New travel posters extol the merits of ‘Veralanda’ and Longbenton
Chris Donald, Viz founding editor and one-time teenage trainspotter, has put his own contemporary spin on the railway posters that always strike a nostalgic chord with fans of the great age of steam.
It’s a comic spin, as you might expect.
Northumberland is promoted as ‘Veralanda’, in homage to crime-busting Vera of page and screen, while ‘Tynemooth’ is depicted in Edwardian splendour but with a bloke in a hoodie, lasses eating chips and a dog relieving itself.
It is to be hoped residents of the popular seaside village share Chris’s sense of humour.
Then there’s an exciting new addition to the region’s list of tourist destinations – Longbenton.
“I worked at the DHSS (Department of Health and Social Security until it was split up in 1988) for a while, so I thought a holiday at The Ministry would be an idea, in the style of a Butlin’s poster,” says Chris, explaining his elegant Longbenton poster with its ecstatic smiling people.
“Mess about at Morpeth,” suggests another, while a brightly coloured poster for upmarket Darras Hall urges: “Please don’t come.”
Viz, conceived in a Jesmond bedroom, took Britain by storm in the 1980s and rose to be the UK’s third bestselling magazine.
Chris, now 63, retired from that particular calling 25 years ago and has since tried his hand as a radio presenter and a sales assistant in a bookshop, while avoiding a return to his roots as illustrator and graphic designer.
He says of this latest burst of comic creativity: “I’ve not touched a brush or pen, to be honest. Or a pencil sharpener.
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“It’s all done on screen but computers enable me to create artwork in a variety of styles and achieve results I was never capable of in real life.”
Fans will be pleased to know that real life still has room for Chris and his humour and his posters are to go on display at the Globe Gallery which recently reopened in North Shields.
Trains and railways have always fascinated Chris who once actually lived in a station, though long after the line had closed. He has always admired the posters, too.
“From Victorian times right through to the 1960s, the railways commissioned beautiful, iconic posters from top illustrators and artists to promote their services and holiday destinations,” he says.
“The originals are very sought after now, so I decided to create my own versions.
“I just started doing them for fun, then got a bit carried away. I hope people find them entertaining.”
Chris's reimagined railway posters, under the title Jolly Days, will be shown alongside Blank Canvas, described by Globe Gallery founder Rashida Davison as “a daring new street art exhibition”.
The white walls of the gallery have been handed over to street artists Mark One87, Toby Heaps and Cack Handed Kid.
Each artist, says Rashida, has been given the creative freedom to transform the gallery walls, bringing “the raw, unfiltered energy of street art directly into the gallery space”.
Signed prints will be available to buy from all three artists, as will those special travel posters by Chris Donald who has supported Globe Gallery since its inception nearly 30 years ago.
A special opening event will take place at the gallery, at 97 Howard Street, North Shields, on Thursday, November 14 from 6pm to 9pm.
The Globe Gallery is open Thursday to Saturday, 11am to 5pm, and on Sundays from 12 noon to 4pm.