With Creator Matt Melvin

On the 21st of December 2009 LotsofInterviews.com interviewed a creator of the webcomic Cyanide & Happiness, Matt Melvin, as part of our "Web Comic Spotlight". We talk how the comic started, about it's popularity, coming up with new ideas and how the name of the comic was chosen.

What made you want to start a web comic?

I don't really think it was a conscious decision.

Everything started as a hobby and grew very

organically. We basically began our careers by trying

to entertain ourselves, so drawing silly pictures was just one of the many venues we did that in.

Are you a big fan of web comics yourself?

Definitely. I read quite a few and have been an avid reader of some of those (Toothpaste for Dinner, for example) for what seems like longer than we've been doing C&H.

Where do the names “Cyanide and Happiness” and “Explosm” come from?

"Cyanide & Happiness" came from an early comic Kris did before we officially began the strip as a group. "Explosm" was the name of a sound file Rob used often in animations. Explosion small = exploss.wav, medium = explosm.wav, etc.

   When you first started Cyanide and

  Happiness, did you ever think he would

  become as big as he has done?

  Not at all. Again, the whole thing started

  as a hobby. We enjoyed the fact that it was

  a hobby that paid for itself when we

  started. The fact that its now the start of

  our careers is a pretty staggering notion.

  When was it you realised your comic

  would be able to support you financially?

  For me, I think it was a gradual shift. At

  one point I quit my office job to do

  freelance design work, and over time I

  started focusing less and less on design

  and more on the site until I eventually did nothing but Explosm related stuff.

What is the process of actually making a strip?

It's quite simple, really. We draw everything straight in Flash and draw it right on the computer with a mouse.

Do you have a favourite strip that you've done?

I have a lot of favorites, but the one that stands out the most for

me was a strip I did to help a guy named Dev propose to

his girlfriend. It was really touching....