The Inside Story of Viz: Rude Kids. Chris Donald

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      Contents

       Cover

       Title Page

Praise

Dedication

Introduction

1 The Beginning of Things

2 The Gosforth

3 Ghost Town

4 Celibacy and Drugs and Rock’n’Roll

5 Lunch in the Penthouse Suite

6 Four-Letter Comic on Public Cash

       7 Onward Virgin Soldiers

       8 The Fizzing of the Blue Touch Paper

       9 A Ton of Money

       10 An Inspector Calls

       11 The TV Comedy of the Nineties

       12 Chocolates? Maltesers

       13 A Night at the Welsh BAFTAs

       14 If It Ain’t Broke. . .

       15 Pftt! Pftt! Pftt!

       16 The Rabbit Hunter

       17 Honk if You’ve Shagged Catherine Zeta-Jones

       18 A Tale of Two Parties

       19 A Minor Problem with Our Reservations

       20 Me 1, Martin Peters 0

       21 You Can’t Tie an Ice Cube to Your Beard

       22 Funnier than Petrol

       23 The Case of the Flying Bin Liner

       24 The Leaving of Fulchester

       25 The End

       Appendix of Viz Cartoons

       About the Author

       Copyright

       About the Publisher

Praise

      ‘Chris Donald has written a brilliant book . . . an enthralling story . . . and as you’d expect from the creator of Billy the Fish and Roger Mellie, it’s also extremely funny.’

       The Guardian – The Guide

      ‘If you haven’t read Chris Donald’s excellent book about that excellent magazine, get your copy now while stocks last.’

       Evening Standard

      ‘Donald is lucid and engaging, and he’s affably disrespectful to the celebrities he meets when his life turns (relatively) showbiz.’

       Q Magazine

      ‘The inside track on the why, who, how and what for of Britain’s greatest publishing phenomenon’

       Loaded

      ‘a very good read’

       New Statesman

      ‘Clunky’

       Time Out

Dedication

       Dedicated to the memory of my mum, Kay, who would not have approved.

       Also to my dad, Jimmy, and my wife, Dolores.

       Oh, and ‘hi’ to my kids. Hi kids.

Introduction

      Way back in 1992 Viz publisher John Brown suggested I write a blockbuster book telling the story of our magazine. And what a remarkable story it would be. In the space of a few years the tatty rag I’d started from my Newcastle bedroom, with a print run of 150, had grown to become the third best-selling magazine in Britain, with an astonishing circulation of 1.2 million, outselling Woman’s Own, Cosmopolitan and Hello! Only the Radio Times and TV Times sold more copies. Viz was a publishing phenomenon, revolutionizing the magazine market and making household names of Biffa Bacon, Johnny Fartpants and Buster Gonad. Its social effects had been dramatic too, launching words like ‘oo-er!’ ‘hatstand’ and ‘hairy pie’ into the national vocabulary, and paving the way for the great 1990s chauvinism revival through politically incorrect stereotypes like Sid the Sexist and the Fat Slags. Viz СКАЧАТЬ