Milk & Cheese: The Losing Edge (Wizard Edge, 2002)

Wizard Edge was a short-lived annual edition of Wizard Magazine that covered alternative comics, and for the first issue I was asked to contribute a one-page Milk & Cheese comic. I had a lot of problems with Wizard, but as is often the case with the publishing outfits ever dealt with, the editors and staffers were usually a lot cooler and more open about things than the irritating, money-grubbing people who called the shots and signed the checks (in this case, successful comic market mover, shaker and manipulator Gareb Shamus). As I've mentioned here before, Wizard was always funny for me because I couldn't get any press for my work in the magazine, but I had fans on the staff, and I did a fair amount of work for them, including a holiday illustration for a gift tag insert/holiday card, a three-page Eltingville Club comic, a M&C gameboard poster (with a mail order giveaway set of dice), a two-page color Milk & Cheese comic and this one-pager (colored by Sarah Dyer, although it looks like I didn't credit her in the strip. Boo on me. Boo!).

Since all this work served as promotion, I wasn't exactly complaining about the lack of traditional coverage, especially since I was getting paid for these appearances, and the comics could be reprinted in various SLG comics. Every once in a while Jim McLaughlin at Wizard would mail me some fan envelope art and letters from readers, and I used to hear from people that they first encountered M&C or Eltingville in Wizard, so, it all worked out very nicely. 

Fan envelope art sent to Wizard. If I remember correctly one or two of the M&C envelopes were printed. "No Talent Comic Book Artist" goes harder than I would have, for obvious reasons. I kind of doubt Wizard ran that one. It's also funny to see fan art on envelopes because my earliest M&C art was mainly done on envelopes and packages sent to friends in the comics industry.

What was considered alternative by Wizard readers in 2002 was pretty much what you'd expect, leaning towards the better-known Direct Market oddball work and not really anything you'd call "art comics". As I usually liked to do with Milk & Cheese, I had them make fun of something related to the gig/client. The previous M&C appearance made fun of comic book retailers, the Free Comic Book Day strip I did for an SLG FCBD comic made fun of -- wait for it -- Free Comic Book Day -- and this one made fun of the magazine they were appearing in. More sound and fury about empty advertising and PR-speak than goofing on Wizard directly, although they get lumped in with it all. Wizard's lack of engagement with and ghettoization of indy/alt comics is kind of buried pretty far, but was hopefully implicit.  Wizard Edge was not exactly The Comics Journal. I didn't even know it was continued for another two years, I was looking up the year the first issue came out and stumbled over 2003 and 2004 editions. Which seem to have featured a lot of the same creators as the 2002 debut. 

I enjoyed working on this but I had too many jokes and overstuffed the page with too much information. It's not a very successful strip, in my opinion. I should have cut a panel or two at the very least in the set up tier. Or at least edited down some of the ranting. I always overdo the text, but I could've balanced out the ballooning and imagery better, especially on the bottom tier. Sometimes the color can help separate the visual clutter but 12 busy panels on a traditional comic page was more than the space could handle. It reads somewhat better in the Dark Horse hardcover, because it printed larger. 

I also realized that I should have had M&C smack "The Edge" from U2 in panel 9. I realized it too late to include "The Edge". Anyone who calls themselves "The Edge" and isn't a professional wrestler kind of deserves a comic book beating. In spades for anyone who calls themselves "Bono Vox" but that's another strip. Oy gevalt. 

Speaking of opinions...

WANTED! More readers like Sara Guman! "People will really eat it up!" -- I get it! Ha ha! And I love those drawings. I dig the bold half crescent eyes topped by the angled eyebrows, I should draw them like that sometime. Kid's art is totally excellent. 

WANTED! Less readers like Michael McDermott! I'm sorry Wizard didn't provide you with enough Spawn and Wolverine information, I know it was tough finding coverage of those characters back then. Sara and her little sister were so much cooler than Michael. Older nerd complaint letters are totally bogus.