As some know, but perhaps wish they didn’t, Scarfolk is a lost town in North West England that did not progress beyond 1979. Instead, the entire decade of the 1970s loops ad infinitum. It is a national mystery whose artefacts, occasionally uncovered and reported online, are often both horrifying but at the same time, dangerously fascinating – and now a facsimile of one of them, a Scarfolk Annual, is about to be released.
In Scarfolk, pagan rituals blend seamlessly with science; hauntology is a compulsory subject at school, and everyone must be in bed by 8.00pm because they are perpetually running a slight fever.
“Visit Scarfolk today. Our number one priority is keeping rabies at bay.”
Now, the Scarfolk Annual – an officially sanctioned book by Scarfolk Council, as seen on the radio, credited to “Richard Littler” – is on its way in October, a facsimile of a book discovered in a charity shop in the north west of England in August 2018.
The shop, and indeed town, do not wish to be identified as they are keen to “discourage the ‘occult-totalitarian tourism’ that has afflicted other areas of Britain”, as people hunt for further socio-archaeological traces of the mysterious, missing town of Scarfolk – Britain’s own Brutalist Atlantis.

Above: two previously discovered Scarfolk artefacts. Until now, Few physical relics have been circulated, but facsimiles should be reasonably safe to handle.

Scarfolk had some very different but strangely familiar comics on sale in 1975
Apart from the archive of Scarfolk materials which was sent anonymously to the late Dr Ben Motte and formed the basis of the book Discovering Scarfolk, this children’s annual is, to date, the only complete artefact from Scarfolk ever to be unearthed ‘in the wild’.

Also available: “Discovering Scarfolk” by Richard Littler
It’s clear The Scarfolk Annual was not written to entertain children at Christmastime; its purpose was to indoctrinate young minds; in fact, one might go as far as to say destroy young minds, to an end that has been lost to us.
• Pre-order The Scarfolk Annual from Amazon (Affiliate Link)
• Discovering Scarfolk is available now
* Some of the above may be a work of fiction. For more information please reread.
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The founder of downthetubes, which he established in 1998. John works as a comics and magazine editor, writer, and on promotional work for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. He is currently editor of Star Trek Explorer, published by Titan – his third tour of duty on the title originally titled Star Trek Magazine.
Working in British comics publishing since the 1980s, his credits include editor of titles such as Doctor Who Magazine, Babylon 5 Magazine, and more. He also edited the comics anthology STRIP Magazine and edited several audio comics for ROK Comics. He has also edited several comic collections, including volumes of “Charley’s War” and “Dan Dare”.
He’s the writer of “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.
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