Wednesday, April 05, 2006

MILK AND CHEESE'S OTHER NUMBER ONE Slave Labor Graphics, 1992



God, how I love Milk and Cheese.

The misanthropic spawn of cartoonist extraordinaire Evan Dorkin, Milk and Cheese are a pair of violent, gin-swilling dairy products gone bad who first appeared in short strips in various magazines.

This comic, Milk and Cheese’s Other Number One, is the second collection of strips published by Slave Labor Graphics. I’m unclear as to whether there’s any original material in this book or if it’s all reprint stuff – and by “unclear” I mean “too lazy to research.” Whatever – it was all new to me!

Basically, Milk and Cheese is a series of fairly short strips that allow Dorkin to channel his disgust/contempt for the banalities of Western culture through the title characters. Milk and Cheese rage and (often literally) attack against any target that presents itself, ranging from Star Wars geeks to political correctness to Renaissance Fairs to insipid TV programs to Evan Dorkin himself – all in their inimitable style.

Here the two tiny terrors lash out against idiots who have “funny” suggestions for the strip:



That’s pretty mild stuff, by Milk and Cheese standards. The strips usually end in orgies of violence wherein they stab people with broken gin bottles or push flaming baby carriages into traffic. And they’re so cute! Look at the cute little milk carton stabbing that hippy in the eyes! Awww…

One of the great things about these collected volumes of strips is that you can see how Dorkin evolves as a cartoonist. Milk and Cheese is incredibly dense – perhaps I should say “jam-packed.” Dorkin uses every inch of the page to maximum effect, jamming little jokes in the periphery of the page, often in tiny writing. You really feel like you’re getting your money’s worth. As time goes on, the strips become more graphically interesting – Dorkin incorporates different hand-written fonts, backgrounds, visual effects, and unconventional page design. There’s a reason Dorkin won an Eisner for humor comics – he’s got mad skillz, as the kids say.


Plus, Milk and Cheese is funny as hell. It’s a refreshingly mean-spirited yet playful departure from… from hell, just about any comic or cartoon out there. These strips have literally reduced me to tears.

I think you can still order these from Slave Labor, or you can buy the Fun with Milk and Cheese trade via Amazon or your local comic shop.

Do it now, thank me later.

28 comments:

Anonymous said...

MERV GRIFFIN!

DougBot said...

How I adore these dairy products gone bad.

I seem to recall that most of the Milk and Cheese issues were a mix of reprints and new material. At least I vaguely remember seeing one of their strips in a copy of Instant Piano.

Think of them whenever you drink a gin and tonic: "Gin makes a man mean! EVERYONE BOOZE UP AND RIOT!"

Angry Android said...

My friend & I love Evan Dorkin, but hate the Hulk movie

Anonymous said...

My only beef with Dorkin is that I read a ton of his stuff at once, got the jones for it real bad, and then had to wait forever for new material. I think the TV stuff he does pays the bills, but when, Lord, when with the new Milk and Cheese?
Word verification: gorfhat, which I'm pretty sure was a vomit sound effect in one issue.

David Campbell said...

That is brilliant, Android.

Anonymous said...

Seriously, the best tagline for a series ever, and the reason I bought the collection because I couldn't stop laughing when I read it: Milk and Cheese - Dairy Products Gone Bad.

Anonymous said...

One of my most prized possessions is my Milk and Cheese #1 first printing signed by Evan.

All of his stuff is brilliant, even the Bill & Ted comics. There is one comic I have only heard about through hearsay. I believe it's called "Everybody Hates Fight Man", and the basic premise is a basement-dwelling nerd that superglue's a mask to his face, goes out to fight crime, and proceeds to get his ass kicked by everybody in town. I so want to see this comic.

And an aside to Dave...
MERV GRIFFIN!!

David Campbell said...

I have that Fight Man comic! I'll have to post about that. There was only one issue - on the cover it says "Because one shot is all he needs!!!" or something like that. It was funnier than I'm making it sound.

Davecat said...

You have no idea how often my friends and I use the phrase 'We like gin! It makes a man mean!' You can use it practically anywhere, too!

Truly Evan Dorkin's finest hour. And his 'Dork!' series ain't too shabby, either.

Anonymous said...

I LOVE MILK AND CHEESE. THEY AMERICAS CONTRIBUTION TO CIVILIZATION.
I DO NOT SAY THIS BECAUSE THEY ARE HOLDING MY FAMILY HOSTAGE.

Anonymous said...

Milk and Cheese don't need your praise. Save it for some comic that needs it. Save it for some comic that's wondering whether or not people like it. Milk and Cheese are twin engines of dairy destruction and they would be happy to remind you of that. With extreme prejudice.

Evan Dorkin is one of my all-time favorite comics dudes. I'll buy anything that has his name on it. Comics, magazines, adult diapers, anything.

Looking forward to your dissection of "Everybody Hates Fight Man!" The same joke repeated ad nauseum -- and it only gets funnier each time.

Anonymous said...

Not to stretch a dairy reference, but Milk&Cheese and Scud were the bread and butter of 90's comedy.

Anonymous said...

Fightman also showed up in Agent X, with hilarious consequences.

The Little Black Duck said...

Those two Agent X issues (10 and 11 I think) with Fight Man are pure comic gold. Half of the first issue is a homicidal maniac with a healing factor trying to kill an indestructible man in the inimitable Dorkin style.

Love the blog, Dave, and I've been mowing through the Velvet Marauder site all week.

Ken said...

Reminds me of Sam & Max.

Anonymous said...

And how was the Eltingville Club cartoon? Always wanted to at least see it, even if I strongly suspected it wouldn't be very good.

Harvey Jerkwater said...

The story where Milk and Cheese get ill marks a high point of American culture. They vomit all over their apartment, one another, and panel borders. A fine quote from the spewfest: "I yam vomit father..."

Their landlord came up to see what the commotion was. He opened the door to a torrent of barf. M&K, surfing down the spew, said: "HERE COMES SICKNESS! DAM BUSTERS OF VOMIT ARE GO!"

F'n sweet.

That Dorkin kid, he's got a way with words, I tellya.

Phillip said...

andy-

The Eltingville Club cartoon is fantastic! I think maybe it had too many in-jokes to get picked up? I dunno. Don't pass up any chance to see it!

Anonymous said...

As I recall it Milk and Cheese was so funny they even made jokes with the issue numbers. There was MILK AND CHEESE NUMBER ONE, MILK AND CHEESE´S OTHER NUMBER ONE, MILK AND CHEESE´S THIRD NUMBER ONE, MILK AND CHEESE´S FOURTH NUMBER ONE and ( of course ) finally MILK AND CHEESE FIRST NUMBER TWO. So all the readers who only bought number ones got to enjoy more MILK AND CHEESE. It was for their own good.

I seem to recall that Evan Dorkin wrote some episodes of the animated Superman. The one is saw was with Lois being more attracted to a monkey then to Superman. Of course the monkey turns into GIGANTOR, the giant monkey showing that all monkeys are up to no good. First stealing Superman´s Lois and then turning really big and going all King Kong on Metropolis. It´s always the same. Of course Superman is so overcome with jealousy that he immediately tries to kill the monkey.

I don´t know if that also happened in the original version or if it was just a cruel joke of the german synchronisation. Before Superman tries to kill....I mean save the monkey he says : " Tut mir leid Lois, wir werden deinen Affenfreund töten müssen." It means : " I´m sorry, Lois, but we will have to kill your monkey pal. "

Not that it is not a sentence I use everyday - and it really comes im handy now and then. But I was so upset about Superman wanting to kill the monkey out of pure kryptonian jealousy ( which in itself is a terrible thing ) that I did not realize that he says " we ". Not " I will have to kill your monkey pal " but " we will have to kill your monkey pal ". What does that mean ? If the monkey survives his superpowered onslaught is he going to bring in the JLA ? Man, remind me to never piss off Superman.

That just shows that Evan Dorkin is the most quailfied person to write kids cartoon shows. I´m just waiting for the Kim Possible episode when Ron Stoppable goes on a killing spree in Bikini Bottom. Die you damned Sponge !!!!

Gordon D said...

Anyone who doesn't like Milk and Cheese should be taken out and kidney punched.

No, I'm not kidding.

DougBot said...

The Eltingville pilot was pretty good, but I guess it didn't get the ratings they wanted. (And yet Cartoon Network aired Tom Goes to the Mayor for months...)

I've really liked all of Dorkin and Dyer's work. They also wrote some damn funny Space Ghost: Coast to Coast episodes.

Edward Liu said...

Dorkin & Dyer wrote a number of episodes of the TV show and the tie-in comic book.

I remember thinking that some of them were more pedestrian than I was expecting from Dorkin, but it's not like you can have Superman surfing a wave of Kryptonian vomit or screaming, "GIN MAKES ME MEAN!"

And they wonder why the last time he inspired anybody was when he died.

Matt said...

What timing! MILK & CHEESE OTHER NUMBER 1 (#2) (NEW PTG) (O/A) is currently being solicited for this June. Product code APR062886.

One of either Dave or me has got to be a forum plant for SLG. I'm betting it's Dave. Maybe.

Anonymous said...

Darkflounder, the Fight Man comic is the opposite of the impression you have: FM actually is a hero of sorts who lives in his parents' house. He's also the kind of self-absorbed jerk you'd expect from being able to beat anybody up, and the whole town he lives in hates him (see title), so they arrange for all his enemies at once to show up and ambush him.

And then he beats them up.

It's really quite good, with plenty of Dorkin humor combined with superhero tropes. FM keeps a scrapbook of pictures of his defeated foes, and one of them is some weird green guy with "Some alien guy I beat up in 1975" written on it.

Anonymous said...

Also, here's a handbook-style entry for Fight-Man, complete with a fairly complete synopsis of his one-shot comic. Sadly, I was unable to find any Fight-Man writeups for the various Marvel RPGs.

Anonymous said...

Um, yeah - me! Bob'n'Dave by Dave King was a strip in the Daily Illini at the University of Illinois in the early 90s. Dave put out a book in 1990 (more of a 'zine, really). It's my precious.

Dave apparently has been doing stuff recently for the Daily Illini. You can catch strips online from as late as 2005. Enjoy.

Mister Sinister said...

By Scott!
They're right!
Chokeon moms DO love beads!

Fight-Man rules

Milk & Cheese should have a TV show on Spike or 27

verif:

ozvabvit-

the name of what gave Fight-Man his powers

Roger said...

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