We're Cyanide & Happiness, ask us anything!

Ireland 2007, Giant's Causeway - was that actually you guys? :D

http://i.imgur.com/Pm2EWqY.jpg

YES!!! When was that picture taken!? Is it still there? So cool. I've been trying to find it again every time I go back there and I couldn't.

Awww, that's sooo awesome! It was in august 2007, we probably only missed you by a couple of days...or minutes! Haven't been back since then.

Wasn't it near the end of some path that used to have a bridge or something? I remember getting to a dead end right around a corner, I think.

Think of this like some weird international scavenger hunt for public places we've defaced with crude stick figure drawings.

You missed us by a month!

Holy shit. We drew that the first time Dave, Matt and I met up in Northern Ireland. After that we flew into Dallas and drove to San Diego where we met Kris for the first time. So cool that it's still there. You found a bit of history.

I'll let them speak up on this because I wasn't there, but I can say that these are authentic Dave, Rob and Matt signatures.

Rob and I flew to Ireland to meet Dave in person for the first time years and years ago. He showed us around to all the cool spots, eg: pubs, pubs, pubs and The Giant's Causeway.

Rob a year and a half ago you drew this for me at connecticon

http://i.imgur.com/cATnsyN.jpg

I still dont understand why

I am not a doctor and I am barely an artist. I hope this helps explain your sketch.

What's your most ill-received comic?

This one bothered a lot of dog people. Which is weird because I'm a dog person too.

This one is pretty illin'

EDIT: Fixed the link. I screwed up.

Erm... that's a link to this AMA

Man, I fucked up. LEMME EDIT

Mine would definitely be this one. Oddly enough, it seems to be the most offensive one I've ever done.

The very next comic, this one, got a lot of negativity, too. With Kris' previous comic, people thought my "Last Week at Explosm HQ" was saying this was the last week Explosm would continue for. I was just saying this is what it was like the previous week writing really sad comics!

Psst, Kris. Between you and me, I like your comics the best. <3

Thanks, mom.

I don't have anything to ask. Just want to tell you guys that I work in the medical field and whenever a patient asks me to "take a look at this" I almost always question in my mind, "Is that applesauce?" Love you.

Well, was it?

What happens if they actually just hand you a jar of applesauce? Do you implode?

if push came to shove, how many dick jokes could you make in 10 minutes?

Let me get into the zone. Is there a gun to my head?

No, not a gun unzips

How can I make a dick joke when my mouth is full?

I'm sure you could manage a gag or two.

A+, please write all our comics from now on.

How many do you need, big guy?

I wrote all of my comics in 10 minutes, in mid 2005. I've just been releasing them slowly.

What is the best prank one of you has pulled on another?

Dave put the tiniest "Rob is gay" in the background of one of his comics in the Depressing Comic Book, and didn't tell me until after we'd printed 20,000 copies.

Still trying to get him back for that one.

Hahaha. It was fucking great to just let you know in person, too. "Rob look at the comic on page *** real closely."

Your fucking face. Gold.

I'm gonna put your credit card number in our next book.

If you read the page numbers in a certain combination, it'll give out my credit card details.

[deleted]

My Little Pony.

The unbridled rage of dozens of men with pony avatars yelling at you on twitter is something I've experienced firsthand, and it was pretty scary.

Making fun of MLP is the Internet equivalent of drawing Muhammad.

I love making fun of MLP. Rob's secretly a brony. He's halfway out of the stable.

None. I'm gonna make this easy and just quote Louis CK from his AMA:

I like joking about everything. This will sound too lofty because it is. This is going to an extreme to make a point: Saying a subject is too awful or painful to joke about is like saying a disease is too awful to be treated. Please do not take that out of context, the context being that I realize this is a crazy statement and I’m going to an extreme to make a point.

I've always felt as long as the joke is worth the subject matter and you're not outright belittling the subject matter, anything is fair game.

In fact, we've had hatemail from people who were angry about making comics about cancer because somebody close to them was going through chemotherapy. At the same time, though, we were getting emails from people who they themselves were going through chemo thanking us for the exact same comics because it made this heavy thing they're dealing with a little bit lighter. One dude actually brought his tumor in a little vial to a con to show it to us! That dude was a badass.

How did you four all settle on that specific style of character?

Basically we all copied Kris.

Before it was called Cyanide & Happiness, Kris posted his comics under the name "Comicazi" to the forums of a stick figure death website I ran with Matt and Dave. I really, really liked them, made a few fan comics of my own, and asked him if he wanted to take a crack at doing them daily together. Matt and Dave joined the effort shortly thereafter. So our styles all kind of blended.

A few key differences though: My characters are taller than Kris' and have longer arms, which lets them do crazy things like take hats on and off which Kris' characters cannot without looking mega stupid.

The thing is, I based my characters on Kris's REALLY early comics, where they were tall and gangly, and COULD reach their own heads. I still like that look

And I base mine off of Kris' current comics.

Hack.

So you're all connected to each other one way or another through your comics.

You guys are like the human centipede... of comics.

No no, we're a real human centipede.

was that site called stickdeath.com? I visited that site all the time when i was like 10 before youtube was a thing. It was everything I had hoped for and more

Nah, we ran a site called StickSuicide. We were very original as teenagers.

I liked the cutesiness of Kris's comics, and wanted to amalgamate that with the dynamism of Rob's characters originally. It's kinda evolved into it's own thing.

Hey guys! I made this Cyanide and Snoo lase awhile back. Link

(I'm not good at drawing, but really good at copying other peoples drawings. Please don't sue. Thanks!)

Man you fucking rule.

PM me your favorite strip and I'll burn you a wall plaque of it. Goes for Kris, Rob, and Matt too.

Alright! If I can get this in a nice dark wood it's going RIGHT up on my wall. You're the best.

Alright! If I can get this in a nice dark wood it's going RIGHT up on my wall. You're the best.

What font do you use?

How's this? Link

I'll get them mounted nice and ready to ship out in a day or so. PM me a shipping adddress. (The pics are lousy, it looks sweet in person.)

Oh my god. That is beautiful. I LOVE it. I shall PM.

Creative Block

I might take you up on that! I will be PMing you later.

Fuck yes!

I heard one of you guys had talked to /u/Shitty_Watercolour a while back about making a book or something, any word on that?

I was talking to him for a little bit, then a huge amount of work got in the way. I love ShittyWatercolour and have wanted to collab for a while.

I didn't realize there was some interest building already... Maybe I need to reshuffle some priorities.

Last time I did an IAMA, I drew Dave's balls. Why won't he return the favor?

I drew this on a laptop pad, so it's not great, but here you go <3

Give me a second.

Here you go.

http://i.imgur.com/thkpGxD.png

Let me know if you want a third.

Edit: Misspelled the Irish part.

Oh shit, Zach Weiner with the wordplay dick joke combo, a stunning move.

Ah, my new desktop background. Thank you.

TIL Zach Weiner's balls are too impressive to draw quickly.

Who has the softest face?

Dave. His cheery, smooth face is difficult to not squeeze sometimes. The rest of us can get a bit scraggly, but Dave's Irish genes keep his stubble in check.

Can confirm. Dave's face is silky and has tons of volume and bounce.

Double confirming, Dave's face bounces like a ball mixed with a rabbit.

Me.

This is a question for all of you. Which of the comics that you have made has the funniest back story behind it?

None of mine have funny back stories, I just sit there and weep as I think of ideas, knowing I have to come up with an endless supply of them to keep the Internet satisfied so that it won't consume everything I hold dear.

Get back to work, ROB.

The comics are actually just a journal for me, where I log my daily trials and triumphs. They are all 100% factual and I never intended for them to be funny.

The depressing ones were our only real attempts at humour.

Another fact is that Kris is currently on trial for about 250 felonies and his comics are all being used as evidence.

Some of mine have backstories. This comic, though it didn't translate really well as a comic in retrospect, completely happened in real life according to my friend who works in a local hospital.

I think that translated great. Granted it is the comically large photo that does it for me.

He'd actually blown up the picture, too. That's not an exaggeration.

Do you ever get death threats for some of the more religious based comics you do

I had a guy threaten to kill me because I made a comic referring to Mohammed back in the day. That's always fun. We had a guy in 2007 who threatened to come to San Diego Comic Con to kill us all. That's even more fun.

That guy never showed up either, which made me feel a little bit stood up to be honest.

We should have checked missed connections.

Back in my day when a man said he'd murder you, he was there on time.

How did you come up with the idea for Depressing Comic Week?

I made one about a kid in a wheelchair dying of crushed dreams after his dad tells him he can't play basketball. I didn't have "depressing" in mind, but it had a darker edge to it, so I asked Dave if he thought we should do a week of depressing comics. Without hesitation he said "yes", and the other guys were onboard just as fast.

I like Depressing Comic Week because we get to take away a little joy from our readers once a year, after giving it out for free the other 51 weeks. It's like when a really evil oil company plants a few trees for goodwill, except the other way around.

Rob and I discussed the idea of making comics with no jokes whatsoever, just sadness, one night in late 2006. We presented it to the other guys, and somehow made a whole week out of it.

Weird fact: This comic, about getting a new games console was posted on the day the Wii was released in the US, and THIS depressing comic about getting a new games console was posted on the day the PS4 was released in the US.

How messed up is your thought process when creating comics

Protip: The more sleep deprived you are, the whackier your ideas get. At least that's what I've found. I don't sleep well anyway, but there's a certain window where you don't feel like shit but your brain gets really trippy. It allows the idea process to be a lot more fluid.

Dave's sleep deprivation is actually quite a hindrance to the rest of us. He tosses and turns in bed and keeps the rest of us awake all damn night.

A follow-up question: Depressing comic week, does it make you guys sad? Because it makes me guys sad.

It can, yeah. I actually have depression that comes and goes. If anything, it works great for Depressing Comic Week writing.

First I just want to say I love C&H.

Second, Dave, I noticed you didn't start doing the crazy faces until somewhat recently. Was there some sort of reaction to them that made you turn it into your thing?

Third, Rob, your comics during Depressing Comic Week are always the best. How does it feel to know you're probably the most mentally disturbed in the bunch?

I started doing them late last year because I wanted to play around and expand upon the conventions of C&H art. They got a pretty cool response, and more recently, on my Facebook fan page, people have been creating all these hilarious edits of them. I like to embellish that. It's all great fun.

Feels good man.

Also Dave's crazy faces are my favorite recent trend in the comic.

Can we get more dancing gifs, please? http://explosm.net/comics/2291/

Oh man, I've got more than a few ideas that involve GIFs. They tend to sit on my idea list the longest because I am a lazy person and prefer my art not moving.

When did you realise that web-comics was the thing you wanted to do? Do you have plans of ever moving on?

Web comics weren't a thing, but I drew comics on paper all through middle school. In high school I discovered Macromedia Flash and made a bunch of animations on NewGrounds.

I do plan on moving on to something else eventually (I think we all do), not sure what yet. I try to just have fun and see where this weird career takes me. I do have a side project called storydump that'll be interesting.

I have aspirations for a brand new, longform, more sincere and personal comic about things that are going on in my own life. I have a lot of people interested in what being a webcomic creator is like, so I want to create a more intimate hub for that sort of thing. Joel from Hijinks Ensue is currently reinvigorating his work in a similar way. I find that inspiring.

I'd also love to pursue animation a lot more.

whatever happened to the purple shirted eye stabber

He's in hiding, waiting for the opportune moment to strike again.

Hey guys, I'm a big fan of your depressing comic weeks.

I just wanted, how does it feel for you guys to tackle subjects as dark as you do in those?

I can imagine it being quite therapeutic to get such a dark idea out of your system.

I think I'm naturally a gruff, cranky sort of person. Taking out my moods on our little characters feels great. A lot of my favourite comics are just the characters being dickholes to each other.

Dave, after moving to America. Do you prefer it there or in Ireland?

This is going to sound like a boring, diplomatic answer, but they both have their charms. Ireland's always going to be home, I miss the scenery, the craic, the many close friendships I have there. I've built as many close friendships over in America now. The food's far better here (oh God, Whattaburger), the weather's nicer and I just love the feeling of being in a big city. Everyone's so damn friendly too! I'll get strangers that say hello to me in the grocery shop. People just tend to scowl at each other back home, so it was novel to me at first.

C&H is by far my favorite webcomic!

Did you guys know each other personally before making comics?

How did you guys meet each other on the internet?

What was your favorite comic you've ever made?

Nope! We met entirely online. I met Kris and Dave for the first time at Comic Con 2007 in San Diego. And I met Matt a few years earlier when I was visiting some cousins (also in San Diego, he lived there at the time). When we did finally meet each other, we pretty much just got drunk and became friends, like you do.

Rob and I were both underage when we first met, so we hung out at a Starbucks. Neither of us drank coffee.

I'd been talking to Rob online since 2001. We met via the flash animation website SFDT.com, where we became fans of each other's work.

what advice do you have for someone pursuing a creative career?

Redefine your idea of success. You won't be as big as Garfield overnight, but, whatever you're doing, keep doing it consistently and refine it. Put out consistent work. If you're a funny guy/gal, your audience will slowly appear. Take Deathbulge for example. Here's a comic that's only been going over a year or so, and it's doing great! It also happens to be one of my favourites. Dan from Deathbulge is a sweet guy.

Who's the most famous person you ever slept with?

Possibly more importantly:

Who's the most famous person you ever got a high five from?

High-fived: Either Jonathan Ross or Wil Wheaton, depedning on what side of the pond you're from.

Slept with: Myself :(

I've slept with Wil, but only ever high fived Matt.

Let's fix that, baby.

I high-fived Wil eiffel-tower style through Rob and Matt.

That sure was a fun night.

I watched Sgt Slaughter eat a sandwich once. I don't care about anyone else.

Hey guys, long time fan, and I'm just gonna say thanks for doing this.

Were there any comics you wrote that you scrapped because they were too offensive, even for you guys?

I've scrapped some of my own comics because they aren't funny, but not really because they're too offensive. I've never thought about the comics in terms of "how can I offend", I've always thought about the joke as being most important. If it's funny to me, there's a slight chance it'll offend some people. I don't really single anyone out though, or aim to be edgy.

I've got a couple for y'all!

• Who came up with the Barbershop Quartet skit? Who sang in it?
• What was your favorite fan experience/memory (at ComicCon, etc)?
• Do you make comics ASAP and just keep them on a backlog?
• Where do you get your inspiration from?

Hahahaha! Backlog? Night of.

As for favorite fan experience, it's hard to really say. Meeting fans and interacting face to face is such a great experience. The first thing that comes to mind, though, would probably be the first time somebody told us our silly comics helped them through an especially dark time in their lives. We make goofy butt jokes on the internet, but they've actually helped people dealing with depression, suicide, cancer, etc. That was never the goal, but I'm so damn proud to have made such an impact.

To your first question, we all did, in a taxi in LA. We didn't sing to a girl, but we came up with the idea in a cab.

Hey Matt. When you were at Armageddon in NZ you made this signed print for me. I bet you don't remember it since you probably made a million prints over that weekend but I just wanted to show it to the internet and say thanks. So thanks! http://i.imgur.com/g8xz6Mq.jpg

Edit: My highest rated comment is a guy grinding a dick. Awesome.

Haha, you're very welcome! Thanks for stopping by. Armageddon Expo quickly became one of my favorite cons. Aussies and kiwis were made for our kinda humor. I kinda want to move to NZ.

Do you draw the character's heads clockwise or counter-clockwise?

I actually use the same head that I've used since the first comic... but when I draw them on paper, it's counter-clockwise.

Between the 4 of you, who would win in a fight to the death?

I would say Dave. He's the scrappiest, and would probably be the first person to throw a punch and the rest of us would be like, "What the fuck, Dave? Why are you hitting us to death?"

Do you have any bigger plans for the comics/animations, or are you happy with the position you are at now?

We've got 11 episodes, 11 minutes each, coming out in Fall and I think it's some of the best stuff we've written.

Got any hidden talents?

I can eat an entire pizza with no hands.

I have an outie bellybutton. That's my hidden talent.

I can play guitar pretty well, and recently picked up piano. I'd say I'm pretty good at that too. Also, give me a yo-yo and I'll BLOW YOUR FRICKIN MIND.

Who are your favorite recurring characters and why?

I'm fond of the asshole time traveler.

I really like Stripper Cop. He never really speaks, but he's a cop with a mustache and a pink speedo. Ya can't miss him.

Some of Dave's extreme facial expressions, which we call "Dave Faces"... oh man, I always enjoy those.