Written by Bobby Joseph, Illustrated by Abbigayle Bircham;
Paperback 112pp/ colour ISBN: 978-1-914224-34-8
UK £14.99 / US $19.99 / CAN $24.99
Publication date: 25 September 2025 (UK); 14 October 2025 (US/Canada)
A diverse Young Adult graphic novel about the misadventures of a down-on-his-luck teenager and the dimension-hopping, demon-battling sorcerer who just happens to be his absentee father.
Welcome to Rye’s world: their stepdad hates them, their mother ignores them, and they’re stuck in a dead-end relationship. To make matters worse, their world is turned upside down one day with the return of their father, the Magical Mr Mantrikz, self-styled “greatest sorcerer in the world”, and Rye now has to spend their weekends with this rude, pushy, and frankly ridiculous wizard. And that was never going to work – especially when magic is involved…
Author Biographies
Bobby Joseph is an acclaimed South London comic creator, whose early work includes the creation of cult comic classic Skank magazine, in which his best-known strip, “Scotland Yardie”, originated. He has written for The Guardian, Dazed and Confused, and Vice. A long-standing advocate for diversity and representation in comic books, his graphic novel, Scotland Yardie (Knockabout Comics, 2017), was the first diverse graphic novel to be studied as a module on an English Literature MA course. He is the fifth UK Comics Laureate, and the first comic book creator of Indian origin to be appointed to the role. Abbigayle Bircham is a Norwich-based comic artist with a penchant for the weird and wonderful, who is probably scribbling away in her favourite tea shop at this moment. A LICAF [Lakes International Comic Art Festival] Breakthrough Initiative participant, she has published work with Soaring Penguin Press and the Rat Pack Collective, dreams of having her own cartoon show one day, and first met Bobby Joseph when taking his Writing Comics short course.
About SelfMadeHero
SelfMadeHero aim to publish ground-breaking and beautiful work by authors and artists from across the globe, from the quirky and humorous to the political and profound. We are proud to bring readers graphic novels and visual narratives that provoke, entertain, inspire, and inform. Releases for 2025 include: Peter Kuper’s Monarch’s Journey: A Coloring Book (US only), Simon Elliott’s Kusama: Polka Dot Queen, Reinhard Kleist’s Low: Bowie’s Berlin Years, Gareth Brookes’ The Compleat Angler, Sophie and Scarlett Rickard’s This Slavery, Bobby Joseph and Abbigayle Bircham’s My Dad Fights Demons!, Alex Taylor’s Bone Broth, and Francisco de la Mora and Bill Tuckey’s The Most Amazing Saturday Morning Rubbish Club.
