Bag Of Treaties is a British adult spoof comic magazine, which delights in savagely mocking current affairs and politicians. It also attacks tabloid-style newspapers, celebrity-obsessed gossip magazines and even the nature of celebrity itself.

The publication has also mocked the public's obsession with "dark comedy" through comic strips which appear to make light of such subjects as AIDS, cancer and abortion.

Its "death of comedy" series, which mocks and holds to account seemingly "untouchable" figures such as Ricky Gervais and the Monty Python team, has been lauded by its cult audience.

In strips such as "Boris Procter", Bag Of Treaties controversially juxtaposes highly disturbing subject matter with a tone which is both light-hearted and jovial. However, its most popular strips are those which are out-and-out offensive - "Crap Doctor", for example, involves a GP holding a knife to one of his patients, a pregnant woman, and threatening to gut her "like a fish" if she moves any closer to him.

Arguably, however, its greatest strength lies in its social satire, a strength which is probably most evident in the "field convo" strips, which through simple drawings and dialogue seek to subtly explore and expose the idiosyncrasies and ironies of human relationships. In one strip, subtitled "sweet shop", a stick character ponders "Wouldn't it be fun to own a sweet shop", to which the character beside him replies "Not really, no".

Bag Of Treaties is not solely a collection of comic strips, though, and its propensity for hard-edged satire has also manifested itself in a collection of tongue-in-cheek articles. In a review of the movie "Freddy Got Fingered", Fascist Wee Otter (a parody of Lynda Lee Potter, the late Daily Mail columnist) speaks of how "The last time I attended the cinema, I found myself being forced to watch a film from the corridor outside the auditorium having been chased from my seat by a gang of gypsies", before going on to list her top 3 films, one of which is Schindler's List (described by Otter as a "comedy classic").

Undoubtedly the publication's most disturbing - and controversial - feature, "Eggbert's Realm" is a column penned by a fictional character whose wildly fantastical writings disclose a sordid past (he reveals, in his first column, how his wife killed herself a fortnight after divorcing him and taking up living quarters with his sister's goat) and a frightening determination to overcome the "evil" of the mysterious Rathburn who, as well as having destroyed Eggbert's friendships and his relationship with his wife, also occasionally hijacks Eggbert's column and uses the opportunity to rant about the shipping forecast. More recently, the world of Eggbert has expanded beyond the four walls of the original column, and Eggbert et al have found themselves entangled in the seedy domain of online messageboards and chatrooms, providing ample opportunities for satire.



Regular features:


Letters!!!

This section, as the title suggests, consists of letters, none of which are written by readers.

Many of the letters imply that the magazine's readership is unintelligent and misogynistic, clearly aping the target demographics of male lifestyle magazines. One letter begins "I was watching tv last week and I saw something about car crime. What is car crime and how can i avoid it?" before finishing with the remark, "I switched the TV off when I realised that the programme didn't have any tits in it."

Other letters are blatant attempts to promote the magazine, written by the editor but passed off as praise sent in by satisfied readers. One letter, featured in the very first issue, is from Pippa Leaf, and reads "Just writing to let you know how great Issue One of your magazine is."

Of course, the vast majority of correspondence wallows in extreme crudity - perhaps the best example of this is a recipe for goat pie, sent in by "J. Bistow", which invites readers to "Mix the yeast in with the ham until it is soft...Pour in some milk and wait for it to set...Stir frivolously" and, lastly, to "Shit in it".

The editor occasionally replies to the letters, and said replies are not much more sophisticated than the correspondence in question. In reply to J. Bistow's recipe, for example, the editor suggests that "maybe you have some tips for people who are having trouble making their breasts fit in the oven".


Satirical reviews

Bag Of Treaties regularly features reviews of movies, music, books and theatre productions. The critiqued material is disparate and varied, but the reviews are similar in that they all scathingly attack the ignorance of journalism and arts criticism. In a review of the Tori Amos album "The Beekeeper", Tori is described as a "Kate Bush wannabe", and the album's opening track, "Parasol", is described as "a tale about betrayal or something similarly homosexual". Later in the article, the reviewer unjustifiably encourages Tori to "fuck off and take your stupid cunting piano with you". In another review, the critic states that "I haven't listened to the album because I couldn't be arsed to take it out of the box".



Featured Strips:

AIDS - a strip in which a man, after being told by his girlfriend that she has AIDS, asks her to "come here" before punching her in the face.

Ainsley - TV chef Ainsley Harriot tells a bad joke.

Art Student - a flamboyant and foul-mouthed art student cheats in his coursework before getting his comeuppance.

Bad Bank - as the name suggests.

Boris Procter (he's a bad doctor!) - a deeply insensitive and negligent GP is fired from his job and goes on to become an undertaker, before being caught having anal intercourse with a dead body.

Cackman and Boogers - a lump of faeces and a mucus-filled nose discuss the state of British comedy.

Captain Incontinent - a superhero whose attempts to save the world are thwarted by his constant need to go to the toilet.

Cats - a cat-lover is driven to suicide by a stranger's vehement hatred of felines.

Crap doctor - a woman is threatened by her GP.

death of comedy - a bitter collection of strips which explore British comedy over the years.

Duncan Pukeface - a Gastroenteritis sufferer who vomits at very unfortunate and inappropriate times.

field convo - a series of strips which, through simple drawings and dialogue, strive to explore the nature of human contact, communication and relationships.

Fred Cunting Basset - an ultra-violent, morally repugnant parody of a certain British newspaper strip.

Hilary Jayce - a girl whose face combusts at the most inappropriate times.

Karen Cheekbones - a glamorous businesswoman whose efficiency is hampered by the size of her cheekbones.

Knock Knock Joke - a man in crutches makes a tasteless joke before claiming that he is immune from cricitism because of his disability.

Moon Boy - a boy with a moon-shaped face whose "adventures", despite the strip's claims, are never particularly exciting.

Mr Helpful - a foul-mouthed bigot with a penchant for animal cruelty.

Rosie Looma - a girl whose "exciting and magical adventures" are somewhat dampened by bad news from her doctor.

Uptight Man - as the name suggests.