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. letters, "vi", followed by the last two, "et", using the z-shaped Tironian "et", historically written ⁊, a common contraction for "et" in Latin shorthand in Ancient Rome and medieval Europe. "Viz." is an abbreviation of "videlicet", which itself is a contraction from Latin of "videre licet" meaning "it is permitted to see". The spelling "viz." is the continuation of an abbreviation using Tironian "et" ("vi⁊"), the "z" replacing the "⁊" once the latter had fallen out of common use. In contradistinction to i.e. and e.g., viz. is used to indicate a detailed description of something stated before, and when it