The 30th Anniversary Of Viz Comic

[king mob]

Britain's best selling humour comic is 30 years old this month, and the Guardian has a nice piece on it.

This month sees the 30th anniversary of "the magazine that's not as funny as it used to be". Viz, Chris Donald's foul-mouthed comic, evolved from a 12-page fanzine hawked around Newcastle's pubs into one of the country's highest-selling titles, shifting over a million copies an issue with celebrity fans ranging from David Bowie to Simon Bates. Since that 1990 peak, sales have declined to around the 100,000 mark; however, the comic which first posed the then-unanswered question "Morrissey; pop genius or twat?" is still going strong as it enters its fourth decade.

Viz's influence on British comedy has been profound. Its squalid brand of anarchy and self-referential surrealism is present in everything from Mitchell and Webb and The League Of Gentlemen to Little Britain and The Daily Mash. And while its writers resist serious analysis, Viz's most overlooked quality has always been a furious intelligence.

As its numerous, pathetic imitators (Smut, Zit, Brain Damage etc) proved, a comic cannot survive on profanity alone and Viz strips like Biffa Bacon, Sid The Sexist and The Fat Slags tell you more about the national character than many literary heavyweights. In a tongue-in-cheek documentary, Auberon Waugh suggested that "if the future generations look back on the literature of the age, they'll more usefully look to Viz than they would, for instance, the novels of Peter Ackroyd or Julian Barnes, because Viz has a genuine vitality of its own which comes from the society which it represents". His favourite strip was The Bottom Inspectors, by the way.

The classic premise of situation comedy has always been that of a man trapped in his surroundings; and this is the case in Viz's finest strips, the characters poignantly locked in a doomed cycle by their giant testicles, religious fervour, undiagnosed autism, painful haemorrhoids, and terminal stupidity. Writer Graham Dury claims a core readership of "the well educated, the unemployed and people in prison" and Viz speaks to the parts of Britain that have a simmering and instinctive dislike of the rich, the show-offs, the moronic and the vain.

Viz has been entirely prescient about where our culture is going. Once, its obsession with third-rate celebrities, Roger Mellie's endless ideas for cheap television ("I've got an idea, Tom – Celebrity Shit Bucket!"), dishonest overselling, and ludicrously hyperbolic real-life stories seemed like flights of fancy. Now, they look like the vast majority of the modern media.

"We pride ourselves on the fact you're no cleverer when you've read Viz," says Dury. "You might have had a few laughs, but you've not learnt anything." If that really is the case, then the fault lies with the reader, not the comic.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2009/nov/07/viz-comics

I love Viz, always have since I picked it up in the mid 80's and it's always got something brilliantly funny in it, even when it's in one of it's crap phases. I'm glad the Guardian have a special Biffa Bacon strip as it's always funny, even though it's the same gag every time.

[Charles RB]

I still have never read an issue, so I've picked up most of my knowledge of Viz from cultural osmosis.

And I liked If Destroyed's suggestion that when League of Extraordinary Gentlemen reaches the 1980s, they should have members from Viz in...

[king mob]

Originally Posted by Charles RB

I still have never read an issue, so I've picked up most of my knowledge of Viz from cultural osmosis.

Really? It's worth picking up at the minute as it's going through one of it's consistantly good phases, rather than one of it's patchy phases.

You've missed stuff like Oor Morrissie.



The way it's entered and influenced our curlture is amazing when it was being driven out of newsagents at one point, and although the days of selling a million copies an issue are gone, it's still turning over a steady 100-150k an issue which makes it our best selling comic today.

Originally Posted by Charles RB

And I liked If Destroyed's suggestion that when League of Extraordinary Gentlemen reaches the 1980s, they should have members from Viz in...

Alan Moore doing Buster Gonad and his Unfeasibly Large Testicles would be interesting.

[Weetomuncher]

I've never been a Viz fan as I've always disliked toilet humour and working class banter.

Putting the stories in a horrible Geordie dialect doesn't help any in my opinion.

I've never actually read a full issue of Viz but I've seen several strips outwith the actual comic and I don't see anything funny at all in them.

I think the only reason Viz is still in print is purely due to its controversial content.

[greatmetropolitan]

Originally Posted by Weetomuncher

I've never been a Viz fan as I've always disliked toilet humour and working class banter.

Putting the stories in a horrible Geordie dialect doesn't help any in my opinion.

I've never actually read a full issue of Viz but I've seen several strips outwith the actual comic and I don't see anything funny at all in them.

I think the only reason Viz is still in print is purely due to its controversial content.

That sounds awfully snobby, Weeto...

[Weetomuncher]

I am a bit snobby actually.

I was brought up in Greenock, which isn't exactly the most wealthy town in the world and I didn't live in the West End with all the town's millionaires so I should be a little more down to earth.

When I said I disliked working class banter I didn't mean ordinary slang words but rather crude toilet humour which I never find funny. Some people have a joke inventory that doesn't stretch beyond poo and fart jokes. Sadly most of these people write for Viz.

I have to admit that I even stopped reading the Dandy when it got obsessed with a much milder version of the same humour and I was about 8 at the time, when most kids think farting is the best thing on earth.

Cancel Viz and bring back the Eagle, that was a British comic to be proud of!

[Charles RB]

I'm not sure why you'd have to cancel a comic in order to bring back another one. They weren't by the same company, there's no resource issues.

[greatmetropolitan]

Originally Posted by Weetomuncher

I am a bit snobby actually.

I was brought up in Greenock, which isn't exactly the most wealthy town in the world and I didn't live in the West End with all the town's millionaires so I should be a little more down to earth.

When I said I disliked working class banter I didn't mean ordinary slang words but rather crude toilet humour which I never find funny. Some people have a joke inventory that doesn't stretch beyond poo and fart jokes. Sadly most of these people write for Viz.

I have to admit that I even stopped reading the Dandy when it got obsessed with a much milder version of the same humour and I was about 8 at the time, when most kids think farting is the best thing on earth.

Cancel Viz and bring back the Eagle, that was a British comic to be proud of!

Fair enough! To be fair, I'm not a huge fan of toilet humour and the like either. I suppose when i think of working class humour, I'm thinking more along the lines of the Full Monty, which I thought was a very funny film.

I dunno why I think it's weird that we come from neighbouring towns...I used to think I was the only comics fan in Invervclyde...

[Weetomuncher]

Originally Posted by Charles RB

I'm not sure why you'd have to cancel a comic in order to bring back another one. They weren't by the same company, there's no resource issues.

I didn't mean Viz would have to be cancelled for the Eagle to come back but I just meant that the market should focus more on traditional comics rather than trashy sensationalist toilet humour.

If Britain were to produce more comics that could compete with the US comics then our writers and artists wouldn't have to rely on 2000AD and American publishers to stay in a job.

Going back to the 1980s there were probably still 20 decent UK comics kicking around but by about 1994 almost all of them were gone.

While Viz does have a decent readership to this day, it isn't my cup of tea but I'm not actually advocating closing it down but I would prefer to see something of better quality being the market leader in the UK and I think a revamped 2000AD, Eagle or something like that would be better than a smutty humour comic.

[thehod]

Originally Posted by Weetomuncher

I didn't mean Viz would have to be cancelled for the Eagle to come back but I just meant that the market should focus more on traditional comics rather than trashy sensationalist toilet humour.

If Britain were to produce more comics that could compete with the US comics then our writers and artists wouldn't have to rely on 2000AD and American publishers to stay in a job.

Going back to the 1980s there were probably still 20 decent UK comics kicking around but by about 1994 almost all of them were gone.

While Viz does have a decent readership to this day, it isn't my cup of tea but I'm not actually advocating closing it down but I would prefer to see something of better quality being the market leader in the UK and I think a revamped 2000AD, Eagle or something like that would be better than a smutty humour comic.

There's a very good reason not to do what you say, and that because traditional British comics don't sell any more.

Want the proof? What traditional British comics are still on sale?

Three. 2000AD, The Beano and The Dandy.

You may not like Viz Weeto, but its still selling and it still has a good following and as the Guardian piece actually says (if you'd bother to read it) its much more than smutty humour (of which there is a reasonable amount) its a very sharp and clever look at the British people and their idiosyncrasies, especially the North East.

Now you might not like that, but it exists and is part of the make-up of this country, and its increadibly snobbish for you to suggest that a particular sense of humour is working class. The Two Ronnies were decidely middle class, and their style of comedy was very suggestive and smutty. Its one thing to say that a particular form of comedy is not to your taste, its quite another to link that style of comedy to a particular class. Its naive, inaccurate and ignorant.

Back to Viz.

I've been a fan and read it on and off for 20-odd years.

Personal favourites would be the slew of crap jokes that they printed...




Raffles the Gentleman Thug


and Student Grant (only because it parodies the sort of student that hasn't been at uni since the days that I left)




Its a bit of a shame that there aren't more older strips available online, because some of the stuff that Viz has put out has been very clever and funny.

[Charles RB]

Originally Posted by Weetomuncher

I just meant that the market should focus more on traditional comics

The last new traditional-format comics have been Striker and The DFC, neither of which lasted a year. That keeps the market leery.

[Puppetmaker Grae]

Originally Posted by Charles RB

The last new traditional-format comics have been Striker and The DFC, neither of which lasted a year. That keeps the market leery.

Tell me if I'm wrong, but wasn't the DFC subscription only? With no presence in newsagents they were taking a gamble & limiting their potential audience. I'm not sure where the main thrust of their advertising went, but the only piece I saw was a promo in the Guardian just before launch.

[Weetomuncher]

It isn't so much the newsagent market that I'm thinking UK comic publishers should be aiming at any more but the comic stores where there are shelves and shelves of US comics and maybe a small rack of UK comics.

It wouldn't be a problem to me if the UK didn't have good comic creators but we have dozens of them, many working on the top US titles and others on small press arty titles of good quality.

What the UK publishing industry must realise is that there is money in comics if they are sold throughout the UK and US.

Even 2000AD which is Britain's only major non-humour comic is difficult to get hold of in the US and issues have to be ordered in monthly packs rather than the issues just appearing on the shelves every week like in major UK newsagents.

Surely one of the UK's major publishers could invest in some comics and get them on to UK and US comic store shelves.

I'm sure that a range of UK comics could do well if marketed and distributed properly.

Distribution was a major problem for many UK comics as a lot of distribution companies weren't willing to take risks with new comic titles and that led to the industry collapsing and even 2000AD can be difficult to get hold of. There are 7 newsagent stores in my town and only one gets 2000AD and even then, they stopped getting issues for the shelves a while back and my issue needs to be ordered.

I don't see how people expect comics to sell if none of the shops actually have any to sell.

[Karen El]

Originally Posted by Puppetmaker Grae

Tell me if I'm wrong, but wasn't the DFC subscription only? With no presence in newsagents they were taking a gamble & limiting their potential audience. I'm not sure where the main thrust of their advertising went, but the only piece I saw was a promo in the Guardian just before launch.

The DFC was so wrongheaded that it never really stood a chance. Almost every story was multi-part, and not just 3 or 4 episodes - you'd get nine episodes of a story and that would only be the opening chapter. They weren't just writing for the trade, they were giving you a 300 page graphic novel in 5 page chunks.

If you picked up a random issue for a few minutes' diversion all you'd get were half a dozen individual scenes from different stories that made no sense on their own, and a couple of painfully unfunny gag strips.

It didn't matter that at least a couple of the strips looked like they might be good, they never made any effort to engage the reader's interest enough to get them to stick around to find out.

[Charles RB]

Originally Posted by Puppetmaker Grae

Tell me if I'm wrong, but wasn't the DFC subscription only? With no presence in newsagents they were taking a gamble & limiting their potential audience.

Yeah, but on the other hand, why believe that going into the newsagents isn't a gamble? Comics have failed in their dozens, and this was a £3 one with no licensing or Name strips (apart from Philip Pullman's name but his strip wasn't in everything). And you'd have still had the marketing issue regardless.

Originally Posted by Weetomuncher

It isn't so much the newsagent market that I'm thinking UK comic publishers should be aiming at any more but the comic stores where there are shelves and shelves of US comics and maybe a small rack of UK comics.

UK indie publishers already do that, so do some of the bigger ones. (I doubt DC Thompson does because the Beano, Dandy and Commando etc are aimed at different markets)

Surely one of the UK's major publishers could invest in some comics and get them on to UK and US comic store shelves.

2000 AD is one of the UK's majors, and as you noted they're not getting anywhere with the US market.

Originally Posted by Karen El

They weren't just writing for the trade, they were giving you a 300 page graphic novel in 5 page chunks.

The humour strips (most of which I did find funny) were the exception, which is why they worked better for me - they had recaps and cliffhangers and stuff happening, like a proper strip. I don't know why the other strips went for hacked-up-OGN style; I'd almost hope that was editorial demand, because otherwise the writers did it deliberately.

In fairness, some of them read quite well in one go.(Pullman's strip, oddly, didn't for me. Oh Pullman.)