Apocalypse

Apocalypse Ltd was an imprint of a Publisher called Neptune Distribution that had initially been created to compete with Titan's importation and distribution of US comics to UK comic book stores.

Apocalypse was set up by Pat Mills, John Wagner, Alan Grant and Kevin O'Neil to make an outlet for creator-owned comics, and by Geoff Fry of Neptune Distribution in an effort to create a competitor to 2000AD, a comic that was at this stage heavily tied to Neptune's main competitor, Titan Publishing.

Apocalypse started out by releasing a new Marshal Law one-shot from Pat Mills and Kevin O'Neil named Kingdom of the Blind. Marshal Law was a creator-owned character who had already achieved some success with Marvel's mature imprint "Epic Comics". Apocalypse then began releasing their main Weekly comic which they named Toxic!, the first full colour weekly to be published in the United Kingdom.

Toxic! had many problems from the outset. Many of the creators had difficulty getting their work completed on time, with the starring character Marshal Law often being delayed (reportedly Pat Mills and Kevin O'Neil had advised Geoff Fry to release Toxic! later in the year so that they could build up inventory as O'Neil was known to be a slow and meticulous artist, but this had been ignored). Gaps were filled with the material left over from Neptune's other Comic book endeavor, Trident Comics.

John Wagner became disillusioned by the project after some of his submissions were refused (notably Button Man and Al's Baby), saying "It seemed my style, the way I write was deemed un-Toxic". He soon shifted his interest back to 2000AD. Later other creator's also left due to not being paid on time, sales were dropping and Apocalypse's parent company, Neptune Distribution itself was going through upheaval, with many important people leaving and new issues arising with its distribution business.

Apocalypse Ltd went out of business in 1992. Some of its characters were taken on by other companies, with Accident Man and Sex Warrior going to Dark Horse, and Button Man and Al's Baby ending up finally seeing publication in 2000AD and the Judge Dredd Megazine.