Those brilliant Bojeffries

I've always liked the work of Alan Moore, right back to when I read his Roscoe Moscow strips in Sounds (surely in need of being collected into book form) and his early Future Shocks. His V for Vendetta (with David Lloyd) and Watchmen (with Dave Gibbons) are of course rightly recognised as major graphic novels (or "big comics" as Alan less pretentiously called them), and The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (with Kev O'Neill) is always a must-buy for me. 

On a personal level, I knew him quite well 30 years ago, considering him a friend, and he was very supportive and encouraging of people starting out in comics, including myself which helped my confidence considerably. I've since lost touch with him but I always keep an eye on what new work he has coming up.

There are books by Alan Moore that I still haven't read (Promethea and Lost Girls for example) and may get around to it one day, but one recent collection was an essential purchase for me: The Bojeffries Saga.

The Bojeffries Saga originally ran in Warrior comic in the 1980s and is an excellent comedy-horror in the vein of Ken Reid's Frankie Stein and the work of Charles Addams. The illustrator, Steve Parkhouse, is the perfect artist for the strip, exactly capturing (and embellishing) the British working class setting of the series. There's a deliberate feel of late fifties / early sixties British cinema and comics about it, like a mash up of Leo Baxendale's Bash Street Kids and (amongst others) the movies Billy Liar and A Taste of Honey.

Don't be thinking that The Bojeffries Saga is just a nostalgia-fest for people around 60 years old though. Its comedy and high standard of art should appeal to adults of all ages, and has some genuinely funny laugh-out-loud moments. This is one quality book. As well as collecting all the Bojeffries strips to date, it also includes a brand new 24 page story by Moore and Parkhouse to bring us up to date with the characters.

Jointly published in the UK by Knockabout at £9.99 and in the USA by Top Shelf for $14.95 this 96 page softback is excellent value for money and deserves a place on your bookshelf. 

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/THE-BOJEFFRIES-SAGA-by-Alan-Moore-and-Steve-Parkhouse-/201048399905?pt=UK_Books_Comics_Magazines_US_Comics_ET&hash=item2ecf6b2021