Zit Issue 1
First numbered issue · February 1991 nominal date · Humour Publications UK · 95p · ISSN 0961-3439
February 1991 (nominal issue date; circulating by 31 January 1991)
The first numbered regular issue of Zit, the British adult humour comic launched by Humour Publications UK in early 1991 after a separate free sample issue in January. Issue 1 captures the immediate post-Viz boom in crude, topical adult comics, mixing parody characters, celebrity references and current-affairs satire; its front cover foregrounds Saddam Hussein / “Madass Hussein,” Salman Rushdie and Julian Clary, while the rear carries Will Kevans’s “Madass Hussein” strip.
Read the catalogue note →- Issue
- Issue 1 · February 1991 nominal date · first numbered regular issue
- Publisher
- Humour Publications UK Ltd.
- State
- Raw · British monthly adult humour comic · 95p cover price
- Condition
- Very Good appearance from the supplied front and rear cover views.
- Completeness
- Not fully verified. Front and rear covers are present, but no interior views or page-by-page collation were supplied. No standard free gift, insert or detachable premium for the regular Issue 1 was established in research; that absence of documentation is not treated as proof of full interior completeness.
- Rarity
- Not assessed
Catalogue note
The first numbered regular issue of Zit, the British adult humour comic launched by Humour Publications UK in early 1991 after a separate free sample issue in January. Issue 1 captures the immediate post-Viz boom in crude, topical adult comics, mixing parody characters, celebrity references and current-affairs satire; its front cover foregrounds Saddam Hussein / “Madass Hussein,” Salman Rushdie and Julian Clary, while the rear carries Will Kevans’s “Madass Hussein” strip. Zit ultimately ran for 143 numbered issues into 2002, making this launch issue a useful material record of a durable but comparatively under-documented branch of early-1990s British popular and comic culture.
Artist: Will Kevans — “Madass Hussein” rear-cover strip
Cover: Cover artist not identified from supplied evidence
Edition: Original 1991 first numbered issue attribution; preceded by a distinct free sample issue in January 1991. No separately documented later reprint or facsimile of Issue 1 was located in the printing-history check as of 9 September 2026.
Why this object matters
The first numbered Zit issue documents the post-Viz adult-humour boom and its topical 1991 political and celebrity vocabulary. Its launch status and relationship to a sustained publication make it outstanding supporting evidence, while the earlier free sample remains bibliographically distinct.
Evidence limits: Not fully verified. Front and rear covers are present, but no interior views or page-by-page collation were supplied. No standard free gift, insert or detachable premium for the regular Issue 1 was established in research; that absence of documentation is not treated as proof of full interior completeness.
Score and assessment method
Archive Importance: 8.8 / 10.
This is a curatorial judgement, not a measurement accurate to one tenth or a market valuation. Read the explanation and its evidence limits together.
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