Wednesday 21 July 2010

Separated At Birth

Rev. Dr. John Strain from Save Our Savers (as featured on today's MoneyWatch on BBC 2)


One of the Real Ale Twats from VIZ.

9 comments:

Ross said...

If we're talking about uncanny resemblances to Viz characters, how about Raoul Moat and Big Vern? More in their behaviour than their appearance really (although they both have the steroid enhanced psycho look).

Mark Wadsworth said...

R, according to the latest VIZ, Big Vern is moonlighting as a plain clothes cop in the Ukraine. With photo to prove it.

Steven_L said...

I see what you mean! I didn't know southerners read VIZ, I'm impressed.

I'm sure I speak for all of geordieland when I tell you it's now our proudest export.

Mark Wadsworth said...

SL, VIZ is widely on sale down south. I don't know whether southerners buy it or just ex-pat northerners (like me).

Woman on a Raft said...

Rude Kids
The Unfeasible story of Viz
Chris Donald


Amazon Review
Chris Donald is the founder and former editor of Viz, the tatty rag that began life in his bedroom and ultimately became Britain’s third best-selling magazine with a circulation of 1.2 million.

Worth reading if only because Donald had an early run-in with the police under the Prevention of Terrorism Act, where they took exception to one of the gags and argued that the magazine might encourage irresponsible behaviour.

The publisher, John Brown, didn't care to have the argument and so withdrew the material. Chris Donald doesn't necessarily think the police had any business telling him what jokes to tell, but he also seemed to have sympathy with the idea that people can be such incredible idiots that there was an outside chance that somebody might copy it, which would be a Bad Thing.

I enjoyed it, but some of the more po-faced Amazon reviewers thought he was supposed to write a post-modernist deconstruction critique of the magazine. He doesn't. Good.

assegai mike said...

Steven_L, that's a bit like saying you're surprised that people outside of New York read Superman comics.

Mark Wadsworth said...

WOAR, I've always taken VIZ at face value, maybe I'm missing something.

AM, what on earth? That's like saying that you're surprised that people outside of Metropolis read Batman; or people outside Gotham City read Spider-Man.

assegai mike said...

? Shurely shome mishtake?

Mark Wadsworth said...

AM, Superman didn't live in New York, he lived in Metropolis. A fictional character in a fictional city.