TOXIC TURNS 50!
August 2005: Egmont's TOXIC comic, which
sells around 50,000 copies or more every issue every fortnight in the
UK, will be celebrating its 50th issue when it's released on 31 August
2005. John Freeman caught up with editor Matt Yeo to talk to him about
the title's origins and future plans...
MATT YEO: Three years ago there were really no lifestyle/entertainment magazines available for 8-12 year-old boys. Egmont had done well with titles like Disney's Big Time and The One, but both were aimed at boys and girls. What we proposed to the company was a fun, lifestyle title that featured comic strips, yet had a distinctive look, attitude and voice. Fortunately we seem to have hit upon a winning formula as TOXIC is now selling (on average) over 50,000 issues every fortnight!
 TOXIC seems to have been quite a success for Egmont. When it was launched in October 2002 it was a gamble: a magazine trying to capture the elusive boy's market, with features on the latest DVDs, toys, PC games, football, with an irreverent tone of modern "gross out" humour. The gamble paid off. Team TOXIC, originally a strip running across the foot of four pages swiftly upgraded to a regular two-page strip, and other strips such as Rex and Pig Brother were soon added to the mix. TOXIC's four-weekly schedule shifted to three-weekly after a year, and the start of this year saw it become a fortnightly. Rival magazines have also appeared, such as Panini's Marvel Rampage, which is very much in the TOXIC mold, but without the toilet humour. It could also be said that The Dandy's 2004 revamp owes a little to TOXIC's influence too, with the introduction of fart gags and 'Team Dandy' to the veteran comic. 19 years ago, IPC's Oink! comic outraged parents and retailers with its toilet humour and was shifted away from the children's section by one major chain of newsagents. Perhaps Oink! was ahead of its time, because today TOXIC, for all its jokes about bodily functions, can be found acceptably displayed in the comics rack of Tescos and Asda. Even The Beano now features Dennis the Menace's kid sister Bea flinging smelly nappies at her victims! Lew Stringer |
DTB: Some freelancers claim you've "sneaked" comics
into TOXIC, but I know you're a big comics fan -- what's the real story?
MATT: No, we've never 'sneaked' comics into TOXIC.
I'm a massive comic fan and planned for them to be included from day one. I
was adamant that we should have regular comic content in there, although there
was internal resistance and I used to hear the same old argument of "kids don't like comics...".
"kids don't read comics..."
I have a lot of respect for British comics history and freely admit that
there's a bit of The Beano, The Dandy, Buster, Whizzer & Chips, Nutty and
Oink lurking in TOXIC.
Our own characters, Team TOXIC, initially had a smaller strip in the mag
and also appeared throughout pages. We then expanded their adventures to
a double page and eventually added new single page comics such as Rex, Time
Toilet, 'Nanas & Custard and Pig Brother. Oh, and there are more on the
way soon...
DTB: Were you surprised at how quickly the readers responded to the comic strips?
MATT: Not really. I've always countered the above arguments by saying that if
you give children good comics to read, they will read and enjoy them. The
problem for comics in the UK for the past few decades has been one of
availability and accessibility. We get a huge reader response every issue
and the majority of drawings we receive are of Team TOXIC and our other
comic creations. So we must be doing something right!
DTB: Egmont has a lot of success with comics on the Continent but doesn't do much comic strip here, why is that?
MATT: That's definitely true, but I think it's more to do with how comics are
perceived in the UK and abroad. Comics always struggle over here to be seen
as something other than a juvenile kids' medium. But children are smart and
enjoy comics for what they are. And I think that has a lot to do withTOXIC's success. We never talk down to our readers and always produce a
magazine that they'd want to read, not one we think they should be
reading...
DTB: Aside from TOXIC, do you have any other comics plans at Egmont?
MATT: Watch this space...
DTB: Do you have any plans for TOXIC beyond #50 you can reveal?
MATT: Well obviously, Issue # 50 was a big milestone for us and we'll pull out
all the stops to deliver something special for issue # 100. My team and I
are all very passionate about producing the most entertaining, fun, crazy
kids magazine that we can and reader research and feedback plays a big part
in that.
Our readers can look forward to tons of cool stuff in the next few months,
including coverage of the fourth Harry Potter film, Chronicles of Narnia and King Kong.
We're also always trying to stay two steps ahead of the competition (of
which there is plenty now) and have a few tricks up our sleeve that will be
revealed soon.
DTB: If someone wanted to contribute a story to TOXIC what's the best way of doing it?
MATT: Just drop me a line! Best thing to do is send me samples of your work and
we can then talk over ideas for potential comic strips and characters. We
have to make sure we don't repeat ourselves in terms comics, but there's a
definite TOXIC style that inspires our creators to try new things.
TOXIC #50 is on sale on
31st August 2005 in the UK and Eire. Cover gifts for that issue are TOXIC Sticker Box, X-Men Trading
Cards and a giant Burnout/FIFA poster. TOXIC is out every fortnight
priced £1.85.
TOXIC Official Website: www.toxicmag.co.uk