Revolver Vol 1

Launched by Fleetway in July 1990, Revolver was an experimental comics magazine (part of the 2000AD Comics Group) aimed at an older audience than the company's traditional fare, launched with quite a fanfare of publicity (and even a promotional t-shirt!). It starred Dan Dare, a newly updated version of the classic space hero now rapped in a dystopian future thanks to writer Grant Morrison and artist Rian Hughes (who was also the comic's designer) while other strips included Pinhead Nation (by Shaky Kane), Happenstance and Kismet (by Paul Neary, Steve Parkhouse and Bernie Jaye), Rogan Gosh (by Peter Milligan and Brendan McCarthy), Dire Streets (by Julie Hollings), Purple Days (by Charles Shaar Murray and Floyd Hughes, based on the life of Jimi Hendrix), Nine Inches to the Mile by Phil Winslade and Bambos, God's Little Acre by Ian Edgington and D'Israeli, Waltz (by Ian Salmon, Glenn Fabry and Bambos), The Crossing (by Warren Pleece and Gary Pleece), The Greatest (by Peter Cooper), Circular Motion (by Simon Harrison and Ellie De Ville), Martello 117 (by Keith Page), The Secret Garden (by Terry Hooper and Aidan Potts), All Around the World (by Si Spencer and Sean Phillips) and Zen & the Art of Shopping (by Tony Allen). Many of these stories were one-offs or short serials, but Dare, Rogan Gosh, Purple Days and Happenstance and Kismet lasted pretty much throughout (Rogan Gosh actually ended in #6). Sadly, despite being genuinely innovative and generally well written, Revolver lasted only seven issues, with the Dare storyline being concluded in the pages of Crisis, although there were also two one-shot Specials, the Revolver Horror Special and the Revolver Romance Special.