The excellent copy of Viz #2 issued in April 1980 sold for £1400 (plus 20% buyer’s premium) at the auction on July 13.
All of the first half a dozen issues of the adult-themed comic are rarities – each penned by teenager Chris Donald from his bedroom in his parents’ Jesmond home with help from his brother Simon and friend Jim Brownlow.
Produced in a run of 150 copies on a photocopier, the first issue sold out within hours when offered for sale in December 1979 at The Gosforth Hotel, a favourite venue for punk music gigs. It was priced ‘at 20p or 30p to students’.
Well-preserved copies of that very first issue (two further printings were made of 250 copies each) have tipped £1000 each, but the second, third and fourth issues are equally desirable.
Anderson & Garland sold a copy of Viz #4, dated October 1980, for £900 in 2016. After a few years of steady sales, mostly in the north-east, the production of
Viz moved to a nearby office when circulation grew to around 5000. By 1989 sales had reached 1m.
