Picking up the pieces
Picking up the pieces |
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Page 23 of 38  Page from 'Tank Girl' (1989), featuring an appearance from Tank Girl's 'boyfriend', Booga the kangaroo. Art/script: Jamie Hewlett. In fact, Viz started life as a small press comic: a poorly-produced, photocopier job, with a print run of 150, and a retail price of 2op (its similarities to punk fanzines were unmistakeable). The creators were three Newcastle youths: brothers Chris Donald, a DHSS clerk, and Simon Donald, a schoolboy, assisted by their friend Jim Biz. In true small press fashion, they sold the comic themselves: their market for early issues mainly consisted of students, because they found that wider newsagent distribution was impossible (both on the grounds of low print runs and 'difficult' content). At first, Viz was satisfied to concentrate on pastiching past and present British children's comics: strips appeared savaging everything from The Beano and The Dandy, to boys' war comics, to girls' titles like Jackie and Bunty. It was not so much the characters that were parodied, but the archly innocent formulas. Thus, early favourites included 'Johnny Fartpants', a Beano-esque tale of a 'boy with a windy bottom'; 'Billy the Fish', a Roy of the Rovers homage about a semi-piscine goalkeeper; 'Sid the Sexist', about a Newcastle macho man who never gets the girl, but maintains a relentless line in appalling banter ('tits oot for the lads!'); and 'Roger Mellie, the Man on the Telly', ever unable to contain his expletives, even on air ('Good evening, and bollocks..')  Page from 'Johnny Nemo' (1989), about a hard-boiled 'future London' sleuth with a sharp haircut. Art: Brett Ewins. Script: Peter Milligan. |