Apocalypse Ltd was a short-lived publishing company formed out of an alliance of

Pat Mills Patrick Eamon Mills (born 1949) is an English comics writer and editor who, along with John Wagner, revitalised British boys comics in the 1970s, and has remained a leading light in British comics ever since. He has been called "the godfather o ...

John Wagner John Wagner (born 1949) is an American-born British comics writer. Alongside Pat Mills, he helped revitalise British comics in the 1970s, and continues to be active in the British comics industry, occasionally also working in American comics. ...

, Alan Grant and Kevin O'Neill. Apocalypse was an offshoot of

Neptune Distribution Neptune Distribution was a UK based comic distribution company founded and headquartered in Leicester, which existed from 1985 to 1991. Neptune Comics (as it was named at the outset), began as a small B2C mail order company selling American comi ...

, based in

South Wigston South Wigston is a large village to the south of Leicester, England. It is outside the city boundary, forming part of the Oadby and Wigston district of Leicestershire. The population of the ward rose slightly from 7,471 at the 2001 census to 7,4 ...

Leicester Leicester ( ) is a city status in the United Kingdom, city, Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority and the county town of Leicestershire in the East Midlands of England. It is the largest settlement in the East Midlands. The city l ...

. Apocalypse was meant to provide titles such as Mills and O'Neill's ''

Marshal Law ''Marshal Law'' is an English-language superhero comic book series created by Pat Mills and Kevin O'Neill. ''Marshal Law'' was first published by Epic Comics in 1987. The series is a satire on the superhero genre as well as a deconstruction of ...

'' (originally published by the

Marvel Comics Marvel Comics is an American comic book publishing, publisher and the flagship property of Marvel Entertainment, a divsion of The Walt Disney Company since September 1, 2009. Evolving from Timely Comics in 1939, ''Magazine Management/Atlas Co ...

imprint

Epic Comics Epic Comics (also known as the Epic Comics Group)Shooter, Jim. "Bullpen Bulletins: The Truth About the Epic Comics Group!" Marvel comics cover-dated November 1982. was an imprint of Marvel Comics from 1982 to 1996. A spin-off of the publisher's ...

) a way to avoid dealing with the big companies such as Marvel and

DC Comics DC Comics, Inc. (doing business as DC) is an American comic book publisher and the flagship unit of DC Entertainment, a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Discovery. DC Comics is one of the largest and oldest American comic book companies, with thei ...

. All of Apocalypse's titles were

creator-owned In the United States, creator ownership in comics is an arrangement in which the comic book creator retains full ownership of the material, regardless of whether the work is self-published or published by a corporate publisher. In some fields of ...

; the most notable title being the weekly comic ''

Toxic! ''Toxic!'' was a British comic that was published weekly from March 28 to October 24, 1991, by Apocalypse Ltd, with a total of 31 issues. History ''Toxic!'' was the idea of Pat Mills, Kevin O'Neill, Mike McMahon, John Wagner and Alan Grant. Th ...

''. Neptune also owned

Trident Comics Trident Comics was a comic book publishing company based in Leicester, UK, specialising in black and white comics created by new British talent. It was formed in 1989 as an offshoot of the comics distributor/wholesaler Neptune Distribution, ...

, which printed black-and-white comics by mainly new, unpublished creators.

History

The first title released by Apocalypse was a ''Marshal Law'' special titled ''Kingdom of the Blind'', published in October 1990. This was followed by the first issue of ''Toxic!'' in March 1991. ''Toxic!'' was initially popular, although some of the material proved controversial due to subject matter and portrayals of violence. This was not the only strip that suffered problems; ''Marshal Law'' began to miss issues, and some of the material replacing it proved not to be as popular. Some strips meant to be published by

were even used to provide filler material.Bishop, David (2007) ''

Thrill-Power Overload ''Thrill Power Overload'', or ''TPO'' is a book about the history of the British comic '' 2000 AD'' written by David Bishop, one of its editors. History The book started life as series of articles written by David Bishop and serialised in the ...

: The Official History of 2000 AD'' (Rebellion Developments, June 2007, ), pp. 142-143. This hurt the title as although it had sold well initially, sales were dropping and it became clear that there were problems with Apocalypse paying creators. These problems meant many creators, such as Mike McMahon, saw work published which they had not been paid for. Another title, ''Primal'', created by

Clive Barker Clive Barker (born 5 October 1952) is an English novelist, playwright, author, film director, and visual artist who came to prominence in the mid-1980s with a series of short stories, the ''Books of Blood'', which established him as a leading h ...

, was never published, although it did later appear via

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 known ...

, which also picked up several of ''Toxic!s other features. Apocalypse went bankrupt in late 1991, leaving many creators unpaid; some of these people never worked in comics again.

Titles

*''Apocalypse Presents'' (8 issues) #''Marshal Law: Kingdom of the Blind'' (October 1990) s ''Toxic! Presents''#''Marshal Law Takes Manhattan'' (March 1991) #''Accident Man'' (June 1991) #''Bogie Man'' (July 1991) #''Accident Man: The Death Touch'' (August 1991) #''Bogie Man: The Manhattan Project'' (September 1991) #''Makabre'' (October 1991) #''Sex Warrior'' (November 1991) *''Marshal Law: Hateful Dead'' (1 issue, 1991) — Reprints stories from ''Toxic!'' #1-8 *''

'' (31 issues, March 28–October 24, 1991)

Notes

References

* Comic book publishing companies of the United Kingdom Neptune Distribution Defunct comics and manga publishing companies Publishing companies established in 1990 1990 establishments in the United Kingdom 1991 disestablishments in the United Kingdom {{comics-company-stub