Chris Donald

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Chris Donald, born 25 April 1960 in Newcastle, England, is the founder of Viz, a popular British comic magazine. As a student, he helped create an underground comic called The Fat Crusader that circulated secretly at his school in the late 1970s. In 1979, with his brother Simon and friend Jim Brownlow, he started Viz from a bedroom in Newcastle. He was Viz’s editor for many years, retiring from day-to-day work in 1999, and later wrote a book about Viz called Rude Kids. He has cited Spike Milligan and Monty Python as major influences on Viz. Beyond comics, he briefly ran a restaurant in Northumberland from 1994 to 1997, then worked at Barter Books in Alnwick from 2002 to 2008, and was involved in local activities like the Belford & District Pool League and the Powburn Agricultural Show. In 2016 he began hosting a weekly soul music show on BBC Radio Newcastle and BBC Radio Tees, Chris Donald’s Soul Club, which paused during the pandemic in 2020. Since late 2020 he has hosted Chris Donald’s Imaginary Soul Club on Nova Radio North East.