THE publishers of adult comic Viz have arrested its sales slump by increasing the number of issues from six to ten per year.

The cartoon magazine, founded in Newcastle, briefly peaked above a million copies sold per edition in its heyday in the late 1980s, but last year recorded an audited circulation of 150,270 per copy.

Despite this being lower than the previous year's figure of 178,745 per issue, the firm's publishers I Feel Good (IFG) said that annual sales were up more than 440,000 and advertising revenues rose by 66 per cent.

Traditionally, the comic has appeared once every two months with the occasional special edition and Christmas annuals.

The publishers took the decision to switch to ten issues a year, backed by annuals and the latest editions of books such as Profanisaurus, which has held a top-ten position in the hardback sales chart since its launch last September.

Inflating the number of issues each year has seen comic sales jump from just over one million in 2001 to more than 1 million last year.

Subscriptions to the comic have also increased. Pre- orders have passed 10,000, compared with 6,000 when IFG took over publication of Viz.

The group is hoping to grow that to 15,000 by the end of this year.

Publisher Will Watt told The Northern Echo: "Revenues, copy sales and advertising is all up, which is absolutely brilliant."

The comic will celebrate its 25th anniversary next year and largely retains the same format, but has made a conscious decision to feature more professional advertising that encourages readers to buy products.

Simon Donald, Viz co-founder, said: "What pleases me the most is seeing someone sitting on the train reading Viz and laughing at it."

Other aspects of business for IFG have not been so good, as it was forced to admit its flagship men's title Jack had failed to meet its monthly sales targets.

The magazine group, run by former Loaded editor James Brown, achieved acclaim and said that advertising revenues had continued to grow in a difficult market, but Jack has yet to hit the heights expected.

IFG, which is listed on the AIM market for junior companies, also publishes Bizarre and Fortean Times.

Bizarre magazine was the group's strongest performer with UK sales increasing 16 per cent and advertising up 15 per cent.

Bottom line pre-tax losses were £750,000 compared with £1.4m in 2001. Sales were up 90 per cent to £8m from £4.2m the previous year.