‘There were complaints that The Fat Slags stereotyped
Women as sex objects – but they were using their sexuality to get what they wanted, so it was quite the opposite’
Simon Donald, co-creatorWe grew up without a TV. Our house faced a railway line and my brother Chris made
Friends with a boy called Jim Brownlow through a shared love of trainspotting. One day, Jim brought this unspeakably foul record around: Derek and Clive. It was full of swearing. The idea that you could sell such vulgarity was stunning.
Jim also introduced us to adult comics like Fat Freddy’s Cat and The Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers, which inspired Chris to start drawing little cartoons, such as an inept superhero called The Fat Crusader on our dad’s spare invoice pads, to pass around at school. Jim and Chris then created The Daily Pie, which was lots of little comic strips on one page of A4, and Arnold the Magazine, which we sold for 2p – the price of a photocopy – at pubs and youth clubs to amuse our friends.