Roger Melly will be getting his **** Chris Donald poster signed. Will you?
Chris Donald, brother Simon and one-time Viz colleague Davey Jones “will be happy to ruin your books, comics and anything else you ask them to draw on”.
That’s the enticing offer from the Globe Gallery in North Shields where the trio will be present between 2pm and 3pm on Sunday (December 15) for what is more conventionally known as a signing session.
The occasion is Chris’s exhibition of North East-themed spoof railway posters which is running at the gallery under the heading Jolly Days and has just spawned an offshoot on the bridge linking the platforms at Tynemouth Station, known as the Bridge Gallery.
Chris was on the bridge himself this week to admire a selection of his jolly – and jolly mischievous – posters in their natural railway habitat. The one-time trainspotter admitted to a frisson of excitement seeing them in this location.
On Chris’s poster sending up the appeal of this particular holiday hotspot, Tynemouth becomes ‘Tynemooth’ and the elegant flapper types in the original, genuine poster are replaced by modern lasses scoffing chips while ravening seagulls hover overhead.
A small dog relieves itself up against their well-appointed bench and the original poster’s smartly dressed young man has become a chap with a hoodie and a wine bottle.
The Bridge Gallery prints were working their magic this week, with plenty of Metro passengers stopping to look.
But to find out the stories behind them, which is to get a glimpse of the inner workings of the mind that gave us Viz, or to buy prints (in various sizes, framed or unframed), you will have to go to the Globe Gallery on the corner of Howard Street and Saville Street in North Shields.
Visit during that golden hour on Sunday afternoon and you can get a poster with Chris’s signature.
Read more: Christmas spooks and sparkles at Star and Shadow Cinema
While there, you will also see brilliant work by North East street artists Toby Heaps, Mark One 87 and Cack Handed Kid whose ‘fish finger’ signposts point the way.
These three will also be on hand on Sunday to talk about their work, exhibited under the heading Blank Canvas and looking spectacular in the pristine white gallery which definitely isn’t their natural habitat.
Details about normal gallery opening times and its various attractions can be found on the Globe Gallery website.
Meanwhile, keep your eye on Cultured. North East for an interview with Chris Donald in which he recalls his day at ‘The Ministry’ in Longbenton, subject of one of his least likely spoof holiday posters.