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The Viz magazine is an adult comic that was established way back in 1979 at UK. Cartoonist Graham Dury, in a recent Coffee Table book celebrating 25 years of Viz, stated that "We pride ourselves on the fact that you're no cleverer when you've read Viz.", an ethos that has clearly been well loved in its many years of production. As well as being the most popular magazine in the country for a short period and enjoying a sustained period of success as the third most popular Viz has caused controversy at every step and loved every minute of it.At its best, the comic's style parodies the strait-laced British comics of the post-war period. It once enjoyed being the third most popular magazine in the UK.

History

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. Inevitably a number of imitations of Viz were launched but these never matched the original in popularity, and rarely in quality.

Characters

When Viz was first printed it was meant to parody everything from popular kid's comics like The Beano and Dandy to tabloid newspapers and everything in between. As such, there are numerous characters and sections that are almost satirical in their appearance and humour .Some of the notable one-off strips are Anna Reksik, Badly drawn Man, Captain Oats, Darren Dice, and Doctor Sex etc. Characters often have rhyming or humorous taglines. Most of the incidents happen in the fictitious town of Fulchester.

Other contents inside

Sprinkled throughout each issue are spoof news stories, serving to lampoon the tabloid media and obsess over celebrities. 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 or various observations, such as the "children say the funniest things" type. Many make observations about celebrities (especially those who have recently died) or current events. Often letters are printed that criticize Viz. There are often invitations for readers to submit pictures. Letter bocks also frequently feature correspondence. A semi-regular feature in Letter bocks is the "Lame to Fame" column, where readers can send in "claims to fame" where they explain how they are related to well-known celebrities. However, the relations are purposefully so distant or commonplace that the claim does not make the reader any more notable than any other bloke off the street. A long-running segment has been the Top Tips, reader-submitted suggestions which are a parody of similar sections found in women's magazines that offer domestic and everyday tips to make life easier. Viz has had many different spoof adverts for various items, such as ornaments, dolls, sheds, china plates and novelty chess sets.

Viz in different media

Some of the characters have had their own television series. A computer game using many Viz characters was produced in 1991 by Virgin interactive. A movie was also released using the vise character The Fat Slags.