Viz Highlights

[Moj]

I run this little Viz twitter thing and I routinely come across some absolute gold that brings joy into my heart and this Gilbert Ratchet strip is one of them. I think I may have posted it before even, but it's worth it.

There's not a single thing about this that isn't incredible. The shopkeeper's face in the third panel and Gilbert's conspiratorial deranged joy in the last panel.

[Pink Gregory]

'Jubber Ronny' never fails to make me laugh

[Gurke and Hare]

Yeah, there's something fantastic in every panel.

"Now he's got germs and looks stupid."

[ajsmith2]

Was it Viz that had Benjamin Britten and His Embittered Bittern?

Yes. I believe it has the distinction of being the first Viz strip to ever be written and drawn by a woman (Laura Howells).

[idunnosomename]

Hahah I've never seen that before. I love how it's implied to be in Aldeburgh shortly after the war but the Bittern is banging on about Cash Converters and PS3s. Brilliant dialogue even if you dont know who anyone is

(Although Pears doesnt rhyme with bears bleurgh)

[Twilkes]

I saw the Sunday night documentary when I was maybe 11 or 12 back in the late 80s/early 90s, the one where the conceit was that Viz was a dangerous group that needed to be shut down and they'd ruined Keith Chegwin's life, doomed to walk up and down a pebble beach finding old rubbish to sell to the local kids for twenty pence. Being the age I was, I thought it was all true, and that lasted for a good few years, so much so that well into my twenties my abiding vision of Keith Chegwin was a scraggly beachcomber down on his luck.

The adverts in the comic were maybe my favourite, and introduced me to so much new vocabulary that playing Scrabble in my thirties I managed to play the word 'winnit' on a triple word score, leading to one of the players phoning her boyfriend to ask what the definition was. I believe he said 'poo crumb' and I got the points.

Clagnut is the dream though, what a way to get rid of a 'c'.

[madhair60]

Every time I see these two panels I laugh, it's perfection.

[Gurke and Hare]

The level of thought and imagination that goes into a Davey Jones strip is insane.

[Pink Gregory]

I love the Motley Crue doing lame party tricks one, sprinkling 'motherfucker!' and 'shee-it!' into the Famous Five style speech.

[Glebe]

[badaids]

I love the Motley Crue doing lame party tricks one, sprinkling 'motherfucker!' and 'shee-it!' into the Famous Five style speech.

There's a good Kiss one in which they  are transported to the land of giant ants.

The pay off of 'hey man why can't you just live and let live' and the king ants response of 'hmm there is some truth in what you say human' is the tritest thing ever.

They all have they tongues sticking out in every frame.

Davey Jones strips are the best, I don't remember there being any in viz for ages though.

It's hard to pick a best one but Arse Farm, The Vibrating Bum Faced Goats and The Rotating Chin Men are my faves.  His takes on the style and out of touchness of old comics are perfect.

They must seem so strange to people who don't have the references.

[Glebe]

The Vibrating Bum Faced Goats

Wasn't that his first Viz strip?

[Gurke and Hare]

Davey Jones strips are the best, I don't remember there being any in viz for ages though.

There are three or four in every issue - usually a couple of regulars and a couple of one-offs. The latest is on my desk now, and it's got:

Tinribs
Benjamin's Britons ("Young Benjamin Brown was the owner of an incredible radio-controlled mechanical model army of Britain's greatest historical heroes.")
Lucky Frank

so just the three

Wasn't that his first Viz strip?

Don't think so - I think Roger Irrelevant was his first. Major Misunderstanding was probably earlier then the VBFGs too.

[Gurke and Hare]

And Meddlesome Ratbag

[Glebe]

Don't think so - I think Roger Irrelevant was his first. Major Misunderstanding was probably earlier then the VBFGs too.

Ah right. I think Chris Donald mentions the goats strip cracking the Viz staff up in Rude Kids.

[iamcoop]

I must live near Davey Jones because I see him walking his dog all the time.

He does still do stuff for Viz, he's not on editorial anymore though.

Lovely podcast with him here where he discusses his love for Leo Baxendale and chats some Viz stuff.

(If anyone can find the "Diana Ross' Dogshit Museum" strip he mentions please do upload it as the title alone always makes me laugh).

[badaids]

There are three or four in every issue - usually a couple of regulars and a couple of one-offs. The latest is on my desk now, and it's got:

Tinribs
Benjamin's Britons ("Young Benjamin Brown was the owner of an incredible radio-controlled mechanical model army of Britain's greatest historical heroes.")
Lucky Frank

so just the three

Don't think so - I think Roger Irrelevant was his first. Major Misunderstanding was probably earlier then the VBFGs too.

Right you are.

I was neglecting his regular strips.

[Blumf]

As they've been mentioned...

I think my favourite is from the Rotating Chin Men - "I couldn't possibly crown a Queen who's eyebrows are all matted with spunk. It could be unconstitutional".
In fact I think it's one of my favourite strips, maybe along with 'Capain Oates, the Polar Explorer who loves exploring his own pole.'.

Vibrating Bum-faced Goats is another one of his classics



"That's not what vibrating goat keeping is all about."

[Gurke and Hare]

Ah right. I think Chris Donald mentions the goats strip cracking the Viz staff up in Rude Kids.

Yeah, I think he said that once a month the cry would go up of "Davey's stuff's here!" and they'd all stop what they were doing instantly to go and look at it?

[jobotic]

I remember enjoying one about a woodlouse school but remember nothing beyond that. Cheers.

[iamcoop]

Yeah, I think he said that once a month the cry would go up of "Davey's stuff's here!" and they'd all stop what they were doing instantly to go and look at it?

That's it.

It's a great book, I always liked their rule of never having the word 'cunt' in the comic until they received the Bertie Blunt strip out of the blue one day and it made them laugh so much it had to go in.

[Gurke and Hare]

I remember enjoying one about a woodlouse school but remember nothing beyond that. Cheers.

That rings a bell, but I think rather than a woodlouse school it was that a woodlouse started at a girls' boarding school, and all the girls made fun of it for being a woodlouse until it foiled a raid on the tuck shop or something.

[jobotic]

That sounds familiar too, but I'm sure this was a burrowing robotic woodlouse school.

[imitationleather]

A while back someone (probably madhair) posted a strip about Ian Paisley. Anyone got a handy link to that?

[Pranet]

The recentish Davey Jones strip about Lou Reed needing to go the toilet was fantastic. As are all his strips about people needing to go to the toilet.

[Pink Gregory]

That rings a bell, but I think rather than a woodlouse school it was that a woodlouse started at a girls' boarding school, and all the girls made fun of it for being a woodlouse until it foiled a raid on the tuck shop or something.

Was it not the one about a public schoolgirl who's best friend was a giant pubic louse?

[Poirots BigGarlickyCorpse]

Was it not the one about a public schoolgirl who's best friend was a giant pubic louse?

The giant public louse went to a posh all-girls' boarding school and had to win over the other girls which it did by proving that the stuck-up posh girl was the one who went rummaging around in the headmistress's (?) ladygarden looking for buried treasure, or something

[Jittlebags]

Aah! All the jissom has dribbled down my shirt!

[The Giggling Bean]

I saw the Sunday night documentary when I was maybe 11 or 12 back in the late 80s/early 90s, the one where the conceit was that Viz was a dangerous group that needed to be shut down and they'd ruined Keith Chegwin's life, doomed to walk up and down a pebble beach finding old rubbish to sell to the local kids for twenty pence. Being the age I was, I thought it was all true, and that lasted for a good few years, so much so that well into my twenties my abiding vision of Keith Chegwin was a scraggly beachcomber down on his luck.

That's up on YouTube if you want to relive that Chegwin magic

[Gurke and Hare]

I've found it, The Pubic Louse of St Hilda's and it was in The Five Knuckle Shuffle, the 2011 annual if anyone's got that handy and wants to stick a picture of it up.