o hi

Is working on cyanide and happiness your only job, or is it something you do on the side?

We started Explosm while I was working as a small company’s web guy. I started working there during my senior year of high school and left during my junior year in college to pursue freelance web development. The site began taking off soon after. During that time, C&H was something I didn’t take really seriously. The day we got the contract to do a bunch of work for Orange Mobile, however, was the day I realized I was doing exactly what I wanted to do and we had finally reached that turning point where our hobby had the potential to become a career. Now that we’re secure with Explosm being our jobs, we’re starting to look at how we can branch out and continue to grow.

Have you ever thought about adding another C&H writer or is the core group of four so close that another writer would change things too much?

We’ve talked about it and it just won’t happen. It would change the dynamic to suddenly have another person adding their interpretations of C&H into the mix. Plus, I don’t think we need another writer. We hold the idea of including guest writers and contributers open, but the Explosm team is the four of us and is staying that way. That doesn’t limit how we collaborate with others, though. Chase works with us a lot. While he’s not an actual part of our group, he’s a contributer who feels like an honorary member of sorts.

These are fun, keep sending in questions. Either comment, email me (matt AT explosm DOT net) or use our handy contact form.

So given the fact you guys are popular at conventions in the states, have you thought of doing any global appearances? And not just another long drinking session with Dave in Ireland.

Definitely. We’re already planning on coming to London in a few months, which will most likely include another round of drinking sessions in Ireland. While we’re there, we wanna travel around Europe for a bit, see Spain, pretty much anywhere that doesn’t require us to know a foreign language.

One of the things I love the most about what we do is it gives me an easy reason to travel. I don’t have to take time off of work, because the traveling is for work. Before our trip to Ireland last year, the only times I’ve ever left the states were trips down to Mexico, and that hardly counts. But now I’m flying overseas, going to New York and seeing all these places few get to experience

Now if I could find some conventions in Australia and Canada…

I was asked these questions a few days ago, and I figured I’d make a post about for them. In fact, if anybody has any questions (about Explosm, C&H, music, anything) I’d be more than happy to answer them. Think of it as an advice column that doesn’t give a shit about personal issues.

How much longer do you think Explosm will last?

In it’s current form, at least a few more years. None of us really see us drawing comics every day for the rest of our lives, but don’t have any intentions to stop our creating drives. We’ve already started branching out into animation and writing again, just to diversify what we’re doing. We’ve actually go a few big projects in the works that I can’t really talk about, but they’ll give us new avenues for content and help shape the way Explosm will continue to grow.

And what are your plans after it’s over?

Since it won’t really end, I guess it’s more of a question of where we plan to go next. The one thing I’d really love to try my hand at is sketch comedy. With C&H, each strip is almost like a miniature sketch. Our shorts are, save for the absence of conventional form, short sketches. To put them together in a single, cohesive show would be magnificent. I can totally see a C&H sketch-ish show working on Adult Swim. Maybe we’ll pitch it later down the road.

I’d also like to continue doing stuff on the internet, though. I pretty much owe everything to the internet. I’d be working some boring office job if Explosm hadn’t taken off. And of course the internet is just an amazing medium. You have a bigger reach than TV, distribution costs practically nothing and there’s no censorship issues. Anything I feel like doing is feasible, and I love that.

Someone from Tokyopop did a little video interview at our picnic table at NYCC.

Our panel with Homestar Runner, Red vs. Blue and Brad Neely.

ROFLcon was a blast. It was crazy having all these people from the internet all converging together. At one point, I had to stop whatever conversation I was having to comment on the fact that I was at a VIP party where the Tron Guy was getting some food from the buffet table five feet away from me. Very surreal.

Our panel was fun, but it was sorta serious. I only got to make two erection jokes. A lot of the questions we were asked dealt with stuff about technical stuff, the spreading of information, etc. At one point, somebody asked about our thoughts about advertising. One of the Homestar guys immediately chipped in with a comment about how they hate ads. The audience roared with applause. Then I jumped in with the devil’s advocate side and said I love advertising. To a degree. As long as it doesn’t impair with the content (ads supporting content, rather than content supporting ads) advertising is an incredibly powerful means for distributing free content (merchandising means fans are expected to pay!). The Homestar guys said they’d rather quit than run ads, which I wholeheartedly disagree with. A great example of this is Hulu, a joint venture by a couple top-tier TV networks that play on-demand TV shows, in their entirety in fantastic resolution, and all you have to do is watch a 15-second commercial every once and a while. It’s totally free otherwise. This is what the internet was made for.

After the panel, I drew this on the whiteboard behind us.

Within the hour, it was already up on the ROFLcon homepage. I’ve never seen so many laptops being used in a single room at the same time.

HIGHLIGHTS!

• Lunch with a few of the JibJab guys. I hung out with them a bit later on as well. Really cool, fun dudes. And they have awesome fake moustaches.
• Dinner with Randall from xkcd. It turns out that, like Rob does, Randall also nerds out over our ever-changing alexa ranks with Penny Arcade. He’s also a really fun guy to just hang and talk with.
• Meeting Jeph from Questionable Content. Only got to talk briefly, but it was another “I’m a fan of you and you’re a fan of me!” moments. Always nice to find your appreciation is mutual.
• Met both Ryan North of Dinosaur Comics and Chris Hastings of Dr McNinja.
• Joe the Peacock, a guy I hadn’t actually known of before the con, got to talking with us after our panel. In another show of mutual appreciation, he gave all of us a copy of his book, Mentally Incontinent. It’s actually really good, and a pretty ballsy approach for writing a book (he publishes stories online and has visitors vote for what chapters they want in the book).
• Anonymous. They had a Scientology panel that was, as most Anon vs. Scientology things go, half serious, half a joke. Then they raided the 4chan panel. Good job at making yourselves seem so serious, guys!
• Was pretty funny finding out the guy that started Chuck Norris Facts is also tired of them himself.
• And, of course, meeting a slew of other people from the internet.

All in all, it was a total blast. And now, here’s a picture of us with the Firefox mascot. Apparently, Kris and I are a little more excited to meet him than Rob is.