This interview is of Pieguy259, whose comic is: Stickman and Cube!
(interview conducted by legomegacy!)



1. What inspired you to do Stickman and Cube?

Cube really came first. I was sitting around one day and the idea for Cube came into my head, and I thought, “Now, who'd make a good companion for a cube?” Next thing I knew, there was Stickman.
Before going to a webcomic, I drew several strips by hand in an eight-panel format (I should release a book of those), and I moved to the interwebs in 2007, and then in 2009, a guy called Legomegacy asked me “What inspired you to do Stickman and Cube?” and I said, “Cube really came first…” Oh, sorry, you know that part.

2. Since Stickman is a 2D figure and Cube is a 3D figure, how is it they can see each other?

It's best not to think too hard about that, or you'll disappear into nothingness. Especially if you're a cube.

3. You have reader mail sections - are they from real people or is this something you make up for fun?

The very first “reader mail” comic (“Letters, We Get Letters”) with all the names like Ura Nutt and Richard Head, that was all fake. But every reader mail strip I've done since then has featured real letters.
Which kinda makes it all the more scary, when you think about it.

4. The strip seems to get funnier every day; where do you get your ideas from?

Firstly: why, thankyou. Secondly: Ah, the dreaded question which plagues artists and authors everywhere. “Where do you get your ideas from?” To be honest, they just come to me. Sometimes they're inspired by real events (the Heat Wave arc, for example, was written during an actual heat wave with no air conditioning), sometimes an idea just pops into my head and I think “Hey, that could be funny”. Really, the ideas are just what my brain randomly regurgitates at me.

5. Do you have any plans to expand to other comics of your own?

I had thought of spinning off Captain Invisible into its own comic, but I think it works better interspersed with regular Stickman and Cube. So no, no other plans. That really requires an ability to draw.

6. You were a finalist for the 2008 and 2009 DrunkDuck awards - how did that feel?

Pretty sweet, actually. It's good to know that Stickman and Cube is so highly thought of by members of the community. We're going to win next year too, I can feel it in my bodice.

7. What does your family and friends think of your comic?

My brothers, it seems, can't get enough of it, and one of my brother's friends is all over it in rather a disturbing fashion. All the interweb friends I've introduced it to seem to approve. My dad thinks it's a waste of time, but that's what parents are for, so we mustn't hold it against him.

8. Do you have a favorite strip you have done?

I have almost three hundred, that's a tough call to make. I don't really have a favourite strip, though I am fond of the one where the drinking helmet returns.

9. You seem to stick in a lot of printers language and science terms and such in your strip. What is your background?

I just finished high school, I read a lot. I have a history of hanging around TV Tropes Wiki.

That's… pretty much all I can say on that.

10. What's in store for the future of your strip?

I've been working on this year's Christmas story, which will be a bit different to the last two. Can't give too much away at the moment, but I will say that it involves a zany scheme, an ice pack and a blunt instrument.
Other than that, I've had a couple of story ideas bubbling away, so with any luck you'll get to see those.

11. What would you say to the readers to entice them to entertain themselves with your comic?

If you're looking for laughs, witty punchlines, highbrow humour and social commentary… read xkcd. If, however, you're looking for three hundred pages of silliness and cube jokes, you know where to go.

12. What is your mode of creation? Do you have a mood setter music you listen to, etc?

Nom nothing like that. I think up a strip, I fire up my high-tech top-of-the-line picture editing program (it's awesome, it has a fill tool and everything. You should try it, it's called Paint) and I make the strip. Incidentally, our remarkable speech bubbles are the result of a collaboration between the Rounded Rectangle tool, the Line tool and the Eraser tool.

13. Every once in a while you inject color into the comic, is there a method as to the why or is it just random?

In my madness there is a method, you thinks? Well, really, the truth is if I think something needs colour, I colour it. Stickman and Cube themselves never need colour, but plenty of props and scenery items do.

14. What do you get out of doing this comic?

Given that nobody actually buys my merchandise, I'm forced to default to “the knowledge that I'm making people happy”. I suppose the fame and adulation doesn't hurt, either.
And, of course, the hidden subliminal signals that I plant in every last comic. As my fame grows, so do my unwitting puppets, until my conditioning eventually overwhelms their minds. THEY SHALL BE MY ZOMBIE ARMY, AND THE FOUNDATIONS OF THE WORLD WILL TREMBLE AT MY COMMAND!

But, y'know, that's really a long-term goal.

This is almost as funny as the actual strips!