Viz comic auctioned for 950 pounds
Published December 1st, 2007
A rare first edition of adult comic Viz has fetched £950, after being auctioned in the city where it was created.
The mint-condition “number one” edition from December 1979 had a guide price of £350-£400, and is one of only about 500 printed.
But it went for double its estimate under the hammer at Anderson & Garland auctioneers in Newcastle.
The comic was the brainchild of Chris Donald, who set it up in bedroom as a teenager living with his parents.
Originally photocopied and distributed among the then teenager’s friends, it reached one million sales by 1989.
Characters immortalised by the publication include Roger Mellie, Sid the Sexist and the Fat Slags.
The first edition comic was sold to a collector in the south of England with connections to the North East on Wednesday, a spokesman at the auctioneers confirmed.
Spokesman John Anderson said: “What makes this copy even rarer is that there were two printings of the first edition, but the second run has a crucial difference.
“They were giving a free ice cream with the issue, which turns out just to be a picture of an ice-cream stapled inside the cover.
“On the first printing it’s in red and on the second it’s black and white.”
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