Chris Donald

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 failed his A-levels. His Arts teacher John Dixon, who Donald recalls as never being present during art lessons, claims to have seen the original draft Viz cartoon drawings and advised Chris "to give it up, and find a proper job!" The forerunner of Viz was in fact a series of small comic booklets, titled "The Fat Crusader", drawn on the back of Esso Blue invoice pads and secretly circulated around classrooms at Heaton School – first amongst pupils, and later penetrating the staff room – between 1976 and 1978. In October 1978, having failed to achieve sufficient qualifications to continue his "education", Donald began work as a clerical officer at the DHSS central office in Longbenton, Newcastle.