Zit number 1

[Steve Henderson]

The only thing on Gutted is this site, where 'The man who collects eyeballs' featured in it.
http://eyeballs.awardspace.com/cont.html

Seems like a bitter bloke, not a fan of Chris Donald clearly! I didn't find Chris Donalds book boring by any means.

[PaulTwist]

Indeed, Chris Donald's book is an excellent read.

And even though The Man Who Collects Eyeballs is far from the worst "adult" strip I've ever read, it's not a patch on anything in Viz, even the less good strips.

[felneymike]

"Rude Kids", partly Chris Donald's autobiography and partly a history of Viz, goes into the imitators a bit. Another of the imitators called Smut! was running at least until 2006, when i saw it in Cambridge Borders. I had a flick and it was just not funny at all - and compared to the sick jokes you see on the internet and in text messages the moment some disaster happens or a celebrity dies, rather "tame" too. I can't imagine who was buying it to keep it going at all.

I seem to remember a tale about another of the imitators organising a big giveaway of free copies in Newcastle in an attempt to "rile" Viz, except they could literally not give the comic away and at the end of the day the street was covered with discarded copies.

[ajsmith]

Smut was rebranded as Twisted in 2007, same content tho.

[PaulTwist]

Smut was rebranded as Twisted in 2007, same content tho.

Is it still going? And were there more than two issues? Haven't seen it for ages.

[Digifiend]

Looks like it bit the dust. I just googled "Twisted inc smut magazine" and some magazine subscription websites came up - all saying product not found or carrying out of date info (in one case a suspicious and definitely outdated next issue date of 1/1/2009, another site had an old Smut cover pic).

[ajsmith]

Hmm, while hardly the most heart-breaking comic to see finish up, seems kind of a shame to go under after a desperate, last throw of the dice name change: A name change without being able to afford to overhaul the content of course is a sign of desperration in the first place. The only time I ever bought an issue of Smut was in summer 2005, and by then they seemed to be relying largely on reprint content: a lot of strips looking suspiciously like recycled content: including a Nick Brennan page which proclaimed "Get with the programme, It's the 90s!" 9pretty sure this wasn't an ironic joke either.)

[steelclaw]

I think the publishers did an evern less well know Viz style comic called Gutter. Terrible about the 'go' at Ann Diamond.