Paradax first appeared in the three issues of Strange Days (1984-1985) and to date is the Milligan/McCarthy team's only venture into the genre of superheroes. Paradax's not so secret identy is Al Cooper, a New York taxi driver who find a strange costume that gives the wearer the power to phase through solid objects. Instead of trying to save mankind with his new found powers Al realises that this is his chance for the fast track to celebitiy status. Two years after Strange days, Al Cooper got his own two issue spin-off tilte, Paradax

Brendan McCarthy: "Some characters that I have done, have been quite clinically worked out, in the sense that I have sat down and said 'I want to do something that makes this point…' Like I want to do a strip which is going to make the point I want to make, and as much of a point in terms of the writing, the point that must be made as well as the design of the character i.e. what the character looks like. So a strip like Paradax, that character I sat down and worked him out. I basically went through the things I thought would be the right things for him to be. Aspects of the Flash, the hair cut, the notion of wearing a costume, realising that he would look like a complete moron walking down the road and putting your clothes back over it gain."

"Those sorts of things were thought out, and Paradax was developed over a series of drawings of about a month. I thought AI Cooper was a very strong personality in his own right. The main thing about him we tried to create was the fact that he was a cross secton of any young dude you'd pull of the street and say 'Be a hero'. You know damn well it's not going to happen, AI Cooper is a Y0B. Yob's aren't seen enough in comics as lead characters. To me the yobbish hero is the epitome of the 'hero' that's NEEDED in comics. All the other characters who are superheroes are either straight and cliched or they just exist as 'literary' ideas and not as figures who are extracted out of the life around us. Paradax is in a sense the James Dean of comics... the persona of the character is plotted to occupy similar space. It seems to me inevitable that Paradax will have to die young, in order to fulfil the requirements that the particular myth demands. He will no doubt, leave a good looking corpse."

"AIthough there is a nod to Kid Flash in how he looks, the rest af the outfit and the whole shape of the character pointed into new directions. Torn jeans, red zippers, T-Shirt over costume and agiant blue quiff ridiculed the conventions, but still managed to look good and tasty, and perserved and added to the tradition. Personally I have nothing more ta add to the 'debate' on what the superhero is meant to be.. or not to be for that matter. If Iever did another superhero type of character, I think I would just forget all the self-conscious bullshit surrounding the genre... l'm quite capable of taking the super- hero as it stands and just enjoying it... l like a good superhero comic as much as the next man, provided it is done with taste and originalty."

After Paradax's debut in Strange Days he then appeared in his own comic, 'Paradax' (1987) which ran for two issues. As well as the Paradax story 'The Insane People' issue one also featured two other stories, 'Roaring Rantin's' a Freakwave spin-off staring Captain Roaring, Rudcliff and Williams, and finally "Mirkin the Mystic". Issue two was titled "The Remix" issue and reprinted the Paradax material from Strange Days but recoloured in a more psychedelic palette.

Brendan McCarthy: "I really put my greatest effort into making sure that the Paradax comic was going to look amazing. It's a great personal favourite of mine. Paradax 1 and Strange Days 2 I think are some of my best works. I still really enjoy the 3 eight page strips format, it allows for a greater variety of mood and ideas. I've always thought that way of doing a comic reminded me of say, a Smiths 12" single. It's got the main commercial track (Paradax to help sell it) and then two others that are just as good, but not so commercial (Rudcliff and Williams, and Mirkin). I thought that there was a very good light and vivid buzz to the comic, and it was a bright, cheerful and very funny antidote to the humourless seriousness of the 'Big Issue' comic prevelant at the time. The Paradax story in that issue was meant to be like a fast throwaway thrash...just a sharp, fast story; a well~raffed romp that blew along at a really fast pace. I'm still very fond of some of the villains in that strip, particularly Dr Sex and Jack Empty...l thought they were really well designed, really quite inspired. Rudcliff and Williams was an anarchic nod at those old British double acts, based loosely on Arthur Lowe and John Le Mesurier... and it was nice to see old Captain Roaring back, doing his impression of the terminally demented."