{"id":33876,"date":"2025-09-25T10:48:53","date_gmt":"2025-09-25T10:48:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/?p=33876"},"modified":"2025-09-25T10:48:53","modified_gmt":"2025-09-25T10:48:53","slug":"my-dad-fights-demons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/2025\/09\/25\/my-dad-fights-demons\/","title":{"rendered":"My Dad Fights Demons"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"
\nBy Bobby Joseph & Abbigayle Bircham<\/strong> (SelfMadeHero)
\nISBN: 978-1-914224-34-8 (TPB)<\/p>\n

This book includes Discriminatory Content<\/strong> included for dramatic and comedic effect.<\/em><\/p>\n

Here\u2019s a short, sweet and sarcastically sharp poke at modern culture\u2019s transient nature, mayfly attention-spans and perennially parlous state, delivered in a delicious ribald and deceptively irreverent tone and stylee (not a typo). The deed is done by street-wizened South Londoner and incumbent Comics Laureate Bobby Joseph (Dazed and Confused<\/strong>, Vice<\/strong>, The Guardian<\/strong>, Skank Magazine<\/strong>, Scotland Yardie<\/strong>) and rising star Abbigayle Bircham (Soaring Penguin Press<\/strong>, The Rat Pack Collective<\/strong>).<\/p>\n

Anarchic, subversive and definitely NOT for little kids – unless they live inside the heads of adult-seeming types – here is a potent close-up peep at little Londoner Rye<\/em> who is navigating the already-too-much-to-bear life of a kid trying to find themselves in a world of constant confliction and change-made-for-profit. The often overwhelmed and undervalued young \u2019un is just about coping with being vegan, addicted to sprout flavoured vapes, embarrassed by mum and her man, unappreciated by peers and schoolmates and generally not digging life when another body blow lands…<\/p>\n

Mum and her manly beau – overly eager for a little intimate alone time – suddenly spring the news that Rye\u2019s biological dad is in town and will be exercising visitation rights for the weekend. That\u2019s when Rye first learns that Mr. Mantriks<\/em> is not actually deceased (as was previously believed) but is in fact a wizard – \u201cgreatest sorcerer in the world\u201d – who has been defending reality from inside a hell dimension for most of Rye\u2019s short life.\"\"
\nSuch reunions are always a bit uncomfortable, but this one is more fraught than most as daddy (and his appalling goblin familiar \u201cGobby<\/em>\u201d) are criminally unaware of how life has moved on, and are fact only really here to retrieve a lost spell of catastrophically evil potential.<\/p>\n

However, like all such odd couple yarns, there\u2019s the promise of reconciliation and a happy ending in store, but only if the long-parted in loco parentis pair – and Rye! – can mend long-ignored fences, avoid waves of disembodied body-parts, the allure of parallel universes (and fried chicken shops), totally solve the mystery of the lost cantrip and foil the cunning convoluted schemes of demonic social influencers who shouldn\u2019t be here and SHOULD know better…<\/p>\n

Manic-paced and wildly imaginative, this yarn might be impenetrable to certain ossified sections of the readership were it not for the absolutely indispensable aide memoire \u2018Gobby\u2019s Guide to UK Slang!\u2019<\/em> Moreover, once an ending is reached, you can learn a little of the how and why thanks to \u2018Sketches and development work\u2019<\/em> provided by the creators…
\nText and images \u00a9 2025 Bobby Joseph and Abbigayle Bircham. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n

Today in 1911, artist Charles Paris<\/strong> was born. Although he probably inked every great pre-Silver Superman & Batman<\/strong> story you\u2019ve ever read, I\u2019d recommend checking out DC Finest: Metamorpho – The Element Man<\/a><\/strong> for a wilder ride.<\/p>\n

In 1922, unsung comics icon & secret weapon Roz Kirby<\/strong> entered the world, whilst six years later comic strip pioneer Richard Outcault<\/strong> left it. I\u2019m sure you already know all about him, but just in case why not look at Buster Brown: Early Strips in Full Color<\/a><\/strong>?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Bobby Joseph & Abbigayle Bircham (SelfMadeHero) ISBN: 978-1-914224-34-8 (TPB) This book includes Discriminatory Content included for dramatic and comedic effect. Here\u2019s a short, sweet and sarcastically sharp poke at modern culture\u2019s transient nature, mayfly attention-spans and perennially parlous state, delivered in a delicious ribald and deceptively irreverent tone and stylee (not a typo). The … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “My Dad Fights Demons”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[42,113,102,66,125,105],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-33876","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-best-of-british","category-comedy","category-fantasy","category-horror-stories","category-humour","category-mature-reading"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4AFj-8Oo","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33876","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33876"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33876\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":33879,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33876\/revisions\/33879"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33876"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33876"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33876"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}