User:TexasDex/Cyanide and Happiness
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| Cyanide and Happiness | |
|---|---|
 A One-Panel Comic of Cyanide and Happiness |
|
| Author(s) | Kris Wilson, Rob DenBleyker, Matt Melvin, and Dave McElfatrick |
| Website | Explosm.net |
| Current status | Updated daily |
| Launch date | January 26, 2005 |
| Genre(s) | random/distasteful |
Cyanide and Happiness is a webcomic hosted on Explosm.net and written by four authors. It was founded on 9th December 2004 and has since hosted daily comics. It is appears frequently on sites like Myspace, web forums, and blogs it openly allows and encourages fans to hotlink images, a behavior that many webcomics frown upon as "leeching." The comic's authors attribute the comic's success to it's often controversial nature.[1]
The site claims over half a million daily views, and is one of the ten thousand most viewed pages on the web according to Alexa.com. It once topped the TopWebComic list but was removed when the owners claimed, erroneously as it turned out, the 250,000 votes the comic had received were fake.[citation needed] Cyanide and Happiness is also distributed through Orange SA as part of its Orange Wednesdays promotion and has appeared on The Sun newspaper.[2]
Contents |
[edit] History
Cyanide and Happiness began as a small series of comics drawn by Kris Wilson, and hosted at Comicazi.tk. Kris shared his comics with the forum of Sticksuicide.com, a now dead Flash Stick animation site. The webmasters of Sticksuicide.com saw potential in Kris' art, so they used their new site Explosm.net to host his work. The webmasters of Sticksuicide.com: Matt Melvin, Rob Denbleyker and Dave McElfatrick eventually gave up on StickSuicide and started Explosm.net, a new site less based around Flash Stick Death animation and more about art in general. Explosm is run by Matt, Rob, Dave and eventually Kwanza. The Explosm team decided to make comics based on Kris' style and make some comics of their own.[3] Occasionally Explosms features a Guest Week, where viewers submit their entries to the administrators and the best are featured over the week. One notable guest author would be AltF4, author of Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny.
[edit] Style
The style of Cyanide and Happiness is best described as random, cynical and sometimes offensive. Frequent topics of humour include disabilities, cancer, murder, sexual deviancy, racism, and violence. The comic does not always have a definite punchline in each strip, or may have several panels of "awkward silence" after (or instead of) the punchline, with characters simply staring at each other. There are few recurring characters and virtually no characterization, with characters often acting irrationally or nonsensically.
The lack of characterization is supported by the primitive drawings style: in each strip characters are only distinguishable by the colors of their shirts and characters rarely have names, which precludes most character-driven humour.[1] The male characters almost always have no hair, which became a joke in itself. Female characters are distinguishable by their long hair and chest size, often used to comedic effect. The strip also features many pop culture references such as Nike and Star Wars and famous characters such as Lindsay Lohan and Metallica.
Although the comics are visually similar there are subtle differences between each of the four artists' strips:
- Rob: Characters have oval-like heads with fatter bodies.
- Kris: Characters have round heads with squarish bodies.
- Matt: Characters' bodies and heads are rounder and more simple.
- Dave: Similar to characters drawn by Kris', except his earlier characters had longer legs.
[edit] Other Explosm Content
- Since 2006 there have been a total of 9 Flash "Shorts" done by each of the artists. They follow the same theme as the Cyanide and Happiness comics and are animated in the same style. All characters are voiced by the webmasters themselves.
- The site additionally hosts Joe Zombie, a Flash series by Rob. Flash work by Matt and Dave is also featured on the site.
- Explosms also holds a Merchandise store, which includes a variety shirts designs.
- A book was released by Kris Wilson containing his first volume of Cyanide and Happiness comics. [4]
- Wilson announced on September 6, 2006 that he will be releasing a second volume of Cyanide and Happiness comics. [5]
[edit] Notes and references
- ^ a b Student draws explosive web comic. The UTD Mercury (April 3, 2006). Retrieved on September 26, 2006.
- ^ Orange unveils cartoon stick man print campaign. Brand Republic (July 18, 2006). Retrieved on September 27, 2006.
- ^ Explosm.net FAQ. Retrieved on September 26, 2006.
- ^ Cyanide & Happiness by Kris Wilson. Lulu.com. Retrieved on September 27, 2006.
- ^ kris-wilson's deviantART Journal. Kris Wilson (September 6, 2006). Retrieved on September 27, 2006.
