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Interviews: Ask SMBC's Creator Zach Weiner a Question

Posted by samzenpus on from the go-ahead-and-ask dept.

Zach Weiner is the author and illustrator of a number of webcomics, most notably Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal (SMBC). He's been a guest contributor to xkcd and founded the sketch comedy group SMBC Theater. His project Augie and the Green Knight, was the most funded children's book on Kickstarter, and his newest project The Gentleman's Single-Use Monocle offers readers emergency reading protection with a bit of class. Zach has agreed to step away from the comics for a bit and answer any questions you might have. As usual, ask as many as you'd like, but please, one per post.

8 of 90 comments (clear)

  1. Sacred cows? by eldavojohn · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Have there been any times you feared you went too far with your humor? If not, when have you received the most mail asserting that you did?

    --
    My work here is dung.
  2. How do you come up with so many ideas DAILY? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Huge fan of SMBC. I don't know how you come up with so many unique, thought-provoking ideas. Most comics that do that are on a 2-3 per week schedule.

    I backed your monocle; while I do love the hilarity of a monocle in a condom-wrapper, I just want to help you prove your wife wrong.

  3. Ren & Stimpy by SupahVee · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I see a fair bit of other influences in your comics, with Ren & Stimpy references seeming to show up here and there. What other comic have played a role in your work, and is there some bad experience in early childhood that clearly left you so scarred from Ren & Stimpy?

    --
    "See, we plan ahead! That way, we never have to do anything now."
  4. Intellectual Sources by Gestahl · · Score: 3, Interesting

    With respect to your "philosophical thought experiment" comics, how many of your comics are based in topics/ideas you learned before the end of your formal education, how many are based on things you have encountered in your "continuing education" (whether based on life experience, or just what you are currently reading about), and how many are "novel" intuition pumps?

  5. The Mrs. and the extended comic by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Interesting

    How does your wife feel being portrayed in the comic?

  6. Transporter Machine by siphonophore · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Would you use a transporter machine as is currently understood to be possible, i.e. destructive scanning of source and remote reconstitution from local matter?

    --
    Dance like you're hurt, Love like you need money, and work when somebody's watching.
    -Scott Adams
  7. Gender and skin color by gsliepen · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Dear Zach,

    I noticed that your comics feature a remarkable balance in gender and skin color of the people you draw. There are also many same-gender couples. How do you do this? Do you decide yourself for each comic, or do you roll some dice? Do you randomize other things this way as well, like glasses and clothes?

    By the way, I noticed that you maintain a list of things you cannot draw. But don't worry, you're way better than that Randall guy who can only draw black&white stick figures.

  8. Jokes you didn't tell by gman003 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    You often tell jokes that rely on fairly advanced math, science or economics. Have there been any jokes you scrapped because you thought they were *too* advanced for your audience?