which bits of the late 80s - early 90s britcomic CRISIS were any good?

I've never heard of this crisis, what was it?

It was a comic that was called Crisis. It was meant to be like 2000 AD for grown ups, kind of. Initially it had two strips in it. One of these was called Third World War (Pat Mills and Carlos Ezquerra), and was about these wasters who had been drafted into a global war against 3rd World guerrillas. It was full of makes-you-think moments, but started well before disappearing up Pat Mills' arse.

The other was The New Statesmen (John Smith and Jim Baikie), which was... a revisionist superhero story! wow, the novelty.

That was for Tuomas, obv.

I saw a reprint of the first bits of Third World War recently, they still have a certain power.

see also: Taking Sides: Crisis (US) Vs Crisis (UK)

Oh, I thought this was a reference to some kind of a British version of Crisis on Infinite Earths.

No, that was Zenith Book 3 ;)

The artist for "Third World War" was originally going to be Ian Gibson. I was bummed out when IG dropped out, even though I like Ezquerra's art. It was a little bit too preachy as I remember.

Crisis is a bit of a "you had to be there" comic - I was a 16 year old with slight pretensions to political engagement so the IDEA of it carried me along way way beyond the actual stories. New Statesman in particular was a dropped ball - incomprehensible and tedious. Third World War had its moments and was slyly educational tho its protagonists were pretty irritating - when they went back to Britain the story actually picked up in terms of plot and pace but the political content slipped into caricature territory.

It also launched Garth Ennis' career - he did a Belfast buddy-comedy called Troubled Souls, which was pretty good, and a "controversial" anti-religious story called True Faith, which was one of the heaviest-handed stories in a comic not known for lightness of touch.

What else? Morrison was in it with Bible John, about a 60s serial killer, but I never read that. Smith had a creepy story about a student who murders people - forgotten the name of that. David Hine was in it quite a lot, but I don't remember anything about his stories really.

Skin was supposed to be in it, that was quite good. There was a prison thing by Mark Millar and Paul Grist near the end I liked.

I quite liked Troubled Souls.... it seemed more agreeably puerile than heavy handed.

tom said True Faith was heavy-handed, not T Souls

Troubled and Few Troubles more were indeed agreeably puerile, amazing how far they fell with the third book

New Adventures Of Hitler one of the 300 bestest comics ever

Bible John was okay but v 16-year old (nb I have not re-read in a decade or more)

Zarate did some OK one-pagers and some sledgehammer jobbies

Trip To Tulum was well-served by being in an anthology, better than a graphic novel

Dare finished up in it if you want to count that. I've read bits of that Grist/Millar thing but can't remember a skerrick about it. I didn't buy every issue by a very long shot, desperately made the two-hour round trip into the city every month (or more often, just looking for them) to the one newsagent that I knew carried it specifically for all the NAOH issues, otherwise a random one or two and picked up back issues later.

I bought the New Statesman trade when I was in my early teens, and thought that because I didn't understand a word of it it must be PROFOUND and IMPORTANT. Tried it again a few years back, turns out it's just DRIVEL.

tom said True Faith was heavy-handed, not T Souls

while I meant to say that I thought True Faith was more agreeably puerile than heavy handed.

Eh, wasn't Dare in REVOLVER?

Yeah, but the last 1 or 2 episodes were in Crisis after REVOLVER went tits up.

You might be right DV - not read it since first publication!

Dare was in Revolver until it went bust, then finished off in Crisis.

while I meant to say that I thought True Faith was more agreeably puerile than heavy handed.

d'oh! I couldn't conceive of anyone not thinking TF was heavy-handed, sorry! puerile maybe, but only in a sulky teenage "do you know the church LIES to us, maan?" way, rather than the gleeful immaturity of Dougie and Ivor.

Well, I remember the nutter guy who kept using blocked toilets as a metaphor, or the whole thing about the main character having the hots for the christian girl.

Trip to Tulum was pretty hot, but I was like 14 at the time

I seem to remember there being an Amnesty International special edition of Crisis at one point. In fact I think I may still have it lying around

i asked because in my more obsessive days of this sort of thing in my first year at university i appear to have bought the whole thing off ebay, which i totally did not remember at all until i found them last week -

sadly i think i have read all the good bits elsewhere so haven't done anything with it.

also i googled 'bible john comic' and found people being angry at the existence of some other, separate comic about the 60s serial killer etc etc. hunh.