Hard to believe but a comic which more or less started out being pasted together in some mates’ bedrooms, sold door to door in local pubs and clubs and stores in the North East of England and which delivered a rude, crude, vulgar but bloody funny pastiche of classic British comics for an adult audience has hit its 30th anniversary. Yes, of course I am talking about Viz, an underground, homemade comic which became a huge hit with characters like the foul mouthed Roger Mellie, the Man on the Telly, Buster Gonads and his Unfeasibly Large Testicles, Finbarr Saunders and his Double Entendres and we can’t forget the Fat Slags, can we? Viz has happily taken potshots at classic comics, cultural icons and just about every strata of society, which has earned itself a place in UK reader’s affections (it was essential student reading in the late 80s and early 90s when it truly went national, even with students who would probably deny being comics readers).
The Cartoon Museum in London will host an exhibition to celebrate the anniversary starting November 4th and running through to January 24th and Viz itself has a bumper-sized birthday edition out now, which includes a special version of the classic Pathetic Sharks strip by the always excellent Lew Stringer, who also discusses the comic on his blog. (via Bloghorn)
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