Rude Kids: The Unfeasible Story of Viz

by Chris Donald

This is the straight-talking, fascinating story of Viz magazine, founded in 1979 by Chris Donald - editor until 1999. Chris tells the remarkable story of the magazine, from the tatty rag produced in his Newcastle bedroom to becoming one of the bestselling magazines in the UK. Chris takes us from his train-spotting childhood in the '70s through to setting up the magazine with family and friends, and struggling to sell even a few copies of Viz in the local pub. The comic's success swiftly grew, however, and remarkable events ensued, such as how Chris was invited to tea by Prince Charles, taken in for questioning by New Scotland Yard's Anti-Terrorist Branch and caught his wife up to no good with Keith Richards in Peter Cook's attic. Chris will include many original drawings in this integrated book as well as some fascinating images of early Viz creations.

Genres: Nonfiction, Humor, Biography, Autobiography

228 pages, Hardcover

First published September 1, 2004

About the author

Chris Donald is the founder of, and one of the principal contributors to, the British comic magazine Viz. He attended West Jesmond Primary School, and then Heaton Comprehensive School, where he did not complete his A-levels, and in 1978 he began work as a clerical officer at the DHSS central office in Longbenton, Newcastle.

Chris, together with his brother Simon and a schoolfriend Jim Brownlow, set-up Viz in December 1979 from a bedroom in Newcastle. He was editor (or head of the "editorial cabinet") for many years but retired from day-to-day duties in 1999, and now only contributes occasional cartoons. He has since written a personal history of Viz magazine entitled Rude Kids.

Reviews

[Carrie Marshall · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating, funny and like any autobiography, a little bit whiny.

[Ray Smillie · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fascinating story about the rise and fall of Viz. Viz is still staggering along and I only buy the Christmas issue these days with the feeling it has it's moments. I first stumbled upon it in the mid 80s in a wee newsagents near Manchester Victoria Station and fell immediately in love with it.

Chris tells the story with wit and a few moans of how it all started to when he stepped down, working in a book shop at time time this was published (2004). He makes the point that the decline started as the original readers had moved on. Davey Jones work, as all the Viz artists agree with, was and is still the funniest cartoonist.

Worth checking out if you are a Viz fan whether recent or longstanding.

[George · Rating 4 out of 5]

Somehow I’m always surprised that people who write for a living can write*. This is a honest look at the rise & fall of Viz from a basic fanzine to the third biggest mag in Britain. And nearly back again. Chris Donald admits his own flaws (flogging off the Viz name to any old tat, not appreciating his fellow team) but seems to have come out of it happier, stepping away from the limelight he never wanted.



*Michael Palin was another one.

[Rob Rowley · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great read. Being a Geordie who grew up as a youngster when Viz first started out, this book was a wonderful trip down memory lane. Lots of great and interesting facts not only about the magazine but the people involved with it.

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

Totally hatstand !

[Jim · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this had been published in The Sunday Times on a Sunday morning and resolved to shell out twenty quid for the hardback edition that very afternoon. I was that sure it would be a good read, and the first chapters didn't disappoint as, on reflection, is usually the case in autobiographies for some reason. After about a hundred pages, however, the narrative had descended into pretty much a timeline of "we did this and our sales were that and then we introduced him and our sales went up" type thing. Increasingly, and more irritatingly, celebrities were thrown into the mix: sat next to Catherine Zeta Jones; met Peter Cook; worked with Jimmy Nail; saw John Leslie's (small) cock in the showers. Who cares? There was little introspection or self-analysis of where the bitter and angry mindset that had brought the comic to everyone's attention came from. It wasn't surprising to read toward the end that Donald was thrown into a serious depression as his creation began to fail. He does not come across at all as a likeable person and seems to be at his happiest slagging off someone else's misfortune while his own good fortune is beside the point and inconsequential. The whole book is a warning against living your dreams, concluding that the joy comes in trying to attain them. This is not a new thought, but the story of Viz as told by Chris Donald comes across as a testament to his belief that life, and most of the people in it, are shite, and that the best he could do with his was to try and point that out to people on a bi-monthly basis.

[Jack Griffin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Maybe it's my long time love of Viz, which I've been reading for twenty-two years now, that means I'd love anything put out by one of them but I found this book brilliant!! Laugh-out-loud funny in places, bit dry in others (Chris Donald gives away his train-spotter credentials by giving almost an issue by issue update of sales figures) but never less than entertaining. Read three quarters of it in one sitting, finished it next morning. Really was a can't-put-it-down type book for me. Best autobiography I've read in ages.

[Mark · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great read, following Donald from his boyhood, through the Viz days and beyond, this is a real treat for those of us who read the comic in the 80s. I didn't actually get it until it moved down from Newcastle and began appearing in newsagents (thanks for my friend Nick, who introduced me to it), but loved it. Haven't read it in years now, but "fnaar fnaar" is now part of my lexicon and I wouldn't change it. Nicely detailed, with sourness on how the business has moved on, this is well worth a read.

[Godzilla · Rating 3 out of 5]

As ever I was tempted to buy this on the spur of the moment.

I enjoyed the smutty humour when I was a student, but hadn't read a copy of Viz for over 10 years.

It was an interesting read, to discover how the comic grew so quickly, and how they held onto their beliefs, despite the large corporate desires for something else.

The writing smacks of someone who writes comics though, teh style faltering and it doesn't flow really well.

[Kieran Telo · Rating 3 out of 5]

Chris Donald is entertaining, and occasionally very funny, yet surprisingly conservative in many of his comments. The rise and (relative) fall of Viz is a story well told, and his honesty about the toll that cyclical ways of working eventually had on his own health is very much to his credit.... but on the whole this is never more than an average read.

[Dan · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fascinating story by an excellent writer -- you can see how his style was honed on Viz's fake ads and tabloid parodies. Also a bit of a bastard, if his brother Simon is telling the truth in "Him Off the Viz" (more informative about the family but less entertaining). I'm waiting impatiently for Chris' book about trainspotters, or whatever it was, that was supposed to be out about 10 years ago.

[Ian Fiddes · Rating 4 out of 5]

9/10. If you liked the (early) Viz comics then this is well recommended. Enjoyed this one a lot.