VIZ is a popular British adult comic magazine. It was started in Newcastle-upon-Tyne in 1979 by Chris Donald and his brother Simon. What began as a few pages, photocopied and sold to friends, became a publishing phenomenon. The comic's style parodies the strait-laced British comics of the post-war period.

The comic features rude and tasteless gags and characters like:

• Sid the Sexist - a young man with no sexual experience who boasts of his success with women
• Roger Mellie (the man on the telly) - a foul-mouthed and violent TV presenter
• Spoilt Bastard - a fat, ungrateful boy who manipulates his weak-willed mother
• Biffa Bacon - a boy and his family, all of whom are violent psychopaths
• The Fat Slags - two young women with huge appetites for sex and chips
• Johnny Fartpants - a boy endowed with extreme flatulence
• Norbert Colon - an old miser
• The Modern Parents - and their long-suffering children
• Mr Logic - a serious young man with no sympathy for other humans
• Finbarr Saunders and his double entendres - a boy with a good ear for homophones (he's homophonic - Fnarr fnarr)
• Farmer Palmer - a paranoid farmer whose catch phrase is "Get orf moi laaaand!"
• Eight Ace - an alcoholic who drinks 'Ace' beer (eight cans for £1.49)
• Black Bag - a black bin liner which lives the exciting life of a sheepdog

In addition to comic characters, VIZ also includes spoof newspaper articles, advertisments, and letters pages.

The comic was acquired by John Brown Publishing (JBP) in 1983. At one time the bi-monthly comic reached sales in excess of 1 million before entering into a steady decline since the mid 1990s to around 200,000 (2001). In June 2001 the comic was acquired as part of a £6.4 million deal by I Feel Good Holdings, a company belonging to the ex-Loaded editor James Brown.

External Links

http://www.viz.co.uk