Viz (comics) and Christina Martin. Many "Viz" characters have featured in long-running strips, becoming well-known in their own right, including spin-off cartoons. Characters often have rhyming or humorous taglines, such as Roger Mellie, the Man on the Telly; Nobby's Piles; Johnny Fartpants; Buster Gonad; Sid the Sexist; Sweary Mary or Finbarr Saunders and his Double Entendres. Others are based on stereotypes of British culture, mostly via working class characters, such as Biffa Bacon, Cockney Wanker and The Fat Slags. In addition to this, the comic also contains plenty of 'in jokes' referring to people and places in and around Newcastle upon Tyne.
Viz (comics) Jocks and The Geordies", a revival of an old strip from "The Dandy", in which the Geordies (clearly representing "Viz") competed with the Jocks (clearly representing Thomson) in a competition to design funny cartoon characters. The Geordies' miserable efforts bore sharp similarity to actual "Viz" characters, such as 'The Boy with Big Pants' which was a reference to Felix and his Amazing Underpants. (Chris Donald's book "Rude Kids: The Inside Story of Viz", notes the good-humoured nature of the latter stages of this episode). Sports clothing manufacturer Kappa insisted that the comic drop the name of one of its characters,