Simon Thorp

Viz is a popular British 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 vulgar language, 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 the 1960s to the 1980s, such as Shakin' Stevens and Rodney Bewes. Occasionally, it satirises current events and politicians, but has no particular political standpoint. Its success in the early 1990s led to the appearance of numerous rivals crudely copying the format Viz pioneered; none of them managed to seriously challenge its popularity. It used to be the third most popular magazine in the UK, but ABC-audited sales have since dropped to an average of 46,573 per issue in 2017. Circulation peaked at 1.2 million in the early 1990s.