Zines

I make, print and distribute British political zines under the banner, Your Dad’s A Tory.

My zines are comical, anti-right wing diatribes – my father describes them as ‘toilet fiction’. I use collages, black & white ink illustrations and digital drawings to liven-up each piece.

To date, I’ve self-published three zines, ‘Mr Fibby – The Prime Minister Who Couldn’t Stop Lying‘, ‘Sue Gray’s Official Unofficial Partygate Report‘ and ‘Watch Out! Your Dad’s A Tory‘.

You can download all three below, buy physical copies on my Etsy shop and find them at a couple of brick & mortar shops, specified on each zine’s page.

Your Dad’s A Tory Zines

Here are my three currently available zines. Hit the links to download the digital versions.

Mr Fibby, The Prime Minister Who Couldn’t Stop Lying

148x148mm | 48 pages | staple bound | full colour digital illustrations | July 2022

Mr Fibby is all about Boris Johnson being a big fat liar. It’s a parody Mr Men book featuring caricatures of Johnson and all of his friends! This high octane, single narrative piece tells the story of how Boris Johnson lied to become the Prime Minister, and what happened after all the fibs that followed!

The Boris Johnson Mr Men Zine features 48 pages of fibs that grow bigger and bigger. It’s packed with full colour, digital illustrations, including depictions of Matt Hancock making out with Gina Caladangelo, Boris Johnson riding a bike very dangerously and an awesome lockdown party with way too much icing sugar!

Sue Gray’s Official Unofficial Partygate Report

A5 | 44 pages | staple bound | black & white ink drawings | February 2022

Sue Gray’s Official Unofficial Partygate Report is a parody of the British Government’s real report, ‘Investigation Into Alleged Gatherings On Government Premises During COVID Lockdown’, which was a farcical official document on Partygate. It presents an alternative approach to parodying the report, presenting the investigation as a set of murder mystery party scenarios attended by the British Cabinet.

Alternatively titled, the ‘Case of the Forbidden Jamborees’, this 44-page political zine is fully illustrated with black & white ink drawings and follows a loose and abstract narrative. It explores the most significant scandals of 2020 & 2021’s Partygate fiasco under the guise of a party at No10 Downing Street. Prefaced with faux psychological reports, inspired by JG Ballard’s landmark 1968 satirical phamphlet, ‘Why I Want To Fuck Ronald Reagan‘.

Watch Out! Your Dad’s A Tory

A5 | 44 pages | staple bound | collage and black & white ink drawings | December 2019

Watch Out! Your Dad’s A Tory is a parody Ladybird Book, styled after the Ladybird Books for Grown-Ups series. This 44-page, satirical zine features illustrations and collages. Published in late 2019 in response to the UK Government’s 2019 snap General Election, the booklet recounts the failures and controversies of UK Conservative Governments from 2010 to 2019, focussing on the failures of the David Cameron & Theresa May administrations.

The story provides a criticism of Tory behaviours and actions through the eyes of a child, whose father is a Tory candidate. It covers frozen benefits, prolific power stances and a new take on the pocket money cap, providing a lighthearted look at a lot of gutless decisions. The moral of the story? Monsters don’t live under beds, they vote Conservative.

Why Make Zines?

Personally, I think zines are a pretty versatile format. Somewhere between comic books and short stories; way easier than a comic, significantly harder than writing a short story. They’re also much easier to convince your friends to read than your short stories.

The format’s great for political satire (as I’m sure abbé Sieyès would attest if he wasn’t dead).

I also think that a lot of current British political satire (Spitting Image) is a bit shit. That’s not to say that I can do any better, but you’ve gotta try, right?