Misplaced Pages

#834165

117-540: Viz is a British adult comic magazine founded in 1979 by Chris Donald . It parodies British comics of the post-war period , notably The Beano and The Dandy , but with extensive profanity , toilet humour , black comedy , surreal humour and generally sexual or violent storylines. It also sends up tabloid newspapers, with mockeries of articles and letters pages. It features parody competitions and advertisements for overpriced 'limited edition' tat , as well as obsessions with half-forgotten kitsch celebrities from

234-532: A 775,000 monthly circulation. At the end of 1999, with circulation in the market sector now beginning to decline, Loaded dropped what was described by Meg Carter in The Independent as its "babe-only cover policy". Launch Deputy Editor and later Editor, Tim Southwell , wrote about the early years of Loaded in Getting Away With It (Ebury Press, 1998). James Brown discussed the title at length and

351-448: A Comic Code label marking them as suitable for children, while magazines had no such requirement. This led to magazines becoming one of the most common formats for adult comics. Playboy magazine first came out in 1953. It would feature single panel cartoons by artists such as Alberto Vargas , Archie Comics artist Dan DeCarlo , Plastic Man creator Jack Cole , LeRoy Neiman and later Olivia De Berardinis and Dean Yeagle . In

468-502: A cat in various stages of Jesus's life, and the "Elvis Presley Dambusters Clock Plate of Tutankhamun ", a clock featuring Elvis in the style of Tutankhamun 's death mask in addition to Avro Lancaster bomber planes. Many of these adverts had a form with a tick box at the end, with outrageous binding statements in small print that invariably led the purchaser to usury , such as "I enclose £49.50 in an infinite series of escalating payments". Another staple of Viz advertisement parody are

585-532: A child customer informs his mother that he does not want to finish his burger as it "tastes of pigeon and has cigarette butts in it". In a further attack on the company, the map of Cuntinental Europe , given away free with Issue 118 and showing a large cartoon of stereotypes of the British and their neighbours over the relevant geographical areas, displayed the McDonald's logo on potentially insensitive locations, such as

702-645: A few years earlier and increased its depiction of female nudity. Standard industry practices for news' vendors were revised in March 2006 after an agreement was reached between the National Federation of Retail Newsagents and the Home Office following concerns that lads' mags were within the reach of children. The result was that Loaded found itself displayed on the top shelf next to copies of Penthouse and other pornographic magazines. The circulation declined: in

819-686: A former news editor at the News of the World then on bail, became editor in May replacing Andy Sherwood. Loaded 's owners Blue Publishing entered administration in June 2013. Loaded was bought by independent publishing house Simian Publishing in September 2013. Loaded relaunched for its twentieth anniversary in 2014 under editor Aaron Tinney. Tinney commissioned self-proclaimed militant feminist Julie Burchill to write

936-456: A gun from 1939 through 1944 before giving it up. Crime and horror comics were popular genres in the late 1940s and early 1950s with such titles as Lev Gleason Publications ' Crime Does Not Pay , EC Comics ' Crime Suspenstories , Crypt of Terror , Tales From the Crypt and Vault of Horror all enjoying brief spells of interest. It is believed that EC had one of the best-selling lines at

1053-428: A hurry might be able to get past you on the pavement? Why not try stumbling aimlessly from side to side? That should stop them". McDonald's was accused of plagiarising a number of Viz Top Tips in an advertising campaign they ran in 1996. Some of the similarities are almost word-for-word: The case was later settled out of court for an undisclosed sum (donated to Comic Relief ); but many Viz readers believed that

1170-493: A lack of understanding of what Loaded is about. I'm not a 25-year-old loafer any more, I'm confronting new things in my life now and GQ will give me much greater scope... It is a natural step on." Staff at Loaded had mixed feelings about Brown considering him to be a bully while more widely he had acquired a reputation for heavy drinking and cocaine use. Circulation peaked in the second half of 1998 with monthly sales of 457,318, although FHM surpassed competing titles with

1287-502: A magazine which combined NME-style music journalism with that of football. Then, when the first issue was about to be signed off, the publication found out that it could not use a feature about Rod Stewart and so the magazine's publisher Alan Lewis suggested that they replace Stewart with photographs of Elizabeth Hurley in her underwear, as well as adding a bit about fashion to help sell advertising space. Speaking about Loaded 's audience in 2001, Brown remarked: "I knew that most of

SECTION 10

#1733084910835

1404-732: A major story element. As such they are usually not permitted to be legally sold to minors. Some examples grew out of the underground comix scene, such as Cherry by Larry Welz , which parodied Archie Comics . Omaha the Cat Dancer by Kate Worley and Reed Waller combined sexually explicit material with a melodrama featuring anthropomorphic animals . XXXenophile by Phil Folgio blended science fiction and fantasy scenarios with sexual situations. Early comics produced for gay and bisexual male readers often focused on sexual situations, such as Kake by Tom of Finland and Harry Chess by Al Shapiro . Although gay comics have expanded to cover

1521-448: A man who claimed that, on holiday touring in his caravan , he found a campsite run by Elvis Presley who, when plied with drink, admitted to the Kennedy assassination ; another from a retired toilet attendant who described the nature of faeces from various little-known celebrities and an elderly woman who blames anti-social behaviour in her area on bored Newsnight presenters, as well as

1638-512: A man who won an inconsequential amount of money on the pools, and began living an inordinately lavish lifestyle ("I bought the wife a new cover for her ironing board" being one such example of his largesse), which collapsed when the money inevitably ran out, much to his chagrin ("I wish I'd never set eyes on the money"). Other stories include ludicrous "kiss and tell" and similar stories by people who are portrayed as mentally disturbed, often with highly bizarre elements; examples include allegations by

1755-438: A mental home patient who claimed to have had sex with a number of children's TV puppets . Another regular feature is a column by 'Tony Parsehole', a parody of columnist Tony Parsons who frequently writes obituaries about recently deceased celebrities filled entirely with metaphor and empty sentiment which stops abruptly once the required word count is reached (with a note that the invoice is included). Additionally, there were

1872-454: A negative light, and if a villain committed murder, he would have to be caught and punished by the end of the story. No mention was allowed of vampires, werewolves or zombies, another swipe at EC. Years later when Marvel introduced zombies into their books, they had to call them 'zuvembies' in order to pass the Code. In general, DC and Marvel were supportive of the Code, but EC struggled to cope with

1989-477: A number of erotic comic magazines: Penthouse Comix , Penthouse Men's Adventure and Penthouse Max with the likes of Adam Hughes contributing artwork. Penthouse later revived the series as the bi-monthly series Penthouse Comics in 2024. From 1965, Warren Publishing started publishing two black and white magazines, Creepy and Eerie , commissioning work from the artists who had worked on EC's horror line. Warren added Vampirella in 1969, and then

2106-528: A plastic "modesty bag". Unlike some of its rivals, the magazine chose to adopt the practice. The following year, in July, Loaded dropped the photographs of partially clothed women after the lads' mag sector as a whole had faced opposition to their publication and display on covers from other supermarket chains, advertisers and feminist campaigners. When a reporter for the London Evening Standard asked if

2223-581: A regular 'agony aunt' column and Lia Nicholls as Deputy Editor, making her the first woman with an editorial role at the magazine. The relaunch also saw original Loaded writer Martin Deeson return to the magazine. In an article in The Independent , Deeson was quoted as comparing Tinney to James Brown, the original "iconoclastic" Loaded editor. The Co-operative chain announced in August 2013 that it would soon only sell magazines like Loaded if they were sealed in

2340-461: A scantily clad crime fighter. Fox Feature Syndicate eventually began publishing Phantom Lady where she was drawn by Matt Baker , one of the most famous 'good girl' artists. Milton Caniff started producing the comic strip Male Call in 1943, and Bill Ward came out with Torchy in 1944 featuring sexy heroines. Pulp magazines were also known for their violence. The Shadow carried two guns for killing criminals, and Batman also wielded

2457-571: A small trickle of new product was still appearing on the market, mainly in the form of cheaply printed, poorly drawn and tasteless little eight pagers which sold for 10 cents each in run-down candy stores and gas stations, circulating mainly among delinquent teenagers. Starting in 1932, Norman Pett drew a strip called Jane for the British Daily Mirror newspaper. The heroine would often find herself in awkward situations where she would lose her clothing for one reason or another. The strip

SECTION 20

#1733084910835

2574-407: A small write-up of a wedding. However, in true Viz style, the wedding featured a lecherous groom marrying his pregnant (and significantly underaged) girlfriend, eyeing up her younger sister while being called a "cradle-snatching cunt" by her father (with the resulting fight prompting the bride's mother to cry out "less it, for fuck's sake" before the police arrived). Another such story revolved around

2691-560: A tourist package where eggs were served in great quantities; a happy tourist was featured saying "I'm egg-bound for Jamaica!". Adult comics Adult comics can be defined as intended for audience of 16 years or older. Roger Sabin traces the history of adult comics back to the political cartoons published in broadsheets since the 19th century. In the 1930s, there were clandestinely produced tijuana bibles – rectangular, eight page pamphlets with black printing on cheap white paper. The artwork ranged from excellent to utterly crude and

2808-534: A travel story about a man whose 'bird' was possibly eaten by a shark" in addition to the photos of a Liz Hurley in her see-through lace underwear" with the cover-stars on the first three issues being Gary Oldman, Leslie Nielsen and Elle Macpherson. Loaded captured the lad culture of the time. Deeson remarked: "I think we just caught some wave in Nineties, because the Eighties had been fairly miserable. Then we got into

2925-482: A variety of genres, erotica has continued to be popular sometimes incorporated into other genres, such as the erotic superheroes published by Class Comics , the wordless graphic novels written by Dale Lazarov , and yaoi hentai produced in Japan. The French comics anthology Pilote was published from 1959 to 1989, and featured the work of adult-oriented creators such as Jean Giraud (Moebius), Guido Crepax , Caza and

3042-466: A website. The magazine's title was stylised entirely in lower case letters. The original version of the publication was often termed the epitome of a " lad mag ". The magazine was based in London. The brand was taken over by Dubai-based entrepreneur Stewart Lochrie in 2024, alongside new editor Danni Levy. Marketed with the tagline "For men who should know better", Loaded was launched in May 1994. It

3159-775: A wide variety of themes by the likes of Jack Kirby , Steve Ditko , Frank Frazetta , Gil Kane and Art Spiegelman . Fantagraphics Books began in 1976, publishing the Comics Journal and later Amazing Heroes with text articles about the comics field, but they began publishing actual comics in 1982, notably Love and Rockets by Gilbert and Jaime Hernandez . In 1990, Fantagraphics established their Eros Comix imprint, reprinting titles by Wally Wood and Frank Thorne as well as Gilbert's Birdland . Canadian Dave Sim began publishing Cerebus in 1977, and Richard and Wendy Pini put out Elfquest starting in 1978, initially through their own WaRP company. Pacific Comics

3276-558: A year. In 2003, it changed hands again when IFG were bought out by Dennis Publishing . Soon after, Simon Donald quit his role as co-editor, in an attempt to develop a career in television. In July 2018, Dennis Publishing were bought by Exponent, a British private equity firm. Much of the non-cartoon material such as the newspaper spoofs are written by the editorial team – Graham Dury, Simon Thorp and Davey Jones – with contributions from Robin Halstead, Jason Hazeley, Joel Morris and Alex Morris,

3393-559: Is a new magazine dedicated to life, liberty and the pursuit of sex, drink, football and less serious matters. Loaded is music, film, relationships, humour, travel, sport, hard news and popular culture. Loaded is clubbing, drinking, eating, playing and eating. Loaded is for the man who believes he can do anything, if only he wasn't hungover". The original editorial team also included Martin Deeson, Jon Wilde, Rowan Chernin, Pete Stanton and Derek Harbinson. The first issue, according to Brown, "featured stories on Eric Cantona, Paul Weller and

3510-416: Is for sarcastic tips to be offered that are observations by the readers regarding other people's behaviour, such as a barmaid who suggests male public house customers who are "trying to get into a barmaid's knickers" should "pull back your tenner just as she reaches to take it when paying for a round. It really turns us on". In a similar vein, one reader suggested "Old people – are you worried that people in

3627-409: Is portrayed as someone who is willing to endorse any product whatsoever for money or gifts. Scatological humour also featured heavily in the ads; one ad featured "Clag-Gone", which consisted of a stationary bicycle with no seat. Instead, the rider simply placed his naked bottom onto the "Clag-Gone"'s wire brush wheel, which then cleaned away "winnits", "tag-nuts" and "dangleberries". Another ad featured

Viz (comics) - Misplaced Pages Continue

3744-420: Is the "Lame to Fame" column, where writers can send in "claims to fame" where they explain their connection to well-known celebrities. The connections are distant or commonplace; for example: "I once had a drink with a bloke who had caught Duran Duran 's Simon Le Bon 's dog after it had escaped from his big house", and "My sister once shagged Ringo out of The Bootleg Beatles ." A long-running segment has been

3861-562: Is unclear whether Cursiter is a reader of the comic or a creation of the editors. Often letters are printed that criticise Viz, accusing it of "not being as funny as it used to be", condemning it as being offensive or of complaining about the frequent price rises. These are often published and sometimes even framed in a small section titled "Why I Love My Viz!", blatantly mocking The Sun newspaper's habit of printing (positive) comments in little frames titled "Why I Love My Sun!" There are often invitations for readers to submit pictures, such as

3978-449: The Scarth A.D. 2195 strip in the newspaper, The Sun . In 1972, Don Lawrence started producing a strip Carrie for Mayfair magazine. In 1976, John Richardson started drawing the strip Amanda also for The Sun . In 1977, the British anthology 2000 A.D. first appeared, and featured the work of many writers and artists who were to become influential in the adult comics field in

4095-532: The Comics Code Authority , and set up their own content rating system, and an adult-oriented Max imprint. In January 2011, DC announced that they were withdrawing from the Comics Code as well, and the sole remaining CCA member Archie Comics withdrew the day after, bringing the code to its end. Some adult comics are pornographic , focusing substantially on sexual activity, either for its own sake or as

4212-532: The Duke of Edinburgh was portrayed as a culturally insensitive, dim-witted xenophobe in a strip "HRH The Duke of Edinburgh and his Jocular Larks", about the Duke making outrageously ill-informed comments to a young Chinese victim of the collapse of a residential block. Occasionally, celebrities are granted the 'honour' of strips all to themselves. Billy Connolly has had more than one about him trying to ingratiate himself with

4329-567: The Parthenon and the vicinity of the Leaning Tower of Pisa . Viz has had many different spoof adverts for various items, such as ornaments, dolls, sheds, china plates and novelty chess sets. These poke fun at the genuine adverts for such items in magazines found in the colour supplements of Sunday newspapers. Those found in Viz are absurd, such as a breakfast plate depicting Princess Diana's face in

4446-599: The Top Tips , reader-submitted suggestions which are a parody of similar sections found in women's magazines offering domestic and everyday tips to make life easier. In Viz , naturally, they are always absurd, impractical or ludicrous: Some tips are for ludicrous motives, such as "how to convince neighbours that your house has dry rot ", while others are for ostensibly sensible motives but with ridiculous and impractical suggestions for their application: Some are just inexplicable: Others inspire running jokes: A more recent trend

4563-619: The "Smartest, Prettiest, Coolest, Funniest, Most Influential, Most Necessary, Most Important, Most Essential, etc." In the May 2008 issue of Loaded , the editorial team had to print an apology to Heinz after claiming in an earlier issue that Heinz had produced a version of alphabetti spaghetti especially for the German market that consisted solely of tiny pasta shaped swastikas . IPC Media sold Loaded , along with SuperBike , to Vitality Publishing in 2010. Circulation figures had been dropping year on year by 26.3% and had declined to 53,591 at

4680-606: The (real) Curry Capital restaurant (formerly the Rupali), Bigg Market. His Lordship often promoted his restaurant with spoof competitions and offers. One, genuine, offer involved getting a 20% discount on orders at his restaurant by bringing in a copy of the current Viz ad for it and pointing at his picture excitedly. In December 2006, he appeared in a seasonal broadcast to rival the Queen's Christmas message . A semi-regular feature in Letterbocks

4797-511: The 13th issue, dated August 1985. In 1987, the Virgin director responsible for Viz , John Brown, set up his own publishing company, John Brown Publishing , to handle Viz . Sales exceeded a million by the end of 1989, making Viz for a time one of the biggest-selling magazines in the country. Inevitably, a number of imitations of Viz were launched, but these never matched the original in popularity, and rarely in quality. Sales steadily declined from

Viz (comics) - Misplaced Pages Continue

4914-404: The 1960s to the 1980s, such as Shakin' Stevens and Rodney Bewes . Occasionally, it satirises current affairs and politicians, but it has no particular political standpoint. Its success in the early 1990s led to the appearance of numerous rivals copying the format Viz pioneered; none of them managed to attain its popularity. Circulation peaked at 1.2 million in the early 1990s, making it

5031-468: The 1960s, Martin Goodman , was also the publisher for a number of men's adventure magazines: Men , Male and Stag . In these magazines, they included a strip called The Adventures of Pussycat drawn by Wally Wood and Bill Ward . These strips were eventually collected, and released as a one-shot magazine in 1968. Inside, it is listed as being printed by Marvel Comics, but there is no Marvel logo on

5148-455: The 1980s with his Cherry book, an underground-style erotic parody of Archie Comics . These titles were often sold at head shops , but these establishments were often at loggerheads with the police, sometimes making distribution difficult. In 1966, Wally Wood hit upon the idea of publishing his own comic, and selling it through comic book specialty shops. Recruiting star creators from among his friends, witzend featured one-off strips on

5265-977: The 1980s, there was a growing trend towards grim and gritty anti-heroes and increasing violence in comics. Marvel Comics ' Punisher received his own title in 1985, and in 1986, DC Comics ' Watchmen by Alan Moore and The Dark Knight Returns by Frank Miller explored issues related to vigilantes . In 1986, DC Comics started publishing comics with the words "For Mature Readers" or "Suggested for Mature Readers" on their covers. These mature readers titles included The Shadow (1986), The Question (from #8 1987-), Slash Maraud (1987-8), Swamp Thing (from #57 1987-), Vigilante (from #44 1987-8), Wasteland (1987-), Batman: The Killing Joke (1988), Green Arrow (#1-62 1988-92), Haywire (1988-9), Hellblazer (1988-), Tailgunner Jo (1988-9), V for Vendetta (1988-), Blackhawk (1989–90), Deadman : Love After Death (1989), Gilgamesh II (1989), The Sandman (1989-), Doom Patrol (1990-), Shade

5382-572: The American Robert Crumb . By 1974, Jean Giraud and some of his comrades had become dissatisfied with Pilote , and broke off to found the Metal Hurlant magazine to showcase adult comics in the science fiction or fantasy genres. In France in 1962, Jean-Claude Forest started producing a strip called Barbarella , set in outer space, but where the heroine found herself losing her clothing or ending up in sexual situations. In 1965,

5499-577: The Bear") and Richard Littlejohn ("Richard Littlecock" and "Robin Hood and Richard Littlejohn"), portraying them as obsessed with homosexuality, political correctness and non-existent left-wing conspiracies to the exclusion of all else. Holocaust denier David Irving featured as Dick Dastardly in the Wacky Races spoof, "Wacky Racists". In keeping with the comic's irreverent and deliberately non-conformist style,

5616-638: The Belgian artist Guy Peellaert released the first graphic novel, The Adventures of Jodelle . In Italy, Guido Crepax starting publishing Valentina in Linus magazine. In 1966, also in Italy, the artist Sandro Angiolini put out the first issue of Isabella . In 1968, Yves Duval and Dino Attanasio started writing/drawing a sexy strip called Candida for the Belgian magazine Cine-Revue. In England, in 1969, writer Jo Addams and artist Luis Roca started publishing

5733-865: The British magazine Viz first appeared parodying earlier British comics anthologies with an injection of incongruous sex or violence. In 1982, Raymond Briggs tried to give British comics a more serious tone with works such as When the Wind Blows about an older couple trying to come to terms with the aftermath of a nuclear attack. Horacio Altuna is an Argentine artist who has done many four page strips for Playboy Magazine's Spanish, Italian and German editions. In Japan, comic books ( manga ) intended for adults are usually divided into ' seinen manga ' (青年漫画　comics for men) and ' josei manga ' (女性漫画　comics for women). Erotic comics aimed at men are referred to as 'seijin-muke manga' (成人向け漫画) or 'ero manga' and those aimed at women are called 'ladies comics' (レーディーズ・コミック) (see also

5850-534: The Centre of Elvis ", and " Arse Farm – Young Pete and Jenny Nostradamus were spending the holidays with their Uncle Jed, who farmed arses deep in the heart of the Sussex countryside...". The latter type often follows the style of Enid Blyton and other popular children's adventure stories of the 1950s. Several strips were single-panel, one-off puns , such as "Daft Bugger", which featured two bored, uninterested men engaged in

5967-760: The Changing Man (1990-), Twilight (1990), World Without End (1990-1), Mister E (1991), Animal Man (1992-), Deadman : Exorcism (1992) and Mighty Love (2004). In 1993, DC started up their Vertigo imprint that allowed explicit content in selected titles, grouping a number of their mature readers titles together. Notable Vertigo titles include the Eisner Award winners, Fables , 100 Bullets , Preacher and The Sandman as well as several books that have been adapted into feature films, Hellblazer , A History of Violence , Stardust and V for Vendetta . In 2001, Marvel Comics withdrew from

SECTION 50

#1733084910835

6084-689: The English loanword ' hentai '). Shonen manga for boys tend to outsell seinen manga which in turn outsell seijin-muke manga. Some of the first specialized manga magazines were aimed at adult men. Weekly Manga Times debuted in 1956, and originally focused on erotic fiction and 'porno manga'. Weekly Manga Goraku first came out in 1964, and was also aimed at the relatively older demographic of men from their 30s through to their 50s. Manga Action and Young Comic debuted in 1967, followed by Big Comic in 1968, with Weekly Young Jump following in 1979, and Weekly Young Magazine in 1980. Manga with

6201-525: The Magazine Design Awards, for a spread of dogs photographed wearing jewellery. Loaded staff writer Jeff Maysh won five industry awards for journalism, including MJA Feature Writer of the Year, and PTC New Monthly Consumer Journalist of the year. After the launch by IPC in 2004 of Nuts , announced as the world's first men's weekly, Emap quickly followed with Zoo . Loaded changed its policy of

6318-600: The Man on the Telly; Nobby's Piles ; Johnny Fartpants ; Buster Gonad ; Sid the Sexist ; Sweary Mary or Finbarr Saunders and his Double Entendres. Others are based on stereotypes of British culture, mostly via working class characters, such as Biffa Bacon , Cockney Wanker and The Fat Slags . Some are aimed upwards, parodying the upper-middle classes and elites, such as the pseudo-leftist but privileged 'Student Grant', 'Nanny No Dumps' and

6435-538: The Nineties and things started to loosen up a bit. ... It just seemed like a good time, and we just were part of it and caught that wave." The magazine won the prestigious PPA Magazine of the Year Award two years in succession, in 1995 and 1996. Brown resigned from his post at Loaded in April 1997 to become editor of GQ . He was quoted as saying at the time: "I won't talk about Laddism and all that bollocks, that shows

6552-468: The Queen and Bob Hope had a strip featuring the comedian trying to think up amusing last words to utter on his deathbed (but ended up with a torrent of swearing). The singer Elton John has also appeared frequently in recent issues as a double-dealing Del Boy -type character attempting to pull off small-time criminal scams such as tobacco smuggling, benefit fraud and cheating on fruit machines. Most recently, he

6669-708: The U.S. later, notably Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons who co-created Watchmen and Neil Gaiman who went on to work on The Sandman . In 1978, artist Enrique Badia Romero and writer Donne Avenell starting producing the strip Axa for The Sun . In 1978, the Belgian company Casterman started putting out the magazine À Suivre attracting submissions by many of the same contributors who were seen in Metal Hurlant . Catalan Communications and more recently NBM Publishing have also published adult works from Europe mostly as standalone graphic novels, although NBM now has an anthology magazine called Sizzle . In 1979,

6786-413: The act of buggery ; the buggerer then states that he has forgotten his car keys (thus making him "daft"). The one-off strips often have ludicrously alliterative and/or rhyming titles, for example: "Reverend Milo's Lino Rhino", "Max's Laxative Saxophone Taxi', and "Scottie Trotter's Tottie Alottment". Some strips are built entirely around absurd puns, such as "Noah's Arse" and "Feet and Two Reg". Most of

6903-468: The adverts for public and government services which one would normally not expect to find advertised; for example, one ad consisted of the words "Raped? Burgled? Run over? Why not call the police", placed next to a picture of a grinning policeman. Another ad exhorted male readers to join the British Army , because "all the birds are gagging for squaddies" (with the fine print on the reply coupon indicating to

7020-530: The appearance in the BBC2 documentary series 'Sparks' (episode 4 'The Young Guns') which first aired in March/April 1984 and was repeated on BBC1. A further special edition was issued in May 1985 as issue 12a. What had begun as a few pages, photocopied and sold to friends, became a publishing phenomenon. To meet the demand, and to make up for Brownlow's diminishing interest in contributing, freelance artist Graham Dury

7137-761: The authors of The Framley Examiner , and by James MacDougall, Christina Martin and Paul Roberts. Viz and several Dennis Publishing titles including Cyclist , Expert Reviews , and Fortean Times are retained by Exponent when the company and most of its titles were sold to competitor Future plc in 2021 and by then operating as Viz Holdings Ltd , part of Broadleaf Group. Metropolis International acquired several titles from Broadleaf Group in December 2021, including Viz . Many Viz characters have featured in long-running strips, becoming well known in their own right, including spin-off cartoons . Characters often have rhyming or humorous taglines, such as Roger Mellie ,

SECTION 60

#1733084910835

7254-402: The comic had given permission for their use, leading to Top Tips submissions such as: The magazine published them. At around the same time, the following Top Tip was also published: In addition, a burger bar McWonald's was used as a story setting and displayed a large W in the style of an inverted Golden Arches M. This establishment had spotty-faced teenage staff vomiting and smoking;

7371-467: The cover, nor any Comics Code mark. The lack of a Comics Code mark came to be a subtle sign that one might find adult content inside. Intrigued by Warren's success with their black and white titles, Marvel Comics tried their hand at this field as well releasing Savage Tales starting in 1971, Tomb of Dracula in 1972 and Savage Sword of Conan in 1974. In 1974, Marvel even released three issues of Comix Book under their Curtis imprint featuring

7488-405: The detriment of the subjects involved (teeth blacked out, facial features shrunken/enlarged, and so on). In the case of the aforementioned Lemmy, for one photo the editors simply took a picture of a man wearing a baseball cap and drew a crude approximation of Lemmy's facial hair and warts on his face (as well as writing "Motörhead" on the cap). Photos will frequently be captioned only with the name of

7605-686: The early 1970s, McQuade drew a series of erotic comic stories featuring the character Misty. In 1983, Warren went bankrupt, but more recently, Dark Horse Comics has been reprinting some of Warren's old stories, and has revived the Creepy and Eerie magazines. Adult comics continued underground in the late 1960s outside the umbrella of the CCA. The underground comics movement was spearheaded by creators such as Art Spiegelman , Robert Crumb , Harvey Pekar , Kim Deitch and Spain Rodriguez . Larry Welz appeared in

7722-564: The exclusive rights to his wedding photographs to Viz for £1, in a flippant dig at celebrity couples who sold the rights to their wedding photos to glossy magazines such as OK! for anything up to (and over) £1 million. Serial killers Fred West and Harold Shipman have also featured in a strip as rival neighbours trying to kill the old woman next door and foiling each other's plans ( Harold and Fred – they make ladies dead! ). The comic also prints regular satirical pastiches of typical tabloid and local media news stories. One issue featured

7839-476: The first six months of 2007, Loaded recorded a 35% drop in circulation compared to the first half of 2006. In February 2010, Loaded received an ABC circulation figure that was down "just 2% over the period," compared with what Media Week called "eye-popping falls" for its competitors. In 2007, Loaded was voted 49th in a poll organised by industry website goodmagazine.com's for the Top 51 Magazines of All Time, for

7956-401: The following text. The words will often follow a theme, such as TV cops' names or types of curry, and will sometimes spell out a sentence, rarely relevant, if read separately from the story. This section features letters both written by the editors and sent in by readers often with ridiculous names, usually in the form of obviously fictitious anecdotes (one reader claimed that by defecating on

8073-461: The guys in the country weren't like those other magazines, like GQ and Arena , were telling them they were. They weren't driving around in Range Rovers with very expensive Savile Row suits." He cited the irreverent comic Viz as an inspiration for Loaded , while Holly Baxter has suggested that Playboy was an influence on the title. Brown wrote in the May 1994 launch issue: " Loaded

8190-549: The headmaster of "Pop School", as "Sir Jimmy Savile, the Owl" and in "Jimmy Savile's Haunted Head"), Johnny Vaughan , Adam Ant , Jimmy Hill , Noddy Holder , Boy George , Freddie Garrity , Steve McFadden , Morrissey (constantly finding daffodils stuck into the seat of his trousers, parodying his appearances on Top of the Pops ), Busted , Eminem , Big Daddy , Danny Baker and plenty more. In 2002, British comedian Johnny Vegas sold

8307-399: The high seas, he was able to expel a single unbroken "monster" turd ; however, nobody wanted to grant him research funds for further attempts) or various observations, such as the "children say the funniest things" type (one issue featured numerous variations of a reader's young son making a reference to masturbation during bathtime, such as "playing with [his] pork sword"; in this case, when

8424-409: The hypocritical Tory MP 'Baxter Basics', named after John Major's "Back to Basics" speech . In addition to this, the comic also contains plenty of ' in jokes ' referring to people and places in and around Newcastle upon Tyne . Many strips appear only once. These very often have extremely surreal or bizarre storylines, and often feature celebrities. For example: " Paul Daniels 's Jet-Ski Journey to

8541-553: The impact it had on '90s culture in the documentary Live Forever: The Rise and Fall of Brit Pop . Loaded had a circulation of 350,000 in 2000. The publication was edited by Martin Daubney from August 2003 to October 2010 with the sales supported by DVD girl themed covermounts and the price being reduced temporarily to £2.50. Daubney resigned when he became a father. Between 2003 and 2006, Loaded won industry awards for design and journalism, including 'best designed fashion pages' at

8658-473: The mid-1960s, Playboy magazine started including a multipage strip called Little Annie Fanny by EC alumni Harvey Kurtzman and Will Elder with an occasional assist from artist Frank Frazetta . Annie had trouble keeping her clothes on, a trend seen also in the strips The Adventures of Phoebe Zeit-Geist , Wallace Wood 's Sally Forth , and Penthouse ' s Oh Wicked Wanda by Ron Embleton and Frederic Mullally . Penthouse would later put out

8775-418: The mid-1990s to around 200,000 in 2001, by which time Chris Donald had resigned as editor and passed control to an "editorial cabinet" comprising his brother Simon, Dury, Thorp and new recruits Davey Jones and Alex Collier. In June 2001, the comic was acquired as part of a £6.4 million deal by I Feel Good (IFG), a company belonging to ex- Loaded editor James Brown , and increased in frequency to ten times

8892-436: The middle of a fried egg , "No. 22 Shit Street" (which was a diorama of a dilapidated council house complete with rabid dog, youthful vandals and a "gently rusting" washing machine in the front yard), and "Little Ted West", a teddy bear dressed to look like serial killer Fred West . Viz has manufactured some of these items and sold them, including a china plate depicting "The Life of Christ...In Cats", featuring pictures of

9009-433: The midst of an act of buggery ; a notable example of this was when a letter requested a picture of Ghostbusters actor Ernie Hudson leaning over to sign autographs in front of a cardboard standee of himself, with the writer requesting the picture of "Winston Zeddemore bumming himself". Letterbocks also formerly featured correspondence from, and has brought fame to, the late Abdul Latif , Lord of Harpole , proprietor of

9126-528: The more extreme things from his books. Partly in order to avoid the government imposing a solution, the other major publishers banded together to form the Comics Code Authority which would screen comics before they went to press, and only allow the Code mark to appear if the comic passed their standards. The Code was strict. It barred publishers from using the words 'crime,' 'horror' or 'terror' in their titles, thus forcing EC to abandon some of their most popular titles. Police officers could not be portrayed in

9243-505: The most pun-based strips was "George Bestial", about famous footballer George Best committing bestiality. The strip was discontinued after the death of Best, but has since reappeared. Viz also lampoons political ideas – both left-wing ideals, in strips such as " The Modern Parents " (and to an extent in " Student Grant "), and right-wing ones such as " Baxter Basics ", " Major Misunderstanding ", " Victorian Dad " and numerous strips involving tabloid columnists Garry Bushell ("Garry Bushell

9360-406: The name of the magazine comes from. The most he can remember is: at the time, he needed to come up with a proper name for it, and he considered the word "Viz" a very easy word to write/remember, as it consisted of three letters which are easily made with straight lines. It came about at around the time, and in the spirit of, the punk fanzines , and used alternative methods of distribution, such as

9477-537: The new rules, and eventually abandoned most of their titles to focus on Mad magazine, which did not need Code approval. The code also contained provisions against suggestive or salacious illustration, and required that females be drawn realistically without undue exposure. This was a knock at Fiction House 's good girl art covers, and may have contributed to Fiction House's closure. North American comic books tend to be around 7 by 10 inches in size. Magazines vary, but are usually larger. Comic books tended to have

9594-409: The policy on female nudity had changed, a spokesman for Simian Publishing commented: "Yes — we’re going to be far more discerning and sophisticated from now on," The magazine's closure was announced in late March 2015, the last issue being for April of that year. This issue featured Noel Gallagher answering questions written by Irvine Welsh , but conveyed to him by Nicholls. The Loaded style

9711-469: The prominent DIY record label and shop Falling A Records , which was an early champion of the comic. The first 12-page issue was produced as a fanzine for a local record label 'Anti-Pop records' run by Arthur 2 Stroke and Andy 'Pop' Inman, and went on sale for 20p (30p to students) in the Gosforth Hotel, which hosted 'Anti-Pop' punk gigs, and the run of 150 copies had sold out within hours. The second issue

9828-457: The promotional budget was minimal. IPC itself had little faith in the magazine; according to Brown the staff were initially only contracted for 3 months after the launch. Taking its title from the Primal Scream song of the same name , the magazine was founded by Mick Bunnage , Tim Southwell and Brown. As the magazine was part of IPC's Music & Sport division, Loaded was going to be

9945-469: The pub in a few minutes and wondered if any of your readers fancied joining me for a pint" or "They say size doesn't matter – if that's true, why can't I get these shoes on?"), or improbable situations such as a letter writer responding directly to the letter that preceded theirs in the very same column and issue. A bizarre series of letters from a J Cursiter of Bristol recounted his hobby of watching passers-by from "a series of cunningly-disguised hides". It

10062-523: The pulps with Donenfeld for instance going on to found DC Comics . Fiction House similarly started as a pulp magazine publisher, but in 1938, released Jumbo Comics featuring Sheena, Queen of the Jungle , the first of many scantily clad jungle girls. Fiction House comics routinely featured attractive women on the covers, a trend which later became referred to as ' good girl art .' In 1941, Quality Comics put out Police Comics featuring Phantom Lady ,

10179-410: The quality of these is invariably provided by a Mrs. B. of Essex . Adverts for loan companies have been parodied frequently since approximately 2000, usually with an absurd twist, such as ones aimed at vagrants , offering loans of between 5 and 10 pence for a cup of tea. Roger Mellie has frequently starred in such spoof advertisements, both in separate sections in Viz and also his own strip. Mellie

10296-504: The reader entered the bathroom, she discovered her son had indeed fashioned a sword out of pork sausages). Since Viz claims to offer £5 for the best letter published in a particular issue, many letters end with the inquiry, "Do I win £5?" Many make observations about celebrities (especially those who have recently died; one letter printed after the deaths of Gianni Versace and Princess Diana remarked on both their violent deaths and friendship with Elton John , stating "I tell you what. If I

10413-475: The request for examples of "Insincere Smiles", whereby people sent in pictures cut from newspapers and brochures of celebrities and politicians caught smiling in a manner which looks utterly insincere and forced ( Tony Blair featured at least twice). A similar series was of men who were wearing absurdly ill-fitting wigs . There's also "Up The Arse Corner", where photographs are submitted of people whose pose, and/or facial expression, could be misconstrued as being in

10530-616: The respondent that spending "33 years hiding behind some garden wall in Belfast should just about see [him] right" when it comes to the ladies). The 'PC Brigade' were also featured as if they were the fire brigade, stating they attended emergencies such as 'collapsed turbans' or freeing gypsies from railings while leaving British people stuck tight. They also carried the slogan 'Fueling middle England's persecution complex since 1958'. A long-running joke has been small adverts for bizarre sheds ("TV Sheds", "Shed Bikes", "Shed Snakes", etc.). Testament to

10647-450: The same customers who bought his bondage photographs of Bettie Page . Not quite obscene enough to warrant prosecution, they skirted the limits of legality by avoiding full frontal nudity in their depictions. In 1954, a psychologist Dr. Fredric Wertham came out with a book Seduction of the Innocent that claimed that the rise in juvenile delinquency being reported in the news at the time

10764-550: The science fiction magazine titled 1984 (later 1994 ) starting in the year 1978. The large format of these titles meant that they could be sold with other magazines aimed at adults rather than displayed in comic racks where the child-oriented titles were found. The publishers of the American humor magazine National Lampoon discovered the French adult magazine Métal hurlant , and in 1977 started publishing Heavy Metal translating

10881-465: The singer's birth and stage names. One particularly memorable piece of tabloid-esque wordplay parody, involving a fictional plot to assassinate Paul McCartney by a disgruntled former roadie, read 'Top Pop Mop-Top Pot Shot Plot Flops', or with a gonad-focused violent encounter with a deranged Mr. T and a 1970s playground toy, 'Crackers Baracus turns Macca's knackers into clackers'. Photos in Viz news stories are often crudely edited and altered, much to

10998-772: The stories take place in the fictitious town of Fulchester. Originally the setting of the British TV programme Crown Court , the name was adopted by the Viz team. Billy the Fish plays for Fulchester United F.C. There is innuendo in the name: the Internet domain fuck.co.uk was at one time held by fans of Viz who claimed to be promoting the Fulchester Underwater Canoeing Klubb. A significant number of strips, most of which centre on child characters, are set in Barnton . One of

11115-400: The stories were explicit sexual escapades, usually featuring well known cartoon characters, political figures, or movie stars, without the subjects' consent. Sold under the counter in places such as tobacco stores and burlesque houses, millions of Tijuana Bibles were sold at the height of their popularity in the 1930s. They went into a steep decline after World War II and by the mid-1950s only

11232-434: The subject and a comma followed by "yesterday", e.g. "A train, yesterday". Following the format common in tabloid newspapers, paragraphs within written articles include 'cross heads' which, in normal journalism, serve to indicate the theme of the following sections. In Viz however, while these words often start out being relevant to the story, they quickly stray for comedic value and therefore have little or no relevance to

11349-583: The third-most popular magazine in the UK, but ABC -audited sales have since dropped, to an average of 48,588 per issue in 2018. The 300th issue was published in October 2020. The comic was started in Newcastle upon Tyne in December 1979 by Chris Donald , who produced the comic from his bedroom in his parents' Jesmond home with help from his brother Simon and friend Jim Brownlow. Donald himself cannot remember exactly where

11466-501: The time of the online relaunch in November 2015 that Loaded had been given: "a new lease of life as a digital publication dropping the scantily-clad girls of its heyday in favour of classier content" intending to become a quality men's magazine. Actor Colin Farrell was among the initial interviewees. Continuing the last version of Loaded in the final eight print issues, editor Aaron Tinney

11583-411: The time of the sale. In the second half of 2011, the last year for which figures were known at the time of the magazine's eventual closure, circulation was 34,505 copies per issue, a decline of 30.2% over the same period in the previous year. Vitality entered administration in April 2012. That month, Paul Baxendale-Walker purchased Loaded on behalf of Blue Media Publishing Group. Ian Edmondson ,

11700-501: The time. Harvey Kurtzman was one of the key writers for EC, and artists such as Wally Wood or Al Williamson began to do research for each new story far beyond what had been seen in titles published up to that time. In the 1950s Irving Klaw published a line of underground fetish and bondage comics by artists like Eric Stanton , John Willie , and Gene Bilbrew . These never achieved widespread popularity but were kept in print for many years, sold through Klaw's mail order catalog to

11817-515: The usual stories revolving around celebrities, some in the "tell-all" vein (such as a customs agent who claimed he found drugs in Pamela Anderson 's "plastic tits"). If one of a select band of frequently referenced stars is mentioned during these stories, they will be named humorously. Among others, Lemmy Kilmister will invariably be referred to as "Lemmy out of Motörhead ", Bono as " Bonio " and Sting as "Sting (real name Gordon Sting)", mixing

11934-416: The word 'young' in the title tend to be aimed at a younger demographic of 15-30s. Loaded (magazine) Loaded is a men's lifestyle magazine, now online. It launched as a mass-market print publication in 1994, stopped being issued in March 2015, and relaunched as a digital magazine in November 2015. The content was changed, with risqué material being heavily reduced. It relaunched in May 2024 as

12051-451: The work of Milo Manara , Caza , Vittorio Giardino , Jean-Claude Forest , Jean Giraud (a.k.a. Moebius) and Guido Crepax for an English audience. Heavy Metal also provided a forum for the work of American creators such as Richard Corben and Howard Chaykin . In 1974, Larry Flynt came out with Hustler Magazine , which featured a strip called Honey Hooker with art originally by James McQuade and later by Tom Garst. Starting in

12168-451: The work of underground creators. Heavy Metal ' s success with glossy color science fiction and fantasy didn't go unnoticed either, and in 1980, Marvel released their Epic Illustrated magazine as well as a number of adult themed graphic novels under the Epic label. By 1986 though, they had cancelled Epic Illustrated , although Savage Sword of Conan continued running until 1995. By

12285-558: Was George Michael right about now, I'd be shitting myself") or current events (a 2000 issue remarked "The Government spent £850 million on the Millennium Bug , and the only thing that crashes is Q [ Desmond Llewelyn ] out of the Bond films"). Most employ deliberate misunderstandings for comic effect (e.g. "These so-called speed bumps are a joke. If anything they slow you down" or "I went to one of these so called Gentlemen's clubs and

12402-604: Was copied many times, most obviously in a relaunch of FHM , then owned by Emap , Maxim and more niche titles like Eat Soup and Men's Health . Loaded also influenced women's monthlies, with Emap launching Minx , "For girls with a lust for life". In the opinion of Holly Baxter, Loaded "tried to incorporate interviews and features that would make the publication seem a little less seedy" than Nuts , its more down market rival which closed in 2014. On 11 November 2015, Loaded relaunched online with new owners The Color Company. The Guardian ' s Mark Sweney wrote at

12519-460: Was formed in 1981, and became the first publisher of Dave Stevens 's Rocketeer which was eventually made into a movie. Stevens modeled one of the characters on Bettie Page harkening back to an earlier era of clandestine publishing. Antarctic Press was founded in 1984, and publishes American manga and independent creators, notably Terry Moore 's Strangers in Paradise . Dark Horse Comics

12636-488: Was founded in 1986. Its first comic book was the adult-oriented anthology, Dark Horse Presents , which published Frank Miller 's noirish Sin City , later made into a feature film. Avatar Press began providing a showcase for the works of Alan Moore and Al Rio in 1996. Top Shelf Productions was formed in 1997, publishing Moore and Melinda Gebbie 's Lost Girls erotic graphic novel. The publisher of Marvel Comics in

12753-455: Was fueled by comic books. He claimed that Batman and Robin were encouraging homosexuality, and decried the bondage seen in Wonder Woman's comic book. EC Comics came under criticism for the graphic violence and gore seen in its crime and horror books. EC publisher William Gaines was called before a Senate committee to testify, but he remained defensive saying that he was already censoring

12870-469: Was hired and worked alongside Chris Donald. As the magazine's popularity grew, the bedroom became too small and production moved to a nearby Jesmond office. Donald also hired another freelance artist, Simon Thorp, whose work had impressed him. For over a decade, these four would be the nucleus of Viz . In 1985, a deal was signed with Virgin Books to publish the comic nationally every two months, starting with

12987-409: Was intended as a more of a lifestyle magazine (like GQ ) with articles about good food, good living, travel and luxury goods. However, even though the look and tone was in keeping with Loaded , the new bi-monthly magazine was not a success, with the publication being scrapped in 1997 after a year on sale. In November 2024, the documentary Loaded: Lads, Mags and Mayhem aired on BBC Two, charting

13104-496: Was originally published by IPC Media who committed to its initial development following a discussion between the company's executives and James Brown during a job interview for the editorship of New Musical Express , also part of the IPC group. In development for a year, Loaded was predicted to be a flop, but IPC considered it a low-risk investment because the advertising department of its Music & Sport division already existed and

13221-508: Was published three months later in March 1980, with the next ten issues being published at irregular intervals until November 1984. Issue ten from May 1983 was the first to feature the current Viz logo. The 'best' of Viz Comics issues one to four was published in November 1983 as issue 10½. After a few years of steady sales, mostly in the North East of England, circulation had grown to around 5,000 by December 1984. This may have been boosted by

13338-453: Was quoted as saying, "It is quality men's magazine content online. There is a female focus, but not of the sort of Page 3 type stuff." In May 2024, Danni Levy took over as new editor of the online magazine, and launched a 30th birthday limited edition print version featuring Elizabeth Hurley on the cover. Eat Soup magazine was a Loaded spin-off overseen by magazine publisher Alan Lewis (1945-2021) and editor David Lancaster at IPC and

13455-436: Was seen posing as a window cleaner and conning customers to pay him, before being mistaken for a Peeping Tom and given a thorough hiding. The strips always end with Elton being beaten at his own game by one or more of his musical contemporaries from the 1970s and 1980s. Other celebs to have been featured in their own strips include Jonathan Ross , Russell Brand , Esther Rantzen , Stephen Fry , Noel Edmonds , Jimmy Savile (as

13572-449: Was shocked to see it was full of Women. To make matters worse many of them were wearing very little clothing", or the letter whose writer mentioned seeing a TV listing for the film The Greatest Story Ever Told and stating their doubt that it would top the story told by their friend about a night spent "with a couple of strippers, a bottle of tequila, and some cocaine"). Often letters feature simple yet absurd statements ("I'm heading off to

13689-533: Was written to some extent for a military audience to boost the morale of troops away from home. Winston Churchill said that Jane was Britain's "secret weapon". In the United States, pulp magazines such as Harry Donenfeld 's Spicy Detective featured comics on heroines who lose their clothing, such as Adolphe Barreaux's Sally the Sleuth which debuted in 1934. Many of the early comic publishers got their start in

#834165