Mustard FAQ

Q.
WHAT IS MUSTARD? Mustard is an independent comedy mag, jam-packed with:

FUNNY WORDS & PICTURES

Satirical news stories, film/book/mag parodies, comic strips, cartoons...

EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEWS

Michael Palin, Graham Linehan, Alan Moore, Sam Bain & Jesse Armstrong... all interviews »

Q. WHAT DO YOU MEAN BY 'INDEPENDENT' MAGAZINE?
* Mustard has no financial backing and is self-published.
* All the writers and artists work for free.
* Each contributor retains the copyright to their work.
(So it's one of those labour of love things.)

Q. HOW DO I GET HOLD OF COPIES?
You can buy Mustard magazine:
* via PayPal
* at Borders and other shops
* by posting us an SAE.
When a new issue comes out, Mustard is also available free at Comedy Venues nationwide, while stocks last.

Q. HOW MUCH IS IT?
There's a £2 cover price which, along with the five pages of ads, helps to cover our printing costs.

Q. WHO ARE THE WRITERS, ARTISTS, ETC?
My name's Alex Musson, I put Mustard together in my spare time: editing and designing the mag and writing about half of each issue. (I also did this website - web design is my day job.)

The rest comes from various other contributors, each doing one or two articles or illos. There've been about 16 other contributors per issue, several are regulars but there are lots of one-off contributors too - see our staff pages.

Q. SO DO YOU ALL WORK TOGETHER IN AN OFFICE SOMEWHERE?
No, it's really just me sitting at my laptop here in London, with the other contributors emailing me stuff every so often. Many of them I met at work or socially, but some I've never met at all (one artist lives in Russia). Although a couple of Mustard writers have lived on my floor - the Writer's Room article (a spoof of the ones in The Guardian) from issue #01 is mostly true.

Q. HOW OFTEN DOES IT COME OUT?
I did four issues of the quarterly Mustard magazine, after which the mag has been on a bit of a recession-induced hibernation. But there's more issues and a compilation coming in 2010, and you can see two pages of brand new Mustard stuff in every issue of Alan Moore's Dodgem Logic mag, which is bi-monthly.

Q. WHY IS IT CALLED 'MUSTARD'?
Because of a guy called Derek Wall »

Q. HOW MANY ISSUES HAVE THERE BEEN?
There were six of the original photocopied black & white issues, and four so far of the new professional colour issues that appear in the shops.
More on the different issues »

Q. CAN I CONTRIBUTE?
We do look at articles or illustrations, but bear in mind we're on hiatus at the moment and do please read our contributor's guide »

Q. HOW CAN I GET INVOLVED?
Lots of ways! See Contact to find out how to:
* Get on the mailing list
* Give us your feedback
* Advertise with us
* Become a stockist