If... is a political comic strip which appeared in the United Kingdom newspaper, The Guardian, written and drawn by Steve Bell from its creation in 1981. In July 2020, Bell told the Press Gazette that If... would "probably" be coming to an end in 2021 due to forthcoming budget cuts at the Guardian. The final If... strip was published on 29 April 2021.

Style

If... is a sharp and cynical satirisation of British politics and current affairs from a left-wing perspective, named after the famous Rudyard Kipling poem. Suiting both Bell's anarchic artistic style and the paper's political stance, it consisted of a short (usually three-panel) daily episode in each Monday to Thursday edition of the paper, with subjects usually covered in these four-day-long segments. If... occasionally utilises wordplay and coarse humour – Bell is fond of using the pejorative British word "wanker" and its euphemistic variants, for example. With The Guardian's move to new presses, If... started to appear in full colour in September 2005. Initially, the title was reflected in the concept, with each week presenting a separate stand-alone story such as "If... Dinosaurs roamed Fleet Street", or "If The Bash Street Kids ran the country". This shifted into a different approach during the 1982 Falklands War, when Bell started to concentrate on two central characters: Royal Navy seaman Kipling and the Penguin he befriends.

Caricatures

Many of the political and other public figures who are lampooned gain in-joke characteristics, which often build into plot strands of their own. Examples include:

Prime ministers

Leaders of the opposition

Other political figures

Recurring characters

There are also numerous characters who come and go over time. These characters often have an exaggerated nonsensicality, fitting Bell's style - most obviously their politics, which are sometimes portrayed as hopelessly idealist. They include: