Murder School

A memoir of British middle school bullying and one precocious comic nerd’s fight to make it through while remaining as invisible as possible.

Paul B. Rainey takes a look back at his middle school education and the indignities suffered—a mix of stalled friendships, pitched battles with martinets, and exasperated pleading with intractable parents. Playground games take on outsized importance as Paul and his friends seek respite from a particularly abusive science teacher. Paul jockeys to hold his place in the complicated hierarchy of school bullying. 

Rainey takes a classic “school daze” tale—both wistful and hilarious—and manages to turn it on its head with a couple of his now famous twists. Find out the truth behind The Murder School and the effect it’s had on Rainey well into middle-age. | PRAISE FOR PAUL. B. RAINEY

"What a clever and uncompromising comic Paul B. Rainey has created."—The Guardian

“Rainey is a fantastic storyteller, and does a great job telling this story throughout, rendering it in a way that feels almost compulsively readable.”—The Comics Beat

“Darkly funny.”—Variety

“Movingly insightful and brave, Rainey’s writing is engrossing... There’s a lot to digest and a lot to look forward to.”—Print Magazine | Paul B. Rainey is a British cartoonist who has been making comics for decades. He won the Observer/Jonathan Cape/Comica Graphic Short Story Prize in 2020 with the strip Similar to But Not. In it, he recounts meeting Madonna in his local pub in 1985. He is the author of Why Don’t You Love Me? and There’s No Time Like the Present.