Tags
Butter, comics, dairy products, Dark Horse, Eisner Award, Evan Dorkin, Fantagraphics, humor, Milk & Cheese, Slave Labor Comics
Yes, ladies and gentlemen, it’s Dairy Products Gone Bad. Back in the 90’s, the Long Suffering Husband and I were active collectors of alternative comics, the ones that aren’t put out by Marvel and typically lack superheroes of any ilk.
I recall one favorite in particular, drawn by the wonderfully-named Evan Dorkin. It featured the anti-heroes Milk and Cheese, who had Gone Bad in the worst way, guzzling mass quantities of gin, wielding broken bottles, and succumbing to dark, megalomaniac fantasies.
Photos by Linnet from her voluminous collection.
In spite of (or because of?) my love of law-abiding creamy dairy products, their evil twins also exert a strange fascination over me. I always keep an eye out for that illicit unpasteurized cheese… and I’m a total sucker for any dairy product that is Bad For You.
Alas, the comics collection is stored away in archival sleeves and boxes now, and only rarely savored or added to. But I still keep an eye on Fantagraphics, Dark Horse, Drawn and Quarterly, and other worthy independent publishers.
We’ll let Milk and Cheese speak for themselves a bit more… click to enlarge.
Now, I always felt that in spite of the bad-boy rowdiness of Milk and Cheese, their crime sprees were being guided by an unseen hand. Yes, it was blindingly obvious that the baddest-for-you, most evil criminal mastermind was conspicuously absent, like an unseen Professor Moriarty, plotting his nefarious schemes behind the cover provided by Milk and Cheese.
Yes, I’m talking about Butter. I picture him as a massive slab of golden richness, loaded with cholesterol and addictive creamy decadence. But he’s a crafty one, and shifts his disguise regularly. Interpol has been tracing him through a series of European and American porn films in which his prodigious charms play the starring role…
Milk and Cheese is written and drawn by Evan Dorkin. With a name like that, I’m amazed that Evan made it through high school alive, but I’m very glad he did.
I’m particularly fond of Evan because he was born in the same year as me. And he’s cute! Don’t look now, Evan, but you’re a Beautiful Man! Source: Wikipedia
Evan Dorkin’s House of Fun
Evan Dorkin’s Live Journal
Hardcover of Milk and Cheese from Amazon: A carton of hate. A wedge of spite. A comic book of idiotic genius. The Eisner Award-winning dairy duo returns in this deluxe hardcover collecting every single, stupid Milk and Cheese comic ever made from 1989-2010 along with a sh*t-ton of supplemental awesomeness. This has everything you need! Don”t judge it – love it! Or else!
Related articles
- Tell Me Something I Don’t Know 015: Evan Dorkin & Peter Bagge (boingboing.net)
- Milk, Cheese, Butter Prices Could Double (kcrg.com)
Linnet Moss 
How fun 🙂
Thanks! Sometimes I feel like running amok myself (or at least going bad…) And a moron-killing spree would not go amiss.
That you have a comic book collection is officially awesome.
Why thank you! When I was little, I wanted to be a cartoonist. That didn’t work out, but I enjoy it vicariously.
I collected comics as a kid in the ’80’s. Marvel, haha.
But I sold all but my Star Wars collection to my friend.
I also have my Dad’s Classics from the 40’s and ’50’s in the closet. They aren’t mint or anything as my Dad read them, but they are pretty cool.
Classics are always the best!:)
My friend in high school was a great artist. And I paid him for a Marvel poster. He drew in the classic 80’s style (not like Byrne, hehe) and it was beautiful.
Sadly it was put in the attic and wasn’t framed or sealed in. So it got ruined. But it was awesome.
My comics are mylard in acid free boxes. I think they may be due for a bag change though…
I didn’t know you had to change the bags! Not all of mine are bagged, but the ones that are have definitely fared better.
Yeah, what I remember from the 80’s is acid free isn’t quite acid free and they need to be changed periodically. Every 5 years.
But it’s been a long time since I actually researched it. They might be better quality now.