Time to celebrate: Egmont UK’s long-running comic magazine TOXIC hits 300

TOXIC Issue 300 - Bagged

Buried inside a gaudy plastic bag on British newsstands right now is TOXIC Issue 300, but no-one seems to have noticed the landmark except some of its creative team – and Phil Boyce over at the Oink! blog, who posted a celebratory article…

Rather than hanging our heads in complete shame at forgetting to plug this special event, we asked nicely and Phil let us cross post his feature…

You may have seen TOXIC out on the newsagents comics shelves yourself, which has just reached its landmark 300th Issue.

It comes bagged up with various chunky gifts inside, with no way of seeing what the actual reading content is and so, if you’ve been looking for a comic or magazine for your kids, you may have passed it by.

But you should really head back to the shop and take that leap of faith. Cast into the toxic swap, your children could really thank you for it.

TOXIC Issue 300. Image courtesy Lew Stringer

TOXIC Issue 300. Image courtesy Lew Stringer

The fact TOXIC has now made it to its 300th issue should be proof enough of its quality and success with the young ‘uns. It’s extremely rare for any British kids periodical to make it anywhere near that number of issues (the still ongoing Thomas & Friends being one notable exceptions, but purely because I was there when it all began, 742 issues ago at the time of writing).

So it’s all the more disappointing to see publishers Egmont completely ignore this fact. Unless Lew Stringer had marked the occasion in his “Team Toxic” strip for the title I’d have missed it to, and obviously that’s the whole reason TOXIC has appeared on my Oink! blog for the first time.

A panel from “Team Toxic” for TOXIC Issue 300, written and drawn by Lew Stringer. The strip has appeared in every issue.

A panel from “Team Toxic” for TOXIC Issue 300, written and drawn by Lew Stringer. The strip has appeared in every issue.

Lew’s strip, drawn for the first 15 issues by John Rushby, has been going since the premiere issue, which is a marvellous achievement (a small amount have been reprints, but still).

Lew himself has written an in-depth look at this 300th issue and what you can find inside the tightly sealed pages on his Blimey! comics blog.

It’s a good indicator of the reading material, this issue focussing on superheroes and Star Wars by the looks of it, which is fair enough as that’s what the majority of children will be clamouring for anyway.

Plus there’s more comic strip fun in the shape of Russ Carvells “Captain Gross” and fellow former Oink!-ster Steve McGarry and his “Ruined Ronaldo“.

Fun, irreverent and full of gross-out humour in the strips it sounds like perfect fodder for young wannabe pig pals!  It’s out every three weeks, which may sound like a strange schedule but it’s not uncommon. I remember taking out a joke subscription for one year to Spongebob Squarepants for a friend once several years ago and it was thrice-weekly too.

TOXIC is pretty much available everywhere and is a top seller so you shouldn’t have any difficulties in tracking it down, and Issue 300 is still on sale.

You can order TOXIC Issue 300 from the Newsstand website here – Issue 301 is on sale 7th February 2018

Article re-published with the full permission of Phil Boyce | Check out his terrific Oink! blog here

Thanks also to Lew Stringer

TOXIC, Team Toxic, Captain Gross and Ruined Ronaldo copyright Egmont UK



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