Exhibition celebrates 20 years of `Viz' comic

CHARACTERS FROM the magazine Viz are being brought to life in an exhibition which opened in London last night.

The event celebrates the 20th birthday of the adult comic, one of the success stories of the Eighties. At one time Viz achieved sales of more than a million copies, making it Britain's third best-selling magazine. It has now settled at what the publisher feels is a more sustainable level of 350,000.

Among items in the "Quack Ooops! 20 Years Of Viz" exhibition will be the piscine goalkeeper, Billy The Fish, displayed in a glass tank in the style of a Damien Hirst exhibit.

The exhibition will be on show at the Brunswick Centre in Marchmont Street, W1, until 23 December, moving to the Arts Centre in Newcastle upon Tyne, Viz's home town, from 30 January to 13 February.