A systematic study, using ion trap time-of-flight mass spectrometry, is presented for the photo-fragmentation of methyl- and methoxy-substituted derivatives of HBC cations, (OCH3)6HBC+ and (CH3)4(OCH3)2HBC+. Both substituted HBC cations fragment through sequential loss of CH3CO units upon laser (595nm) irradiation, resulting in a PAH-like derivative C36H12+ and a methyl-substituted PAH derivative C44H24+, respectively. Upon ongoing irradiation, these species further fragment. For lower laser energy C44H24+ dehydrogenates and photo-fragments through CH3 and CHCH2 unit losses; for higher laser energy isomerization takes place, yielding a regular PAH-like configuration, and both stepwise dehydrogenation and C2/C2H2 loss pathways are found. C36H12+ follows largely this latter fragmentation scheme upon irradiation.It is concluded that the photo-dissociation mechanism of the substituted PAH cations studied here is site selective in the substituted subunit. This work also shows experimental evidence that photo-fragmentation of substituted PAHs may contribute to the formation in space of smaller species that are normally considered to form by merging atoms and molecules.