‘ Milk, Two Sugars’ is an A5 publication produced every month by Bob Milner and Tom Senior. At the moment it has a limited run of one hundred copies per issue but this is set to increase in 2007. ‘Milk, Two Sugars’ is free. There are no sponsors, no arts funding and no advertisers. We give it away and each issue has a free gift. Currently it is available by post if you ask nicely and it has turned up at various events since beginning in March 2006.

Black and white images, fun. We make artwork for the issues and then turn those images into various forms; prints, badges, postcards, paintings, random pastings and an all-singing, all-dancing website to appear early in the new year. ‘Milk, Two Sugars’ is more than a zine and only slightly less than a cultural phenomenon.

The zine is a gallery, a DIY space. Creating shows and exploring the use of space is a crucial aspect of the philosophy of ‘Milk, Two Sugars’. Previous experience in running a self-funded art gallery and the construction/operation of a portable nine-seater cinema, complete with original animation and accompanying soundtrack suggest that part of the future for ‘Milk,Two Sugars’ is beyond the printed page.
Comingsoon:www.milktwosugars.org

 

For free copy: milk.two.sugars@hotmail.co.uk

 

I keep toying with the idea of getting a website.(I used to design websites for a living.) But I prefer to spend any spare time I have on the allotment with my girlfriend. So I stick with print. I am lucky enough to work in the print trade. So I get to churn out thousands and thousands of my comic – CELPH. (pronounced – “self”) The explosion of art on the internet is astounding. Everyone is a photographer, blogger or some such. I trained as an illustrator and graphic designer. And I still love to hold books in my hand, crawling into a story. Without the UV glow.

I wrote Celph when I was feeling the most trapped.

I had been eking out a living doing youthwork related design, and trying unsuccessfully to pull several animation projects out of production hell. I watch my ideas get reduced to fart jokes and directing a team of creatives is a crazy tail wagging the dog situation.

Ahhhh ,but comics – it’s just me, my brushes and some paper.
Celph travels and sees amazing things.

 

 


I’m not a writer, so the “story” wanders a bit, but Celph gets there in the end. Even though comics have become cool, mainly ‘cause Hollywood thinks it’s a good source for cheap kids films, they still sell in small numbers.

I made Celph with so little cost to me I can enjoy just giving them away. There is such in freedom from not having to recoup any money and being able to give out my art to whoever I like. Celph exists in the real world, and the comics get about as much as I do. I leave copies on planes to Spain, buses in Edinburgh and bus stops in Cumbria. Even on a beach in Melbourne . Celph is a calling card to read and if anyone wants a free copy they can mail me and send me something interesting in exchange.

AndyP 2006 apbatch25@yahoo.com

 


 
www.phlegmcomics.com

I started phlegm comic about a year and a half ago. I think it started as a bit of a joke really, I was at the end of my tether creatively. I finished my art degree about eight years ago and spent all my time after the course messing my head up trying to be a painter. I’ve always pursued meaning and content in my work but never really had the character to become a real painter. I never had the confidence to attend gallery openings or justify my work with a straight face.

That is when I realized I could hide behind a throw away fanzine format, dispense with all the art-world confidence and swap it for self deprecation and call it humor. Now I just put all my energy into the comic. My work may mean the world to me, but I still don’t expect it to mean too much to others. A little comic for two or three quid to some people may be full of meaning, to others its just a throw away. That’s the way I like it.  

I started with a print run of thirty; a year and a half later I have a run of two thousand and climbing. I do plenty of side projects and murals but my main aim is to stay small press and cheap and raw; to keep the comic growing.

 

My work is a mix of social satire, general observational humor, strips, and surreal illustration. I like to write about the things we take for granted that shouldn’t be.

I try to be honest and level with the reader. I hate apathy and boredom, and I think a good portion of my work tries to inspire people in some way.

I’m also starting to include my mural work in my comic which over the past year has become a vital part of my working process. Many of my new characters and illustrations that are in the comics were first sprayed on walls before crossing over onto paper. As time has gone on I think the wall work feeds the comic as much as the comic feeds the other.

I’m going to stop writing crap now. I’m rambling and ranting, so I’m pretty sure anyone reading this will have shut off by now.

Dan.
PHLEGM COMIC.

www.phlegmcomics.com