Review:
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 "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.
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