''Deadline'' was a British comics magazine published between

1988 File:1988 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The oil platform Piper Alpha explodes and collapses in the North Sea, killing 165 workers; The USS Vincennes (CG-49) mistakenly shoots down Iran Air Flight 655; Australia celebrates its Bicenten ...

and

1995 File:1995 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: O.J. Simpson is acquitted of the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman from the year prior in "The Trial of the Century" in the United States; The Great Hanshin earthquake str ...

. Created by '' 2000 AD'' artists

Brett Ewins Brett Ewins (1955 – 16 February 2015) was a British comic book artist best known for his work on ''Judge Dredd'' and ''Rogue Trooper'' in the weekly anthology comic '' 2000 AD''. Biography Ewins studied Conceptual Art at Goldsmiths College, w ...

and

Steve Dillon Steve Dillon (22 March 1962 – 22 October 2016) was a British comic book artist, best known for his work with writer Garth Ennis on '' Hellblazer'', '' Preacher'' and ''The Punisher''. Early life Dillon was born in London in 1962 and raised ...

, ''Deadline'' featured a mix of

comic strips A comic strip is a sequence of drawings, often cartoons, arranged in interrelated panels to display brief humor or form a narrative, often serialized, with text in balloons and captions. Traditionally, throughout the 20th and into the 21st c ...

and written articles aimed at adult readers. ''Deadline'' sat at the forefront of the wave of British comics anthologies for mature audiences that included ''

Crisis A crisis ( : crises; : critical) is either any event or period that will (or might) lead to an unstable and dangerous situation affecting an individual, group, or all of society. Crises are negative changes in the human or environmental affair ...

'', ''

Revolver A revolver (also called a wheel gun) is a repeating firearm, repeating handgun that has at least one gun barrel, barrel and uses a revolving cylinder (firearms), cylinder containing multiple chamber (firearms), chambers (each holding a single ...

'' and '' Toxic!'', and had a cultural influence beyond the comics world, most notably via its breakout star Tank Girl. ''Deadline'' was published by Deadline Publications Ltd.

History

The magazine's origins lie in the earlier publication ''Strange Days'', an anthology title created by Ewins,

Brendan McCarthy Brendan McCarthy is a British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity a ...

and

Peter Milligan Peter Milligan (born 24 June 1961) is a British comic book writer who has written extensively for both British and American comic book industries. In the UK, Milligan has contributed to numerous anthology titles including '' 2000 AD'', '' Revo ...

. Much of the non-strip content centred on alternative and indie music. Coupled with the subversive nature of many of the comic strips, the magazine had a distinctive

counterculture A counterculture is a culture whose values and norms of behavior differ substantially from those of mainstream society, sometimes diametrically opposed to mainstream cultural mores.Eric Donald Hirsch. ''The Dictionary of Cultural Literacy''. H ...

ethos and post-punk sensibility. The magazine was owned and financed by Tom Astor (grandson of

Nancy Astor Nancy Witcher Langhorne Astor, Viscountess Astor, (19 May 1879 – 2 May 1964) was an American-born British politician who was the first woman seated as a Member of Parliament (MP), serving from 1919 to 1945. Astor's first husband was America ...

), and initially edited by Steve Dillon and Brett Ewins before transferring editorship to Dave Elliott, then Si Spencer and finally

Frank Wynne Frank Wynne (born 1962) is an Irish literary translator and writer. Born in County Sligo in the west of Ireland, he worked as a comics editor at Fleetway and later at comic magazine '' Deadline''. He worked for a time at AOL before becoming a ...

(a former staff member of ''

'' and subsequently translator of

Michel Houellebecq Michel Houellebecq (; born Michel Thomas, 26 February 1956 or 1958) is a French author, known for his novels, poems and essays, as well as an occasional actor, filmmaker and singer. His first book was a biographical essay on the horror writer ...

). Alongside original material, Elliott and Wynne also introduced reprints of American

alternative comics Alternative comics cover a range of American comics that have appeared since the 1980s, following the underground comix movement of the late 1960s and early 1970s. Alternative comics present an alternative to mainstream superhero comics which ...

such as '' Love and Rockets'',

Bob Burden Bob Burden is an American comic book artist and writer, best known as the creator of ''Flaming Carrot Comics'' and the '' Mystery Men''. Early life Burden was born the eldest of three siblings in Buffalo, New York. His father worked at Westi ...

's Flaming Carrot and

Evan Dorkin Evan Dorkin (born April 20, 1965) is an American comics artist and cartoonist. His best known works are the comic books ''Milk and Cheese'' and ''Dork''. His comics often poke fun at fandom, even while making it clear that Dorkin is a fan himsel ...

strips such as ''

Milk and Cheese Evan Dorkin (born April 20, 1965) is an American comics artist and cartoonist. His best known works are the comic books ''Milk and Cheese'' and ''Dork''. His comics often poke fun at fandom, even while making it clear that Dorkin is a fan himsel ...

''. Elliott also arranged for content from the magazine to be reprinted in the US by

Dark Horse Comics Dark Horse Comics is an American comic book, graphic novel, and manga publisher founded in Milwaukie, Oregon by Mike Richardson in 1986. The company was created using funds earned from Richardson's chain of Portland, Oregon comic book shops know ...

as ''Deadline USA''. ''Deadline'' enjoyed the patronage of those who would not normally purchase comics and the support of several key bands of the time, with Blur making regular appearances in the '' Tank Girl'' strips (Tank Girl artist Jamie Hewlett was good friends with Blur's

Damon Albarn Damon Albarn (; born 23 March 1968) is an English-Icelandic musician, singer-songwriter and composer, best known as the frontman and primary lyricist of the rock band Blur and as the co-creator and primary musical contributor of the virtua ...

), and covers including Ride,

Curve In mathematics, a curve (also called a curved line in older texts) is an object similar to a line, but that does not have to be straight. Intuitively, a curve may be thought of as the trace left by a moving point. This is the definition that ...

Carter USM Carter the Unstoppable Sex Machine (also known as Carter USM or simply Carter) were an English indie rock band formed in 1987 by singer Jim "Jim Bob" Morrison and guitarist Les " Fruitbat" Carter. They made their name with a distinctive style ...

and the

Senseless Things Senseless Things were an English pop punk band, formed in 1986 in London. The band released four studio albums and achieved two UK Top 20 hit singles before splitting up in 1995. Senseless Things reformed in 2017 to play several gigs including S ...

. However, the commercial failure of the '' Tank Girl'' film and the crossing over of the alternative scene into the mainstream (around the time of

Britpop Britpop was a mid-1990s British-based music culture movement that emphasised Britishness. It produced brighter, catchier alternative rock, partly in reaction to the popularity of the darker lyrical themes of the US-led grunge music and to the ...

, a movement it had helped to champion) saw the magazine eventually fold at the end of 1995. In the late 2000s, Alan Grant edited the title ''Wasted'', which owed much to the style and ethos of ''Deadline'' a decade and a half earlier.

Comic strips published in ''Deadline'' (selected)

* '' Tank Girl'', created by the young team of writer Alan Martin and artist Jamie Hewlett * ''Johnny Nemo'' by

and

* ''Wired World'', by

Philip Bond Philip J. Bond (born 11 July 1966, in Lancashire) is a British comic book artist, who first came to prominence in the late 1980s on '' Deadline'' magazine, and later through a number of collaborations with British writers for the DC Comics impr ...

* ''Planet Swerve'', by Alan Martin and Glyn Dillon * ''Hugo Tate'', by Nick Abadzis * ''Cheeky Wee Budgie Boy'', created and written by Jon Beeston, and drawn by Beeston and Philip Bond * ''Timulo'', by D'Israeli * ''A-Men'', by

Shaky Kane Michael Coulthard is a British writer and psychedelic artist who best known for his work as a comic and graphic artist under the pseudonym Shaky Kane, as well as Shaky 2000. Biography After working for independent comics and magazines like Pss ...

* ''Space Boss'', by Shaky Kane * ''Exit'' by Nabiel Kanan * several early works by Al Columbia * ''Box City'', ''Ruby Chan'' by Rachael Ball

References

Notes

Sources

* *

External links

Tank-Girl.com
(Official home of all things Tank Girl)
Online version of the Deadline strip Sadist
1988 comics debuts Adult comics British underground comics Comics magazines published in the United Kingdom Magazines established in 1988 Magazines disestablished in 1995 Defunct magazines published in the United Kingdom English-language magazines {{UK-comics-stub