There are lots of webcomics out there, and probably more moderate successes (paying for their hosting costs, plus some contribution to the creators' pizza fund, if nothing else) than are apparent to most of us -- why, there are even popular webcomics that aren't about gaming, or nerd culture, at all!I don't know what Cyanide and Happiness's metrics are -- and I don't actually care; I read it because I find it funny, not because some critical mass of other people read it -- but I hope that they're good, since it's consistently funny in nasty and tasteless ways. (It's occasionally funny in non-offensive ways as well, but offensive is definitely the way to bet.)
Cyanide and Happiness is like a jolt from the past -- the art is crude, the subject matter is shocking, and there's only the tiniest occasional bits of continuity from one strip to the next. It could have run in the '70s National Lampoon, or sat on a bookstore shelf next to 101 Uses for a Dead Cat soon afterward, but instead it lives on the Internet -- which, after all, is proverbial for being filled with things both crude and offensive, isn't it?
Ice Cream & Sadness
is the second book collecting the comic, after the inevitable Cyanide and Happiness
, earlier this year. (I reviewed it as Book-A-Day # 41.) Since there isn't any real continuity here -- just a relentless stream of jokes about death, inappropriate sex, bodily functions, and more death -- there's very little new to say now that I didn't say then. But the strips in this book are just as good as the ones in the first book -- and just as likely to offend random people, though the specifics of that offense may vary.Cyanide and Happiness is the premier webcomic created by four random, geographically separated guys who met online -- it's a weird distinction, but they came by it honestly. Read it for free online, or read it in a book -- it's still as crude and rude as it is funny, and that's "a lot."
Book-A-Day 2010: The Epic Index
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