CLASS OF 2026

Simon and Chris Donald

SIMON & CHRIS DONALD

In 1979, Chris Donald, his younger brother Simon and their friend Jim Brownlow made 150 copies of a comic in Newcastle and sold them at a punk gig.

This was Viz.

The first issue cost £42.52 to print, sold for 20p a copy and lost money. Strong start.

What followed was one of the great stories in British comedy and publishing. Viz grew from something assembled by mates in Newcastle into a national phenomenon. By 1991 it was selling around 1.2 million copies an issue, while remaining proudly crude, fiercely independent and unmistakably rooted in the humour that created it.

Chris was the driving editorial force for much of Viz's rise. Simon, who was only 15 when the first issue appeared, became one of its defining writers and artists. Between them and the wider Viz team came characters, strips, jokes and phrases that escaped the pages and became part of British culture.

Plenty of things have been described as having a distinctive North East sense of humour. Viz actually exported one.

The Donald brothers didn't wait for the national comedy establishment to discover Newcastle. They made something here, made it their way, and eventually the rest of the country came looking for it.

That's exactly the sort of behaviour this Hall is for.