AN angel, a devil and an imp are the recipe for a heavenly web comic designed by two Gwent work colleagues.

Anthony Luke, 25 and Gareth Powell, 24, who work at the Office for National Statistics in Newport, have created a successful online comic strip.

For seven months, they have been leading the secret life of comic artistic geniuses, taking their comedy influences from writer Terry Pratchett and hit comedy series Father Ted.

From throwing around ideas in their lunch hour, the pair, from Caldicot, produce a weekly online comic, Horns and Halos, which features the adventures of Demon Ashforth and Angel Bethany who have been enemies for so long, they become friends.

Mr Luke said: "It all came about when we were bouncing a few ideas around.

"The idea kicked off when we were thinking of scripts in the pub on a Friday after work or in our lunchtime and we decided to give it a go.

"The company was very good and gave us time to write and design and spread the word about the site."

Mr Luke has worked in the ONS for six years and says art has always been a hobby.

"I did art in school at Caldicot Comprehensive and I have always wanted to keep it as a hobby.

"The comic allows us to do that and to show other people what we can do," he said.

"Most comics are limited but with ours we can go anywhere we feel like and feature anyone we want from Shakespeare to Genghis Khan."

Mr Powell, who has worked in the ONS for a year takes care of the technical side of the web designing.

The pair create a comic strip a week and get around eight hits in the site a day.

"We are passionate about it and want everyone to see how humorous the strip is.

"Our dream would be to do the comic professionally but knowing people are reading it is great for us," said Mr Powell.

Take a look on www.hornsandhalos.co.uk.