Richard Littler

Content warning for self-harm, cannibalism, and more. The humor here is pretty dark.

Scarfolk, a fictional English town, is trapped in the 1970s, a bleak and totalitarian place. Scarfolk Annual is presented as a facsimile copy of a children's publication with various games, activities, stories, and diagrams. There are board games such as "Race to Say Your Last Goodbye," in which players must try to get to their father before he is executed by the state (there is no way to win), stories like show more "The Visit from the Christmas Council Boy" (a boy who determines whether your family is demonstrating the Minimum Happiness Level), instructions for making your own branding iron out of a coat hanger so that you can "Find out what it's like to be a cow, sheep, or slave," and more. The former owner of this issue of Scarfolk Annual has written occasional comment in the margins.

This made it onto my radar after I read an article about Scarfolk and Richard Littler's 1970s public information poster parodies. Reading it, I was reminded a bit of the podcast Welcome to Night Vale, although I think this might have been a bit darker. I could be wrong, but I don't recall Welcome Night Vale including self-harm as part of its satire, while this work has direct references in both its text and illustrations.

This was nicely put together, with a very unsettling tone. One of these days, I may try Discovering Scarfolk: For Tourists and Other Trespassers.

(Original review posted on A Library Girl's Familiar Diversions.) show less

I started getting Scarfolk posters popping up in my Pinterest feed and since their absurdist, dark humor is exactly my thing, I checked out this book. While reading it I was always thinking two things: 1. this is brilliant and it takes a special mind to come up with a world like this that's consistently funny, and 2. boy, a person can only take this in small doses. The "narrative" of the book isn't quite strong enough to make it something you want to read for an extended period of time and show more jokes tend to run together after a few pages. That's fine, but I think overall the gag works better as random posters in my Pinterest feed. show less

Entertainingly disturbing. Or, disturbingly entertaining. Would have garnered 5 stars were it not for a few minor typos and the author/designer’s insistence on un-hyphenated fully-justified paragraphs, which lead to some ridiculously wide word spaces.
Still, the ‘Seance Poodle’ story was an absolute hoot, and the ‘Politics of the Future’ the literary satire equivalent of a well-placed Banksy.

Based on the popular blog, this is essentially an opportunity for the author to enjoy making parodic facsimiles of 1970s graphic design: posters, book covers, product packaging, etc.

The underlying premise is to recall the grimness of that decade, and make it far, far grimmer by imagining a town community in the grip of a supernatural cult backed by a totalitarian government.

Brainwashing, drugging, torture, constant surveillance (especially on members of society deemed under-productive or show more suspicious - viz. children, the elderly, and outsiders) all are turned into one long dark and creepy joke.

Imagine Summerisle under the watchful eye of a local Big Brother, as written by Charlie Brooker and the League of Gentlemen team ... and you'll have the general idea. If you like them, you'll like this. If you don't ... then steer well clear.

The book has a plot of sorts threaded through it - a man called Daniel Bush loses his two sons during a rest-stop on his way to a home relocation, and the bizarre/incompetent/childlike behaviour of the local police draws him into the town, where he attempts to find the boys whilst becoming subject to the community's disturbing ways. The story doesn't have a particularly satisfying conclusion, but in this sort of work, that's not really the point. show less