Revolver

Revolver was a British monthly comic anthology published by Fleetway Publications from July 1990 to January 1991. The comic was designed as a monthly companion title to Crisis and was intended to appeal to older readers than other Fleetway titles in order to take advantage of a boom in interest in 'adult' comics. Revolver was not a commercial success, and lasted just seven issues before being cancelled and merged with Crisis. Creation After a strong start and an alarming dip sales of Fleetway Publications' mature reader anthology Crisis had levelled out at a reasonable level. The title's editor Steve MacManus was also made group editor for the newly-defined '2000 AD' group, consisting of the fortnightly Crisis and the long-running science fiction weekly 2000 AD, as well as any spin-offs. Revolver had initially been conceived as a high-quality export title to run alongside Crisis some two years earlier, but internal upheaval had seen the book delayed repeatedly. However, Fleetway scored a major hit by licensing a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles weekly just as the franchise hit critical mass, and MacManus was finally given the greenlight to make monthly companion titles for Crisis and 2000 AD (the latter becoming Judge Dredd Megazine) by managing director John Davidge. MacManus picked Peter Hogan, who had primarily been involved in the music industry working for the likes of Rough Trade and IRS Records as well as music magazines, feeling he would have "his finger on the pulse". For his assistant Hogan recruited Frank Wynne, an Irishman with a vast knowledge of European comics and was known to Michael Bennent, who was in turn being groomed to take over as editor of Crisis. An unsuccessful applicant for the assistant editor of Revolver was David Bishop, who nevertheless impressed MacManus and would later find work on Judge Dredd Megazine. With his design work for Crisis having received a positive response, Rian Hughes was assigned to style Revolver. The name was chosen to emphasise the diverse content of the comic and in reference to the name of the acclaimed Beatles album. The format was settled on as 52 pages, in full colour. Unlike the political bent of Crisis, MacManus decided Revolver would have a more eclectic mix of genres more in line with the IPC Magazines anthologies he had begun working on, but aimed at an older readership. He began assembling stories for the comic, with the same improved creator benefits as used for Crisis.