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In Review: My Dad Fights Demons by Bobby Joseph & Abbigayle Bircham

By John Freeman on December 17, 2025 • ( 0 )

Review by John Freeman

The Book: 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…

My Dad Fight Demons!, by Bobby Joseph & Abbigayle Bircham Cover

Crazy magical mayhem and relationships to fix – not necessarily in that order!

The Review: My Dad Fights Demons!, released earlier this year by SelfMadeHero, presents the misadventures of Rye, a down-on-their-luck teenager and the dimension-hopping, demon-battling sorcerer, the Magical Mr Mantrikz, who just happens to be their absentee father. Mixing magic with the very real social issue of absentee dads and parental separation it’s quite the frenetic romp – and, hopefully, we might yet see the characters again.

The creators, Bobby Joseph, the current Comics Laureate, who you might also know as the writer of the adult strip, “Scotland Yardie”, and artist Abbigayle Bircham, couldn’t be more different in personality; Bobby is a powerball of comic promoting energy, doing huge amounts to push our medium, while Abbigayle, who I was lucky enough to interview at this year’s Lakes International Comic Art Festival, is far more measured: but the pair combined have delivered a gloriously bonkers adventure that takes no prisoners from start to finish, as Rye teams up with their absentee father, who happens to be a wizard, to get to the bottom of a mystery involving cursed social media influencers, feet and, most importantly, will they actually get on with each other?

Early pages from My Dad Fights Demons! by Bobby Joseph & Abbigyale Bircham. Some parents will come up with just about any excuse to be late meeting their estranged child, won't they? — *Early pages from My Dad Fights Demons! by Bobby Joseph & Abbigyale Bircham. Some parents will come up with just about any excuse to be late meeting their estranged child, won’t they?*

My Dad Fights Demons! by Bobby Joseph & Abbigyale Bircham. Rye and their father find their relationship rather fragile, not helped by assistant Gobby... — *Rye and their father find their relationship rather fragile, not helped by assistant Gobby…*

Bobby throws idea after idea into the mix as the story unfolds, which is perhaps a little confusing – it certainly is for the characters! – and, on occasion, it’s not easy keeping track of just what is going on. But this approach, I suspect, will and has worked well with My Dad Fights Demons core audience, and after a while you just settle back and watch as the craziest of events unfold. (Did I mention the feet? I think I mentioned the feet).

My Dad Fights Demons! by Bobby Joseph & Abbigyale Bircham — *There’s plenty of slapstick humour to enjoy as the adventure unfolds!*

As the story develops, while still fragile, our heroes edge closer to friendship as they learn more about each other... even if, at one point, it is thanks to a Giant Eye... — *As the story develops, while still fragile, our heroes edge closer to friendship as they learn more about each other… even if, at one point, it is thanks to a Giant Eye…*

All in all, My Dad Fights Demons is an unstoppable, energy packed feast of magical craziness – rather like Bobby, I’d say! – and all the better for it. Abbigayle brings a strong sense of storytelling to the adventures pages, no matter what she has thrown at her to draw (yes, those feet!) and, all in all, this is a romp and a half that delivers just the kind of mayhem you’d expect from its title.

Just stay away from that Giant Eyeball. And those feet…

John Freeman

• My Dad Fights Demons! is on sale in all good bookshops | Order it here from your favoured books shop (uk.bookshop.org Affiliate Link) | Order from AmazonUK (Affiliate Link)

About the Author
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John Freeman

John is the founder of downthetubes, launched in 1998. He is a comics and magazine editor, writer, and Press Officer for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. He also runs Crucible Comic Press.

Working in British comics publishing since the 1980s, his credits include editor of titles such as Doctor Who Magazine and Overkill for Marvel UK, Babylon 5 Magazine, Star Trek Magazine, and its successor, Star Trek Explorer, and more. He also edited the comics anthology STRIP Magazine and edited several audio comics for ROK Comics; and has edited several comic collections and graphic novels, including volumes of “Charley’s War” and “Dan Dare”, and Hancock: The Lad Himself, by Stephen Walsh and Keith Page.

He’s the writer of comics such as Pilgrim: Secrets and Lies for B7 Comics; “Crucible”, a creator-owned project with 2000AD artist Smuzz; and “Death Duty” and “Skow Dogs”, with Dave Hailwood.