Toxic! - Notable Stories

Notable Stories

• Marshal Law, these were new adventures of Mills and O'Neill's superhero-hunter, previously published by Marvel Comics' Epic imprint. This was the most consistently popular story but suffered from missing issues and ending abruptly during a storyline. The story was eventually completed and published by Dark Horse.

• Accident Man, an assassin who makes his hits look like accidents, written by Mills and Tony Skinner and drawn initially by Martin Emond, later by Duke Mighten and John Erasmus. This also ended up at Dark Horse and was optioned to be made into a film in 1997. It remains unmade.

• Muto-Maniac, a science fiction series about a man who attracts bad luck, by Mills and McMahon. This story was uncompleted.

• The Bogie Man, Wagner and Grant's delusional Glaswegian would-be Bogart, drawn by Robin Smith and Cam Kennedy. Both of the stories which ran in Toxic! were completed at Atomeka Press. The Chinese Syndrome was also renamed Chinatoon at Atomeka. A television film version was shown in 1992, starring Robbie Coltrane.

• Makabre, a religious vigilante of the future, by Alan Grant and Enrique Alcatena. This story was uncompleted.

• Sex Warrior, by Mills, Skinner and Will Simpson, a war in which sexual energy is used as a weapon, satirising the concept that "old people make wars... young people fight them". The story was revamped for a two issue mini series published by Dark Horse.

• Brats Bizarre, a team of decadent superheroes, by Mills, Skinner and Duke Mighten. This story was uncompleted.

• The Driver, A man known only as The Driver drives a five mile-long truck full of toxic and industrial waste (including wreckage from the Challenger Shuttle disaster) through the middle of middle America only to fly tip it into Meteor Crater, Arizona, in the process he uses a small town as a brake. It was a strip that was either loved or hated by the readers but which still garnished much kudos. On the back of the Driver, Banx and Leach were commissioned by Marvel US to write and draw Toxic Crusaders both for the regular title and then for an aborted 4 issue mini series. The Driver himself featured in the following years comic convention UKCAC logo.

• The Dinner Ladies From Hell by David Leach. In the vein of The Omen and To the Devil a Daughter crossed with Ripping Yarns. In a nutshell, the wives of the Four Riders of the Apocalypse have six days, six hours and six minutes to corrupt seven children with the deadly sins and only one man and God's cook book stand in their way.

• Detritus Rex Written and drawn by Banx and coloured by Leach. This bizarre and twisted post-ecological-apocalypse tale was uncompleted.