Brain Damage (comic)
Encyclopedia
Brain Damage was a British
adult comic that was published monthly by Galaxy Publications
(later Tristar Publications) and edited by Bill Hampton from 1989 to 1992.
Brain Damage was one of many comics emulating the success of Viz
; however whereas most of its peers were crude, low-quality Viz imitiations, Brain Damage attempted to capture the quality end of the market, with contributions from recognised cartoon
ists and satirists
and a strong element of UK alternative politics. In this way, it seemed to aspire to be a modern-day Oz
. Many issues contained a central theme around which strips were supposed to focus, and each covers featured an unnamed mascot
which vaguely resembled the 1980s children's TV puppet
Gilbert the Alien.
Its sibling titles included the direct Viz clone Gas
and reprint anthology Talking Turkey
.
Brain Damage was published until volume 3, number 4 (issue 28), and was then replaced with Elephant Parts
which abandoned the political aspects in favour of surreal
nonsense. Elephant Parts supposedly incorporated "The Damage", but as it was printed on different paper stock and with a markedly changed editorial, was effectively a different magazine. Elephant Parts was printed for a few months.
As of June 18, 2009, all rights to the Brain Damage comic series were acquired by Untitled Project Productions http://www.theuntitledproject.com in Brooklyn, NY. The intent is to produce a series of half-hour animated TV shows. Currently in production, an animated pilot show is expected towards the end of 2009.
Repeating strips included:
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
adult comic that was published monthly by Galaxy Publications
Galaxy Publications
Galaxy publications are adult magazine publishers. Their main offices are located in Witham, Essex, England. Their most notable publications include Fiesta, Knave, Ravers DVD and Just18.-See also:* Fiesta* Knave* Brain Damage* Gas...
(later Tristar Publications) and edited by Bill Hampton from 1989 to 1992.
Brain Damage was one of many comics emulating the success of Viz
Viz (comic)
Viz is a popular British comic magazine which has been running since 1979.The comic's style parodies British comics of the post-war period, notably The Beano and The Dandy, but with incongruous language, crude toilet humour, black comedy, surreal humour and either sexual or violent storylines...
; however whereas most of its peers were crude, low-quality Viz imitiations, Brain Damage attempted to capture the quality end of the market, with contributions from recognised cartoon
Cartoon
A cartoon is a form of two-dimensional illustrated visual art. While the specific definition has changed over time, modern usage refers to a typically non-realistic or semi-realistic drawing or painting intended for satire, caricature, or humor, or to the artistic style of such works...
ists and satirists
Satire
Satire is primarily a literary genre or form, although in practice it can also be found in the graphic and performing arts. In satire, vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, ideally with the intent of shaming individuals, and society itself, into improvement...
and a strong element of UK alternative politics. In this way, it seemed to aspire to be a modern-day Oz
Oz (magazine)
Oz was first published as a satirical humour magazine between 1963 and 1969 in Sydney, Australia and, in its second and better known incarnation, became a "psychedelic hippy" magazine from 1967 to 1973 in London...
. Many issues contained a central theme around which strips were supposed to focus, and each covers featured an unnamed mascot
Mascot
The term mascot – defined as a term for any person, animal, or object thought to bring luck – colloquially includes anything used to represent a group with a common public identity, such as a school, professional sports team, society, military unit, or brand name...
which vaguely resembled the 1980s children's TV puppet
Puppet
A puppet is an inanimate object or representational figure animated or manipulated by an entertainer, who is called a puppeteer. It is used in puppetry, a play or a presentation that is a very ancient form of theatre....
Gilbert the Alien.
Its sibling titles included the direct Viz clone Gas
Gas (comic)
Gas was a British adult comic that was published monthly by Galaxy Publications from 1989 to 1991.Gas was one of many such comics emulating the success of Viz, and like many of its peers was a crude copycat of the format Viz pioneered.Initially, many strips were clearly rejected from Viz; many...
and reprint anthology Talking Turkey
Talking Turkey (comic)
Talking Turkey was a British adult comic that was published monthly by Galaxy Publications from 1991 to 1992.Talking Turkey was one of many such comics emulating the success of Viz, yet departed from the usual crude copycat approach of many of its peers by combining 'classic' underground strips...
.
Brain Damage was published until volume 3, number 4 (issue 28), and was then replaced with Elephant Parts
Elephant Parts (comic)
Elephant Parts was a short-lived British adult comic from the 1990s, similar in tone and content to Gas comic, only with a cruder layout and a wilfully "amateurish" feel overall....
which abandoned the political aspects in favour of surreal
Surrealism
Surrealism is a cultural movement that began in the early 1920s, and is best known for the visual artworks and writings of the group members....
nonsense. Elephant Parts supposedly incorporated "The Damage", but as it was printed on different paper stock and with a markedly changed editorial, was effectively a different magazine. Elephant Parts was printed for a few months.
As of June 18, 2009, all rights to the Brain Damage comic series were acquired by Untitled Project Productions http://www.theuntitledproject.com in Brooklyn, NY. The intent is to produce a series of half-hour animated TV shows. Currently in production, an animated pilot show is expected towards the end of 2009.
Repeating strips included:
- Andy The Anarchist by Anthony Smith - a stereotyped anarchist
- Arseover Tit by Hunt EmersonHunt EmersonHunt Emerson is a cartoonist living and working in Birmingham, England. He was closely involved with the Birmingham Arts Lab of the mid-to-late 1970s, and with the British underground comics scene of the 1970s and 1980s...
- a two-headed creaturePolycephalyPolycephaly is a condition of having more than one head. The term is derived from the Greek stems poly- meaning 'much' and kephali- meaning "head", and encompasses bicephaly and dicephaly . A variation is an animal born with two faces on a single head, a condition known as diprosopus...
called Alf (as in "half and half") and his adventures in society. Usually Alf would get mangled after failing to decide which way to jump from an oncoming attack due to having two heads - Cameraman by Stevie Best - a cynical day-to-day story of a paparazzoPaparazziPaparazzi is an Italian term used to refer to photojournalists who specialize in candid photography of celebrities, politicians, and other prominent people...
(tabloid photographer) - Hell's RotarianRotary InternationalRotary International is an organization of service clubs known as Rotary Clubs located all over the world. The stated purpose of the organization is to bring together business and professional leaders to provide humanitarian service, encourage high ethical standards in all vocations, and help...
s by unknown - setting septuagenarian Rotarians as Hells AngelsHells AngelsThe Hells Angels Motorcycle Club is a worldwide one-percenter motorcycle gang and organized crime syndicate whose members typically ride Harley-Davidson motorcycles. In the United States and Canada, the Hells Angels are incorporated as the Hells Angels Motorcycle Corporation. Their primary motto... - Home Front by John Erasmus - a strip involving a mother and son, the mother being a cheerful psychopath who caused carnage each issue (and embarrassing her son).
- Rymeword Scrubs by Doug Cameron and Ben Norris - a prison to house cartoon characters with rhyming names (e.g. David Fottom, with a talking bottom)
- The Striker Wore Pink Knickers by Tony Husband and Ron Tiner- a pastiche of Roy of the RoversRoy of the RoversRoy of the Rovers is a British comic strip about the life and times of a fictional footballer named Roy Race, who played for Melchester Rovers...
type strips about a girl playing professional footballProfessional footballIn the United States and Canada, the term professional football includes the professional forms of American and Canadian gridiron football. In common usage, it refers to former and existing major football leagues in either country...
posing as a man. The strip went out with a bang, with all main characters realising they were homosexual and being murdered by a skinheadSkinheadA skinhead is a member of a subculture that originated among working class youths in the United Kingdom in the 1960s, and then spread to other parts of the world. Named for their close-cropped or shaven heads, the first skinheads were greatly influenced by West Indian rude boys and British mods,... - The Watchdogs by Tony Reeve - two cartoon dogs, based on Douglas HurdDouglas HurdDouglas Richard Hurd, Baron Hurd of Westwell, CH, CBE, PC , is a British Conservative politician and novelist, who served in the governments of Margaret Thatcher and John Major between 1979 and his retirement in 1995....
and Mary WhitehouseMary WhitehouseMary Whitehouse, CBE was a British campaigner against the permissive society particularly as the media portrayed and reflected it...
, self-appointed moral guardians who were in fact hypocritical busybodies - Sam Shovel by Kev F. SutherlandKev F. Sutherland-Career:Since 2005, Sutherland has written, produced and performed as The Scottish Falsetto Sock Puppet Theatre, appearing at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 2007, 2008, 2009 and 2010, in theatres internationally and on television...
- pun-filled detective parody in style of Jim SterankoJim SterankoJames F. Steranko is an American graphic artist, comic book writer-artist-historian, magician, publisher and film production illustrator....
's early graphic novel ChandlerChandler: Red TideChandler: Red Tide is a 1976 illustrated novel, an early form of graphic novel, by writer-artist Jim Steranko.The digest-sized book combines typeset text with two same-sized illustrations per page, utilizing no word balloons or other traditional comics text conventions... - Watch With Mutha by Doug Cameron and Ben Norris - one-off strips ridiculing children's television with adult themes
- We Ran The World by Andy Oldfield and Mike Roberts - a lavish colour strip containing analysis of British cultureCulture of the United KingdomThe culture of the United Kingdom refers to the patterns of human activity and symbolism associated with the United Kingdom and its people. It is informed by the UK's history as a developed island country, major power, and its composition of four countries—England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and...
and historyHistory of the British IslesThe history of the British Isles has witnessed intermittent periods of competition and cooperation between the people that occupy the various parts of Great Britain, Ireland, and the smaller adjacent islands, which together make up the British Isles, as well as with France, Germany, the Low...
from a left-wing (and often Marxist) perspective. Two recurring characters were a teenage skinhead indoctrinated by tabloid newspapers and his world-wise grandfather (who had fought against Oswald MosleyOswald MosleySir Oswald Ernald Mosley, 6th Baronet, of Ancoats, was an English politician, known principally as the founder of the British Union of Fascists...
) - Wildtrouser Hall by Cluff – about an aristocratic family playing on the perception of arsitocrats as psychopathic Nazi parasites
- The Andy Oldfield Column - political rants accompanied by satire cartoons by Clive Wakfer
- Edith Appleby: O.A.P. Warrior by David Leach - a little old lady in a nursing home becomes a vigilante after the murder of a number of her friends at the hands of the home's corrupt staff. Written as a series, alas only two episodes were published before the magazine's closure.
- Diary of a Mad Housewifeby Neil Nixon/ Stanley ManlyStanley ManlyStanley Manly is a pseudonym for British author Neil Nixon. His first novel - Raiders of the Low Forehead - was issued in 1999, by Attack! Books a division of Creation Books dedicated to a style characterised as 'avant pulp.' Other authors published by the same imprint included Steven Wells and...
- the surreal rantings of a married woman, written as a diary entry and appearing regularly in Elephant Parts. Nixon wrote prose pieces and items for all the Galaxy adult humour titles, including some repeating ideas, but this was his only regular strip.