My work space

We're in old shipping insurance offices and they are very airy and spacious. We can see Newcastle Cathedral from the windows and we can hear the choir on Tuesdays - I once heard them counting out the collection into the bishop's hat.

"The only thing about our work space is that the heating is very bad. It goes on according to the calender and last month there was no heating so we bought woolly hats. It never really hits a pleasant temperature. We probably grow and shrink like wood."

Thorpy started working for Viz when the magazine was still being published from Chris Donald's childhood bedroom. "I used to sleep on the floor in Chris's flat and we used to go to Chris's parents' house to work. I don't think his dad knew what were doing up there.

"When we eventually moved into an office, it had proper phones and everything. Before, we'd always used Chris's mum and dad's phone. When we worked in the bedroom the comic was selling 20,000 copies but when we moved into the office the sales shot up to hundreds of thousands."

The office building is Fulchester Industries and their immediate neighbours are barristers. The Viz space has two main rooms. "We have a writing room with sofas in and we go in there and stare at the floor and mutter. We drink lots of tea and we're very big on Tunnock's tea cakes.

"You can't go to the pub because it doesn't work. It can make you laugh but then you want to sleep. We very rarely go to the pub at lunchtime - although our accountant has told us that we need to spend more on entertaining, so when we have a guest we take them to Pizza Express."

The second room has computers. The layouts are designed on computers, but Thorpy prefers old-fashioned methods. "You can buy drawing boards dead cheap now," he says. "I use dip nibs and bottles of ink. Daler-Rowney Kandahar drawing ink: it's velvety, like Indian ink, and I use a Gillot 303 nib. We're very scared that they'll stop making the nibs. They're horribly expensive: they cost a pound each and we buy them in boxes of 36. Nibs cost."

He admits that he uses more correction fluid than ink. "The nib digs in the board and splashes, then you've got to get the Tippex out. Paper bends when it's wet, so I've started using mounting board."

Visitors to Viz expect a zany atmosphere but they are usually disappointed. "It's very dull," says Thorpy. "We're very dull people." Nevertheless, he says that there is a lot of laughing. "And people shout things out and say things and hopefully you laugh when you're doing the cartoons."

He is the person responsible for the covers, although he says that the publishers would probably prefer a photo of Kylie.

Mrs Brady Old Lady is the character he enjoys drawing the most. "Well actually, I like drawing Mrs Brady's friend Dolly, who has blank spectacles."

His early influences include Shiver and Shake and Cor! "They always had free gifts. A lightweight plastic teaspoon with a hinge that bent when your parents took a spoon of sugar and realistic plastic chocolate biscuits to offer round."

At Viz, they don't do dress down Fridays. They don't do Fridays.

"We missed a Friday and we really liked it, so now we don't do Fridays. I might work from home on a Friday and I shuffle around in my slippers. I've got a room with a drawing board and a big stereo and several banjos. I listen to DAB radio: BBC6 Music. It's nice."

Working at Viz doesn't feel like work. "I've never had a proper job. I had one day's work at university moving bags of cement. In The Road to Wigan Pier they have to crawl to the coalface and that's proper work. Work is something that actually hurts. This doesn't hurt."

25 Years of Viz is published by Boxtree (?20) and Viz - The Anniversary Issue (Dennis Publishing) is on sale from October 28.