"SOFTY"

An updated and revised version of my very first Risograph zine, printed in Aqua, Fluoro Pink, Mint and Pumpkin tones, in a limited edition of just 100 A6 copies, printed at Duplikat Press, London and trimmed, folded and stapled by the artist. Each copy is signed, dated and numbered by hand on the reverse.

Enter the world of Softies and Menaces, where schoolboy obsession and abrupt suffering make strange bedfellows, and where tea is pain. Taking inspiration from Britain's longest-running kids comic, The Beano, "Softly Softy" reevaluates the 67 year relationship between Dennis, a violent thug, and Walter The Softy, his chosen arch-nemesis, across 16 pages of cartoon antipathy.

"Softy" recontextualises their antagonistic dramaturgical dyad from a queer perspective, revisiting the relationship through collage, superimposition, and the occasional tweak of dialogue to expose the brutality and absurdity of Dennis's mission to punish and eradicate "softness" - vulnerability and femininity.

Risography is a simple type of printing similar to photocopying, but with special machines that etch the images on to two drums and can print two colours simultaneously. Where two colours overlap, a third colour is produced. The inks are soy-based, the paper made from bamboo fibre, and no heat is used in the printing process, so all in all it has a much lower environmental impact than other automated methods of printing. The inks reflect light in such a way as to appear to glow - this can't be reproduced with standard printing methods or captured in photos!