The Bojeffries Saga


The Bojeffries Saga is a series of comics stories written by Alan Moore and drawn by Steve Parkhouse which have been published by a number of different companies since their debut in 1983 in the UK comics anthology Warrior.
It features an eccentric English family of werewolves, vampires and monsters in various peculiar tales.

Publication history

The first Bojeffries tale – "The Rentman Cometh" – appeared in black and white form in the British Quality Communications anthology Warrior No. 12, with three further stories appearing in Warrior to July 1984. A fifth story was published in the eighth issue of the Fantagraphics publication Dalgoda, and the four Quality issues were "reprinted, coloured and reformatted," for Flesh and Bones #1–4 from Upshot Graphics.
Between May 1989 and April 1990, a further four tales were published by Atomeka Press as part of its all-star anthology title A1 issues #1–4, with a fifth appearing in the A1 True Life Bikini Confidential. In 1992, Tundra Press reprinted the ten Bojeffries stories together with an introduction from Lenny Henry and four new illustration-stories: three cut-outs and a recipe.
In 2004, the prologue created for Dalgoda #8 and the first two-part story from Warrior were reprinted in the A1: Big Issue Zero as a reminder of the A1 style, before the then-upcoming 2005 relaunch. The relaunch stuttered, however, and the new ongoing A1 series never appeared. It had been intended for the reprinted stories to form the foundation for the A1: Bojeffries Terror Tomes a three-issue series with each issue focusing on a different member of the family, starting with Festus. Although previews of the finished stories were made available in February 2005, with an anticipated launch in April, no new titles were published.
In 2004 Parkhouse suggested there would be no more stories. However, A1-editor Dave Elliott and Gary Spencer Millidge have both suggested there will be more stories while longtime Moore-collaborator, Kevin O'Neill said, in September 2008, that Moore was taking breaks from working with him on to finish the finale of the Bojeffries Saga, which was for the new collection from Top Shelf.

Influences and reception

Comedian and high-profile comics-fan Lenny Henry described the series as "weird," recalling that the series' arrival in Warrior was "a breath of fresh air, bringing an anarchy and weirdness to comics similar to the kick up the arse that The Young Ones brought to television. It was different. Alan Moore and Steve Parkhouse had created a group of people you wouldn't want to be in the same universe as – let alone the same room..."
The Independent described the series as "The Munsters written by Alan Bennett high on episodes of Coronation Street, all beautifully rendered in a style equal parts Robert Crumb and the Bash Street Kids' Leo Baxendale."
In a 2004 interview Parkhouse said that the story was not influenced by Charles Addams, but drew more on his time in South London as a child. He "wanted it to be uniquely British and reflect life as I saw it." Lenny Henry noted "Lord Snooty this wasn't," launching alongside "'Marvelman', 'V for Vendetta', 'Shandor', 'Laser Eraser and Pressbutton' and... Zirk" in the ubiquitous UK comics publication Warrior. The British-ness of the strip was underlined by its setting – a council house in Northampton – as well as its initial storyline and the new material created for the Tundra Complete Bojeffries Saga in the British Annual tradition.

Characters

The Bojeffries Saga is the story of a family living in a council house in Northampton, England. The family is made up of:
Short stories created for various publications and publishers:
Illustrations created for the Complete Bojeffries Saga TPB:
published a collection, The Complete Bojeffries Saga, in 1992.
In February 2013, a new Bojeffries Saga collection was published jointly by Top Shelf Productions and Knockabout Comics collecting all previous material as well as a new 24-page story. Moore described the situation in a 2009 interview:

Awards