Our Story

The seeds for Bonafide Publishing came about 30 years ago in the early 90s when founder Jerry Holliday returned from travelling in South East Asia with a swirl of ideas and gritty determination to publish a comic magazine. When in Thailand, he also started to write what would become the first novella to be published by Bonafide Media’s previous fiction imprint, Dark Paradigm Publishing, years later in 2012.

Jerry had been creating dummy issues of Doxi the Dog to try and sell the concept to publishers, and this eventually morphed into Bonafide Comics, inspired by street art and hip-hop culture of the time, and especially magazines like Deadline (Home to Jamie Hewlett’s Tank Girl), together with European, Manga and Underground comics.

From the age of 14, Jerry had been active in publishing homemade comic zines such as Knock Yaself Out and Subterranean. These black and white photocopied zines were stapled, trimmed and sold in comic shops across the UK.

For Bonafide Comics, he teamed up with writer Luke Fay. They co-created stories like Breakdown (An apocalyptic tale following three female protagonists), and Ed 'n Ed, a self-styled anarchic pastiche based on Jerry and Luke. Then, there was Dooley Dooce – a deranged piece of pond life about which the less said, the better. Jerry and Luke were also joined by artists such as James Fox, Mark Swan, Nick Walker, and many others.

In 1994 Issue Zero sprang onto the streets, and the magazine received spots on TV and radio and was featured in ID magazine, DJ, Hip Hop Connection, as well as Bristol-based Venue magazine.

Co-editor at the time, Luke Fay, said in HHC: “A lot of people don’t know what to make of it, especially if they have picked it up in the clothes and record shops, but the people in the comics industry have been very positive.”

In the end, Bonafide Comics only ran for three glorious issues, and amazingly, rare copies are still available to purchase.

Following an extended hiatus from publishing, Jerry came back to his true passion after re-working a ‘Doxi the Dog’ tale that had originally appeared in Bonafide Comics. The new version, aimed at younger readers, was a full-colour graphic novel under the Bonafide imprint. Since then, more children’s books have been added.

In 2011, Jerry also published his first non-fiction book called ‘Internet Pie’, followed by his first novel, ‘False Flag,’ which became the Frank Bowen Conspiracy Thriller series.

That's the back story. Moving forward, Bonafide Publishing intends to build a catalogue of compelling reads, both in fiction and non-fiction.

The books in the Dark Paradigm universe by Jay Tinsiano and Jay Newton will be exploring more cross-over post-apocalyptic/thriller and dystopian-themed stories.

We've launched a new sci-fi series by Maddie Marzola, and we'll be introducing new exciting authors and series in the coming months and years.

Look out for more updates in our newsletter.

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