Each book includes Strip AIDS 2020, a series of new comics addressing contemporary aspects of the ongoing HIV pandemic, commissioned by Visual AIDS and curated by Paul Sammut. Originally published online in 2020, these four comics by J. Amaro & A. Andrews, Carlo Quispe, Mel Rattue, and Inés Ixierda & Clio Sady were published as printed mini-comics in summer 2021 as part of the exhibition.

Comic Velocity: HIV and AIDS in Comics, curated by Paul Sammut for Visual AIDS, explores how artists and activists have used comics to create and shape conversations about HIV and AIDS. The exhibition’s title borrows from scholar Ramzi Fawaz’s writing on the varied emotional intensity of comics, illustrated in the exhibition through juxtapositions in tone and affect. Comic Velocity collects both historical and contemporary educational material, activist projects and artists’ works that demonstrate how the medium of comics continues to contribute to the public understanding of HIV and AIDS through its democracy, accessibility and immediacy.

The exhibition features a selection of items from the UK HIV/AIDS Graphic Communication Archive, and the work of creators Alison Bechdel; Remy Boydell with Michelle Perez; Howard Cruse; Jennifer Camper; Kate Charlesworth; Chris Companik; Jon Eikenberg; Gilbert Hernández; Bruce Rapp; James Romberger, Marguerite Van Cook, and David Wojnarowicz; Carlos Sánchez Becerra; David Shenton; Michael Slocum and many others. This accompanying publication includes essays by curator Paul Sammut, comics scholar Margaret Galvan, interdisciplinary artist Alexandro Segade, and comics creator Leonard Rifas, along with dozens of illustrations.