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
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.
