David Shrigley and Chris Shepherd, Who I Am and What I Want, 2005. © the artists 2007. Courtesy the artists and Stephen Friedman Gallery, London

Exhibition Preview - Cult Fiction runs at Tullie House Museum and Art Gallery, Castle Street, Carlisle from January 19 – March 9 2008.

The unique relationship between comic books and art is explored in a vibrant touring exhibition at the Tullie House Museum in Carlisle from January 19 2008.

Cult Fiction explores how the fusion of word and image in comics and graphic novels have influenced many fine artists – and vica-versa. It features the work of 16 contemporary artists, along with 12 leading comic artists and graphic novelists.

Very much a reciprocal relationship, many present day artists have taken comic conventions and adopted them to communicate graphically with their audiences. The featured artists include Raymond Pettibon, Kerry James Marshall, Adam Dant, Olivia Plender, David Shrigley and Richard Slee.

Dant, James Marshall and Plender have published their own comics while others, like Pettibon and Shrigley, employ a combination of word and image that is strongly reminiscent of popular cartoons.

Paul McDevitt, Ghost of Declan Clarke (after Hokusai), 2005 © the artist 2007

Among the comic artists is underground legend R.Crumb along with innovative French graphic artist Killoffer, investigative comics journalist Joe Sacco and the newspaper cartoonist and illustrator Posy Simmonds.

Their subject matter tends to be autobiographical, offbeat and in many cases (possibly with the exception of Simmonds) transgressive. Julie Doucet portrays herself in vulnerable and compromising situations and Debbie Drechsler candidly explores personal experiences of childhood abuse.

The realities of life in a war zone are charted in Joe Sacco’s Palestine while everyday characters such as R. Crumb, American Splendor’s Harvey Pekar and Daniel Clowes’ misfit David Boring become unlikely heroes.

Classic literature, meanwhile, gets a makeover for the twenty-first century in Melinda Gebbie and Alan Moore’s epic Lost Girls, which charts the sexual awakening of three characters from children’s literature – Alice from Alice in Wonderland, Dorothy from The Wizard of Oz and Wendy from Peter Pan.

Travis Millard, Sally, 2004. © Travis Millard 2007. Courtesy the artist and Richard Heller Gallery, Los Angeles

Each of the artists involved has also contributed drawn self-portraits and given hand written answers to questions posed by the curators.

Artist and curator Kim L Pace and Hayward curator Emma Mahony originated Cult Fiction, which is a nationally touring exhibition from Southbank Centre, London on behalf of the Arts Council, England.

A fully illustrated catalogue accompanies the exhibition featuring essays by Paul Gravett and Emma Mahony, and a picture essay b Kim L Pace.

This is an exhibition preview - have you been to see this show? Why not let us know what you think?