Trident Comics' aim was to provide
creator-owned opportunities for not just established talent such as
Neil Gaiman,
Eddie Campbell and
Grant Morrison, but new talent such as
Mark Millar,
Paul Grist and Dominic Regan. Trident Comics's main editor was Martin Skidmore, a British comics enthusiast who had been previously best known for editing the
fanzine Fantasy Advertiser, a title which Neptune/Trident agreed to continue publishing when Skidmore joined the company. The company's first release, in early 1989, was the
Trident Sampler,
Trident proved successful and was followed shortly afterward by
Saviour #1 by
Mark Millar and Daniel Vallely. This was Millar's first published work and again proved successful for Trident Comics. In 1989, Trident Comics also launched
The Saga of the Man-Elf (created by
Michael Moorcock) as well as
Fantasy Advertiser on a bi-monthly basis. However, this success was tempered by criticism of titles shipping late, something which began to affect its titles more and more. In 1990, Trident Comics released its best-known title, the collected and recoloured ''
St. Swithin's Day'' by Morrison and Grist. It proved controversial due to its subject matter, which had to do with a British teenager's fantasy about assassinating Prime Minister
Margaret Thatcher. Questions were asked about the comic in the
House of Commons, it quickly sold out, and it was one of the few titles Trident sent to a second printing. After this success, 1990 saw more titles such as
Paul Grist's
Burglar Bill,
Mark Millar and
Andrew Hope's,
The Shadowmen, and
Eddie Campbell and
Phil Elliott's
Lucifer. Many of these titles suffered from the late shipping which had been a problem previously with the company. This affected sales greatly as well as the reputation of Trident Comics. Another factor was Neptune's late 1990 formation of the imprint
Apocalypse Ltd (whose main title was the weekly
Toxic!). This expansion of the publishing line stretched all of Neptune's companies to their limit; as a result, Trident didn't publish anything after 1991. Eventually, in 1992
Neptune Distribution went bankrupt and was acquired by the American competitor
Diamond Comics Distributors, which spelled the end for both Trident and Apocalypse. Several Trident Comics titles did find new publishers, including ''
St. Swithin's Day (Dark Horse Comics) and Bacchus'' (multiple subsequent publishers), but many did not and remained unpublished. ==Titles==