After a strong start and an alarming dip sales of
Fleetway Publications' mature reader anthology
Crisis had levelled out at a reasonable level. The title's editor
Steve MacManus was also made group editor for the newly defined '2000 AD' group, consisting of the fortnightly
Crisis and the long-running
science fiction weekly
2000 AD, as well as any spin-offs.
Revolver had initially been conceived as a high-quality export title to run alongside
Crisis some two years earlier, but internal upheaval had seen the book delayed repeatedly. However, Fleetway scored a major hit by licensing a
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles weekly just as the franchise hit critical mass, and MacManus was finally given the greenlight to make monthly companion titles for
Crisis and
2000 AD (the latter becoming
Judge Dredd Megazine) by managing director John Davidge. MacManus picked
Peter Hogan, who had primarily been involved in the music industry working for the likes of Rough Trade and IRS Records as well as music magazines, feeling he would have "his finger on the pulse". For his assistant Hogan recruited
Frank Wynne, an Irishman with a vast knowledge of European comics and was known to Michael Bennent, who was in turn being groomed to take over as editor of
Crisis. An unsuccessful applicant for the assistant editor of
Revolver was
David Bishop, who nevertheless impressed MacManus and would later become editor of
Judge Dredd Megazine 1991-1992, and
2000 AD itself from 1995-2000. With his design work for
Crisis having received a positive response,
Rian Hughes was assigned to style
Revolver. The name was chosen to emphasise the diverse content of the comic and in reference to the name of the acclaimed
Beatles album. The format was settled on as 52 pages, in full colour. Unlike the political bent of
Crisis, MacManus decided
Revolver would have a more eclectic mix of genres more in line with the
IPC Magazines anthologies he had begun working on, but aimed at an older readership. He began assembling stories for the comic, with the same improved creator benefits as used for
Crisis. A
Jimi Hendrix biography by music journalist
Charles Shaar Murray (based on his book
Crosstown Traffic) had been in the offing since the beginning, and was greenlit with
Floyd Hughes (who had contributed some work to
Crisis) as artist, aided by the so-called
Second Summer of Love giving a major spike in interest in
psychedelia.
Grant Morrison, well known to MacManus from his work on
2000 AD and on good terms with MacManus after he stepped in to publish the controversial "
The New Adventures of Hitler" after its original publication
Cut folded, approached Fleetway with a plan for a revisionist take on
Dan Dare; with the 40th anniversary of the character's debut in
Eagle approaching, Morrison began working on the story with Hughes as artist. Hogan commissioned another psychedelic-influenced strip in the form of "Rogan Gosh" from
Peter Milligan and
Brendan McCarthy and "Happenstance and Kismet" from
Marvel UK veterans
Paul Neary and
Steve Parkhouse, as well as recruiting
Shaky Kane and Julie Hollings from
Deadline to create "Pinhead Nation" and "Dire Streets" respectively. The final strip in each issue would be a rotating one-off, a format used by MacManus with some success in the pages of
Crisis. ==Publishing history==