX are a powerhouse and the outcome is visually clever and absorbing.”

 — Chloe Green, Festival Director, Thought Bubble Comic Con

“Fun, insightful, off the beaten track, resonant, meaningful, original and skilful. Would match a Coldcut sound track. ;)” — Matt Black, Coldcut & Co-Founder Ninja Tune

“I was too young to go out raving in the 90’s, so I soaked up club culture via things like 2000 AD and characters like Milton and Bradley, or through artists like Jamie Hewlett or Robert Bliss, and writers like Peter Milligan. The link between club culture and UK comics was such that 2000 AD even had their own club column, so UK comic book culture will always be inextricably linked to the broader outsider dance music phenomenon that I’ve devoted my life to. ACID BOX feels like a long-overdue return to that tradition, and it’s a really fun read.”— Man Power, DJ & Producer

“A welcome depiction of the transcendental nature of electronic music culture where transformation is always possible and hope is carried by the poetry of sound.” — Justin Robertson, DJ, Broadcaster, Artist

“If you missed the 90’s rave scene, or forgot what all the fuss was about, you need ACID BOX. It’s part time-travel treatise of a cultural phenomenon, and part personal journey—as a club scenester with nothing to lose tries to save her brother and their new-found family from an early death.”

—Shelly Bond, legendary Vertigo/DC Comics Editor, creator/writer of Filth & Grammar and Fast Times

Like most of the projects run by Sara Kenney’s Wowbagger Productions, there is a participatory arts element to ACID BOX. The team worked with twenty young adults from the UK, India, Kenya, and South Africa to explore the history, science themes, and art within the story. The young people who took part in the ACID BOX workshops spoke to Karen Berger (comic editor), Dr. Tana Joseph (astronomer, time travel), Professor David Nutt (neuropsychopharmacologist ), Gemmy (musician), Professor Divya Jindal-Snape (education/ life transition researcher), Karrie Fransman (artist), Joe Muggs (music journalist), Irvine Welsh (writer), Dr Suzi Gage (psychologist), Shelly Bond (editor), Rhiannon Griffiths MBE (comics youth), Lucy Sullivan (artist), Prof. Stephen Husbands (medicinal chemistry), Katy Porter (The Loop), Toya Delazy (inventor of ‘Afrorave’), Jeremy Deller (artist), and many more. These considerations inspired the young people to create the comics and articles included at the back of ACID BOX. From sober raving, time travel, chemistry, and climate change to the use of MDMA for therapeutics, their work showcases a range of stunning creative responses to our conversations.

“Now more than ever, it’s vital that artists and scientists team up to collaborate,” said Sara Kenney. “The future depends on it.” 

Check out ACID BOX on Kickstarter now, along with a trailer by Mike from Casetteboy: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/averyhillpublishing/acid-box-a-stunning-sci-fi-graphic-novel?ref=6dj44b 

About Avery Hill Publishing

Avery Hill is the UK’s most prestigious comics and graphic novel publisher. Dedicated to building the careers of emerging authors and championing the stories that comics creators want to tell, Avery Hill has been publishing thoughtful, high-quality, adventure-filled graphic novels by phenomenal authors like Tim Bird, Owen Pomery, Taki Soma, Lizzy Stewart,  Zoe Thorogood, and Tillie Walden for over a decade. 

About the Creative Team

James Devlin is a Glasgow-based artist. He is the co-creator of Planet Divoc-91. His colour work includes the award-winning graphic novels Surgeon X (Image), LaGuardia (Berger Books/ Dark Horse), and Tomorrow (Berger Books/ Dark Horse). 

Ria Grix is the illustrator of The Anomalous Adventures of Viola Holm and Kotiin books. Broken Frontier describes them as “UK comics’ best kept cartooning secret.”

Emma Vieceli loves telling stories and has worked as an artist, writer, performer and composer across multiple publishers, genres, and formats. She is a winner of the writers’ Scribe award for best graphic novel with her Life is Strange series, and also the recipient of the Stiles+Drewe song prize award 2024 for the song It Starts Small, from her musical-UNFOLDING. She created the Breaks trilogy with co-writer, Malin Ryden, and has been an artist/writer on multiple titles across comics, television and video games.

Sara Kenney is a writer, producer, and director in TV, comics, and games. Her comic writing includes Surgeon X (Image) set in a futuristic antibiotic crisis; Planet Divoc-91 (Webtoons) an allegorical alien invasion story about the pandemic and wrote the escape game She Could Fly: Documentary Escape Game (STEAM), inspired by the comic of the same name (Berger books/ Dark Horse). She runs Wowbagger Productions and is currently Innovation and Engagement Manager at the UK's Environment Agency.