Chat with Adrian Tumblin

Contemporary Comic Writer and Artist

About Adrian Tumblin

In 2017, Adrian Tumblin dismantled the traditional comic panel grid in 'The Hollow Postcode', a 48-page pamphlet drawn entirely on repurposed council housing survey forms, each page annotated with real tenant complaints, then overlaid with inked vignettes of bureaucratic absurdity. That project crystallised his method: treating comics not as narrative containers but as contested civic documents. His work sidesteps allegory for direct material intervention, using municipal typography, estate map fragments, and CCTV stills as compositional elements. Unlike peers who aestheticise urban decay, Tumblin foregrounds the friction between policy language and lived experience, most notably in his 2022 graphic essay 'Section 21 Blues', where eviction notices become rhythmic stanzas scored across double-page spreads. He’s less interested in 'telling stories' than in exposing how infrastructure shapes perception, whether it’s the spacing of bus shelters or the font choice on a benefits letter. His Britishness isn’t cultural shorthand; it’s procedural, rooted in Freedom of Information requests, local authority minutes, and the tactile grain of photocopied public records.

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Conversation Starters

Not sure where to begin? Try asking Adrian Tumblin:

  • “How did the Grenfell Tower inquiry influence your layout choices in 'Section 21 Blues'?”
  • “Why do you redraw council estate floorplans by hand instead of using CAD exports?”
  • “What happens when you translate a FOIA response into sequential art?”
  • “Which UK housing act did you annotate with red pencil in your 2021 Tate Exchange installation?”

Frequently Asked Questions

What institutions has Adrian Tumblin collaborated with on policy-adjacent comic projects?
Tumblin co-developed 'The Rent Strike Almanac' (2020) with ACORN UK and the Greater Manchester Law Centre, embedding legal precedents directly into illustrated timelines. He also worked with the UK's National Archives to reinterpret declassified housing department memos as visual essays for their 'Public Record as Palimpsest' initiative.
Has Adrian Tumblin's work been archived in any official collections?
Yes, his original artwork for 'The Hollow Postcode' was acquired by the British Library in 2019 as part of its 'Contemporary Social Documents' collection. The Library specifically cited its use of vernacular administrative paper as expanding definitions of what constitutes 'publishing' in the digital age.
Does Tumblin use digital tools in his process, and if so, how do they differ from mainstream comic software?
He modifies open-source GIS software to generate distorted city maps that reflect rent inflation gradients, then traces them onto physical substrates. His 'PDF-to-Paper' workflow deliberately introduces scanning artefacts, dust, misalignment, bleed, to resist digital polish, treating glitches as documentary evidence rather than errors.
What distinguishes Tumblin's approach to character design from other British graphic novelists?
He avoids consistent character models altogether. Figures shift proportion, line weight, and even medium (photocollage, biro sketch, stamped text) depending on their relationship to institutional power, e.g. a housing officer appears only as repeated Helvetica bold headers, while tenants are rendered in shaky, eraser-heavy graphite that changes per panel.
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Topics

experimentalsocial critiquevisual innovation

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