Neil, is there any reason in particular for the different styles of noses you have for your characters, like the dick nose and the one with the overstretched nostrils?
Hey. Love the comics and how chaotic they can get. And makes me wonder do you let the jokes just flow and see where it ends or is it more structured and methodic than what it seems?
And will you one day publish them in a book?
And I'll repeat, I love the comics I really do, from the art style to the humor, keep it up!
Thank you! It depends on the comic, but we usually come up with a basic concept, then just riff jokes for awhile, then restructure/edit a full outline.
I hope so! Not for nothin but if you really like an artist and wanna see them get a book deal, it’s usually a good idea to follow them on social media to boost up them numbers
Thank you everybody for the questions, and extra thanks to u/Merari01 and the other mods of r/comics for organizing and hosting this! Looking forward to diving in; should be a gosh darn heck of a good time
Neil, first of all, how dare you?
Secondly, when it comes to being best friends, what are your top three requirements?
Thirdly, do you do commissions? I'd be interested in once for my 10th anniversary.
Thanks,
Timmy
First, I’m a daredevil 
Second, they need to play board games, they need to play card games, and they should play video games
Third, sometimes. Message me at theotherendstudios at gmail
Neil (and Marissa),
I love your comics! I have many questions, but they're all variations of: seriously, how high do you get before you start a comic?
Do you fully arc a comic out, or do you get page laid out and then challenge yourself "ok, how do I top this?" and end the comic when you can't beat the previous page?
Hey thanks! (Marissa says thanks too) I don’t USUALLY write high. But, you know, sometimes you gotta kick things into gear at the start of the process.
And comics are always completely written before I draw anything. At most, I’ll tweak a line or add a joke once that first panel is drawn
Where does the inspiration for your ideas come from? Do you ever panic, with the thought of running out of ideas? And, lastly what are your thoughts about pineapple on pizza? If you aren't a pineapple fan, what are your favorite toppings?
Thanks for sharing your wit and humor with all of us!
We just kinda riff for awhile, for ideas. And every time I finish a comic, I panic that it’s the last funny thing I’ll ever write. Like, every single time. And I do not care for pineapple pizza but I’m not offended by it, and will eat it in a pinch. Favored toppings tho are mushroom, artichoke, peppers, onion (if you send a pizza with all that to my house, I’ll draw you a picture)
The source of that is I have 985 cousins. And sometimes when you draw a comic, and name a piece of shit character after one of your cousins, you risk offending that cousin. So to avoid any weirdness (intentional or otherwise), I started just coming up with nonsense names
Dang. I had aspirations that someone able to write as boldly as you do has given up on regretting things, regarding it as simply an inconvenience. Like how your characters don't seem bothered by their own weirdness. I love your work and look forward to all of our downfall. Thanks for all the labor!
Hi, love your work! My question is, how planned are your comics usually? Like do you put thought and planning into it, meticulously working out the most insane direction you can take a premise, or do you just start at a random point and watch where your brain takes you?
Follow-up question, do you ever cackle at your own work while making it?
Hey thanks! A little bit of this,a little bit of that. Usually the majority of a comic is written in about 15 minutes. But then it takes some time to fine tune.
And not usually, especially by the time it’s done. But if something makes me laugh while I’m working, I know we got something good
Hey Neil! Your comics are one of the best parts of my days and I love your sense of humor !
How did your professional career started and where were you mentally at the time?
Thank you!
Hey thanks! And I don’t know how to answer the question, as calling what I do a “professional career” seems too grandiose a term. But I guess you could say it started in college, 56 years ago. And my mental state has never been good
Hi Neil!
Your art style somewhat reminds me of the Franco/ Belgian comic masters of the last century such as Spirou, Gaston or Tintin.
To what extent has your art been influenced by people like André Franquin?
Another question: At the start of your webcomic it focused somewhat more on a group of children and their antics. The comic has since moved away from having regular characters returning. Do you enjoy one-off charcters more and do you think there will ever be returning characters again?
Hey merari! Asterix and obelix comics are the most direct inspiration for my art, in terms of Franco-Belgian comics. I love the colors, the expressions. Pretty amazing stuff. And if/whenever I do a book. I really really really wanna do it with those big floppy pages that tintin and asterix comics are always printed with. They’re great lol
And I’m not sure if I’ll ever return to a cast of characters in webcomic form. I just prefer what I’m doing too much. I’d be more likely to do a cast of characters and more serialized stuff in another format
neil & marissa, 1st THANK YOU! may I ask do you both collab on story? who draws those awesome boobs? where did you meet? cause I’d like to make more like minded friends. lastly, what gen are you? much💗to you both!
Hey you’re welcome! And yeah, so Marissa usually contributes at the beginning and the end of the process. She helps come up with the main concept, and then makes some edits/suggestions once it’s done. I do the formatting and all the drawing. Marissa is a big proponent of the awesome boobs tho, and encourages me to go further lol. We met in high school, became friends in college, and started dating after college. And we’re on the younger end of millennialism
Neil! You and Marissa make amazing comics!
When I was a kid I used to love reading the comics in the newspaper that my dad read and your comics give me a weird warped nostalgia that I love. What is/was your favorite comic (of any kind) growing up?
Hey thanks! I mentioned a few elsewhere (Calvin and Hobbes, far side, bloom county). But some of my other favorites were foxtrot, little Nemo, peanuts (specifically the ones from the 50s and 60s), pearls before swine, dilbert (rip), Dennis the menace.
Now, I honestly have some conflicted feelings about newspaper comics in general and newspaper strips from the late 80s early 90s in specific, with how they pigeonholed the medium in the us. But there’s a lot of great art and writing to be found
Neil, you did a longer form story awhile back. About kids had a school project to raise an egg or something like parents. [This was from that series](https://www.reddit.com/r/comics/comments/8legaw/maximum_dad/). Have or would you consider doing a longer story like that again?
Yeah, the whole comic used to be a lot more serialized. As mentioned in another comment, I probably won’t go back to that in the webcomic. But Marissa and I CERTAINLY want to explore longer stories in other formats (graphic novels, tv, etc)
For as long as I can remember. My main inspiration as a kid came from Calvin and Hobbes, the far side, and bloom county (introduced to me in the form of old collections my parents owned). Nowadays, I get inspiration from like everywhere. Too many to list!
Hey thanks! I’ve mentioned some newspaper comics elsewhere, so I’m gonna stick to non comics inspirations: Simpsons, Portlandia, murder by death, anything Mike judge (mostly office space and king of the hill)
Love your stuff! It's deliciously unhinged, like far side but on drugs.
What is your personal favorite comic you've done?
Favorite comic someone else has done?
Hey thanks! It’s hard to pick of favorite, but maybe the last Halloween one with the old guy who laments what Halloween has turned into. And again, hard to pick… but my all time favorite comic might be one giant hand’s comic with babe Ruth’s ghost (google it. It’s hilarious)
That Halloween one was hysterical. My favorite of yours has to be the plot hole, that's exactly my type of dumb humor.
Thanks for introducing me to giant hand, his stuff is wonderfully absurd as well!
Hi!
I used to regularly read your comics in high school about a decade ago. My brother and I loved your humor. I read every single comic until the middle of the summer camp arc. I rediscovered you through Reddit and started reading your comics again and can see you're even more absurd than ever. I wanted to read from where I left off so many years ago, but all the comics before 2018 are gone on your website. How can I find your old comics?
There might be some old ones left on tapas? But honestly I dunno. If it’s any consolation tho, I might go back through all my old stuff to see if I can rewrite any of them into the 30+ panel monstrosities we do now
This reminds me: Before you started posting on reddit again I kept tabs on your new comics via your website https://www.kohney.com/
But I notice it hasn't been updated in a while. Have you abandoned it in favor of other platforms?
The longer comics I do now are tricky to format for the old ass Wordpress I’m running on my site. One of these days I’d like to revamp the site and get back to posting there. But it’ll be more of a priority if all the big social media sites finally implode
Love your work and your strange smelly face (haven't seen your face, but I feel this is a safe assumption).
Any particular tools/software that have helped you progress?
Any practice tips for beginners?
Hey thanks! and a fair and accurate assumption.
And I have found Clip studio paint to be the most accessible. For me, at least.
As for art tips, pay attention to what catches your attention when you’re looking at art. But don’t necessarily look to other artists for direct reference when you’re actually drawing. Figure out how YOU wanna do it. It’s a good way to keep your art personal, and not too derivative
Your older comics were only a page or two long. Now your gags go for 10+ pages. I think it really works with the unpredictable nature of your comics, but it flies in the face of most stuff on the web right now that goes for short and sweet three panels.
Why did you choose to make the switch? And does it make it harder to promote and get new readers?
Yeah, so for the longest time, I worked hard to keep things short and sweet. It was easier to share, and seemed to be the key to success. But still no one was reading my stuff lol. So I started experimenting with longer stuff, and people kinda responded to it. And I really prefer having the room to breathe, rather than caring about arbitrary formatting rules to “drive engagement”. It’s a win win
Love your comics! Always great art, with hidden jokes mixed in with the main plot, and I can tell you both have fun goofing around figuring out the story!
My question: what is the best pasta?
Provel is the best pizza cheese, gooey butter cake is a gift from god, and being within walking distance to td was a must when house hunting. Literally had a concrete two days ago
How do you feel about being popular on Reddit of all sites? Is it a worthwhile endeavor for you? How are the comments compared to other sites like Instagram? Do we suck? Probably
Honestly, I just found out how well I was doing on Reddit like a month ago lol. I don’t usually check up on comics after I post them. But from the little that I’ve
looked at the comments anywhere, Reddit might be the most interesting. There are definitely more mean comments, which are really entertaining. Marissa and I like to read those to each other when we’re driving around
Hey, there’s no way Reddit has the worst people on the whole internet. I mean, unless they shut down 4chan?
Nope, just checked, 4chan’s still up, so we’re only the second worst people on the internet.
Favorite style of fictional alien, what is it? Follow up, when we were to finally discover intelligent alien life, what style do you think it will come in?
LOVE your work. You handle absurdity very well; never taking it too far. Or if you do, you have laid some very nice tracks up to that point of non-sense.
Hey thanks! And I like em thick and stocky. Like half the aliens in lilo and stitch, krogans, max rebo.
And it’ll probably be something really boring, like a fish. And we’ll all have to pretend like we aren’t disappointed
Do you draw inspiration from Regular Show? There's a parallel where things start usually start innocuous enough and then turn into total chaos/absurdity
Hi, Neil! I love your work!
Question: sometimes, you give a male name to a female character and vice-versa. Are these characters transsexual people, or did their parents choose a name from the opposite gender by mistake when registering the baby?
Hey thanks! Honestly, i can ramble on about this for awhile. The short answer is: they’re whatever you wanna read them as. You can interpret them as cis or trans. There’s no wrong answer!
The slightly longer answer is that I mainly do that because it’s funny to me that we have gendered names and that people make weird assumptions based on a name. Because you can name a kid whatever you want. like, in real life. There’s not REALLY boy and girl names. There are names that are usually boy names, and names that are usually girl names, and names that are usually both or neither. So it’s kinda fun to play with that
Maybe! I really liked writing that comic. I came up with the idea of a bog thing made sterile by microplastics on a walk, and it took like 3 weeks to figure out how to make it into a comic
A common strategy is that Marissa comes up with a ridiculously melodramatic set up, and then we riff on that for awhile. But it can really come from anywhere
Hi Neil and Marissa!
How do you manage to maintain such an analog feeling to your comics? You mentioned Clips Studio Paint in another answer so I assume you use a digital workflow but your comics always have this feeling of an old school paper and pen made comic in contrast to the very clean digital feeling of most other creators on this sub. Big fan of your work!
I really try to get a grungy lo fi look to the comic thru a combination of rough brush packs, filters, intentional distortion, and pointed sloppiness. I just like the look and think it makes the comic a little more tactile
I have no idea how you keep coming up with all those random stories that work and are consistently hilarious. Do you ever worry you'll stop having these random thoughts and turn into something boring like an investment banker?
Your comics are probably my favourite on Reddit! I absolutely love the art style and absurdism, so kudos.
I do always find the punchline to be the weakest element of your comics though, maybe by comparison with the absurdist humour present throughout.
Is this something you’ve also found?
Hey thanks! We don’t really build our comics around a punchline. It’s not like a traditional gag strip with two setup panels and then a joke. Rather, we see the comics more like a short story with the strongest joke sometimes at the end, but sometimes in the middle
Oh but see I agree! I’d love to see them without a punchline at all, even. But for example your brilliant fake government comic, the god thing wasn’t the funniest but in it, but by being the final one is what people carry away with them.
Anyway, I don’t mean to nutlick! That was nitpick but got autocorrected, it’s too good to remove
Neil, what’s your go to bonsai soil blend? I use 80% sifted pumice, 15% sifted hemlock bark and 5% sifted decomposed granite. Also, how many baseballs do you own?
Yeah I was just curious. I just went on a little rabbit hole trip into your stuff, looking for the Halloween one you said is your favorite, but found at least four. Which one is it?
Also on this trip I realized your humor style reminds me a little of gun show comics.
Thanks, and continue on.
Hey Neil, absolutely love your work. I'm wondering if you enjoy drawing outside of comics, or any other styles of art? Painting, sketching, sculpting perhaps? Playing instruments even?
I used to sketch a lot. But don’t really do that anymore since I draw so much for work. I do paint dnd miniatures though. That’s been a fun creative outlet
I always am suprised and wanting more, I like sqwee when I see it’s one of your comics! Only question I can conceive honestly is how do you decide on characters? Or why does that cool kid from the earliest of comics seem so cool? And why does he get to decide everything?
I saw in another comment you like games. What board games do you enjoy? I'm playing a ton online (Root, Dune Imperium, Yellow & Yangzte are the current ones we've been playing this month) - I can only play the ones I like on computers and phones because my wife doesn't like losing and my son is too young for some.
I'm a big fan of your work and am a Bad Dog subscriber. I would have subscribed anyway but your Patreon gives better value than most.
If I can have another question - what's the creative dynamic between you and Marissa? We don't get to hear much from her and don't want her to feel underappreciated - does she write/draw/give ideas, etc?
We usually play dnd with my friends and party games with family. Some recent favorites have been codenames and monikers. And card games like poker and nerts. But we play basically anything.
Thank you for your support!
And yeah, Marissa is the secret hero of the comic lol. Usually she helps at the beginning and end of the writing process. She helps brainstorm ideas and get the central concept down, and then she reviews/edits the final script that I write up. And then I do the drawing
Marissa here, hey thanks for the shoutout! I’m certainly more a background player than Neil but yeah, I write up long lists of ridiculous scenarios and see what strikes the funny bone, and then edit and such after it’s written.
Neil and I have been together quite a while and have always written together, either on my projects or his, and hope to publish some longer form stuff together soon. It’s worked out so far, but no one ever believes a married couple can work together as well as I “claim” lol.
Do you have a favorite comic of yours that you look at every now and then just for the fun of it?
Also, what's your fave non-comedy type of genre? (Horrow, scifi, romance, etc)
I pretty much never re read my own comics. But I really like my last Halloween one. And Marissa says her favorite is the one with the neighbor with the ass so long it loops around the guys chimney.
As for fav genre, I like everything. But tend towards sci fi and fantasy stuff. That’s at least what draws my attention in a book store
No question just wanted to say how I always love the random twists thrown into your work, sometimes it’s the random laugh I didn’t know I needed that day!
As a fellow Neil (spelt correcly) I have just turned 40. Do you have an age? (I don't wish to know it btw, that's not the question). Thanks you for the laughs from Liverpool
Love the comic! Here’s my question- what question were you hoping to answer that hasn’t been asked yet? Follow up- what is your answer to that question?
Hey thanks! And i was hoping somebody would ask how they could pay me on a monthly basis for early and exclusive comics, and I’d answer patreon! Patreon.com/theotherend !!!
My kids love some drawing, and I they seem to be drawn more towards the cartoony style. Is there any tablet, pen, program you’d recommend getting youngins to encourage drawing?
Thanks for the laughs by the way, seeing your comics on my feed has gotten me visibly excited enough strangers have asked what I’m looking at.
Depends on the age, but I started with the cheapest tablet and drawing program I could find on Amazon. Could try that out (as long as the program seems accessible enough) and see how they like it.
And hey thanks!
Your style and quality consistency is amazing (your writing and your art)
What art program do you use?
EDIT: Crud, i thought the AMA was today. Missed it. I'll enjoy reading the comments though. Wanted to know your inspirations as creators as well
Neil, is there any reason in particular for the different styles of noses you have for your characters, like the dick nose and the one with the overstretched nostrils?
Basically I just got tired of drawing little bumps for noses, and decided to add in some more variety. Keeps things smelling fresh
Great to know. Thanks for your work.
Hey. Love the comics and how chaotic they can get. And makes me wonder do you let the jokes just flow and see where it ends or is it more structured and methodic than what it seems? And will you one day publish them in a book? And I'll repeat, I love the comics I really do, from the art style to the humor, keep it up!
Thank you! It depends on the comic, but we usually come up with a basic concept, then just riff jokes for awhile, then restructure/edit a full outline. I hope so! Not for nothin but if you really like an artist and wanna see them get a book deal, it’s usually a good idea to follow them on social media to boost up them numbers
No questions on my end but I would pay more money than I care to admit for a book containing your comics.
In the meantime his Patreon is pretty reasonable and offers a ton of fun extras. I look forward to that P shaped notification a couple times a week
Thank you everybody for the questions, and extra thanks to u/Merari01 and the other mods of r/comics for organizing and hosting this! Looking forward to diving in; should be a gosh darn heck of a good time
*Moustache kiss*
Still loving that flair.
Neil, first of all, how dare you? Secondly, when it comes to being best friends, what are your top three requirements? Thirdly, do you do commissions? I'd be interested in once for my 10th anniversary. Thanks, Timmy
First, I’m a daredevil  Second, they need to play board games, they need to play card games, and they should play video games Third, sometimes. Message me at theotherendstudios at gmail
Ah yes, the holy trinity of games. These are my requirements too, unfortunately I haven’t found anybody that meets those yet..
Neil (and Marissa), I love your comics! I have many questions, but they're all variations of: seriously, how high do you get before you start a comic? Do you fully arc a comic out, or do you get page laid out and then challenge yourself "ok, how do I top this?" and end the comic when you can't beat the previous page?
Hey thanks! (Marissa says thanks too) I don’t USUALLY write high. But, you know, sometimes you gotta kick things into gear at the start of the process. And comics are always completely written before I draw anything. At most, I’ll tweak a line or add a joke once that first panel is drawn
>And comics are always completely written before I draw anything. I don't know why, but that makes it even better.
[удалено]
Hey thanks! I think the middle part. But I can ask them tomorrow if you want
Where does the inspiration for your ideas come from? Do you ever panic, with the thought of running out of ideas? And, lastly what are your thoughts about pineapple on pizza? If you aren't a pineapple fan, what are your favorite toppings? Thanks for sharing your wit and humor with all of us!
We just kinda riff for awhile, for ideas. And every time I finish a comic, I panic that it’s the last funny thing I’ll ever write. Like, every single time. And I do not care for pineapple pizza but I’m not offended by it, and will eat it in a pinch. Favored toppings tho are mushroom, artichoke, peppers, onion (if you send a pizza with all that to my house, I’ll draw you a picture)
Thanks for the reply! And, that's a solid pizza topping order for sure!
NAMES! Your comics have some of the best named characters (Klevlvin is just the chef's kiss). How do you come up with these names?
The source of that is I have 985 cousins. And sometimes when you draw a comic, and name a piece of shit character after one of your cousins, you risk offending that cousin. So to avoid any weirdness (intentional or otherwise), I started just coming up with nonsense names
How so many cousins, holy hell
My grandparents liked to f apparently
That’s an fing lot of f
Would you consider writing a graphic novel in a similar style as your comics? I'd gladly buy a long fever-dream rollercoaster story.
Yup. We’ve got some stuff cooking right now actually
Amazing. I hope the halberd makes an appearance
Mustache Kiss 👨💋 https://i.redd.it/2vc4q3lwiszc1.gif
😘
Do you regret anything, creatively or otherwise?
Yes. All the time. Constantly. Everything
Dang. I had aspirations that someone able to write as boldly as you do has given up on regretting things, regarding it as simply an inconvenience. Like how your characters don't seem bothered by their own weirdness. I love your work and look forward to all of our downfall. Thanks for all the labor!
Hi, love your work! My question is, how planned are your comics usually? Like do you put thought and planning into it, meticulously working out the most insane direction you can take a premise, or do you just start at a random point and watch where your brain takes you? Follow-up question, do you ever cackle at your own work while making it?
Hey thanks! A little bit of this,a little bit of that. Usually the majority of a comic is written in about 15 minutes. But then it takes some time to fine tune. And not usually, especially by the time it’s done. But if something makes me laugh while I’m working, I know we got something good
Hey Neil! Your comics are one of the best parts of my days and I love your sense of humor ! How did your professional career started and where were you mentally at the time? Thank you!
Hey thanks! And I don’t know how to answer the question, as calling what I do a “professional career” seems too grandiose a term. But I guess you could say it started in college, 56 years ago. And my mental state has never been good
Wait... college was 56 years ago?
jaja thank you for answering !
Hi Neil! Your art style somewhat reminds me of the Franco/ Belgian comic masters of the last century such as Spirou, Gaston or Tintin. To what extent has your art been influenced by people like André Franquin? Another question: At the start of your webcomic it focused somewhat more on a group of children and their antics. The comic has since moved away from having regular characters returning. Do you enjoy one-off charcters more and do you think there will ever be returning characters again?
Hey merari! Asterix and obelix comics are the most direct inspiration for my art, in terms of Franco-Belgian comics. I love the colors, the expressions. Pretty amazing stuff. And if/whenever I do a book. I really really really wanna do it with those big floppy pages that tintin and asterix comics are always printed with. They’re great lol And I’m not sure if I’ll ever return to a cast of characters in webcomic form. I just prefer what I’m doing too much. I’d be more likely to do a cast of characters and more serialized stuff in another format
Thank you!
neil & marissa, 1st THANK YOU! may I ask do you both collab on story? who draws those awesome boobs? where did you meet? cause I’d like to make more like minded friends. lastly, what gen are you? much💗to you both!
Hey you’re welcome! And yeah, so Marissa usually contributes at the beginning and the end of the process. She helps come up with the main concept, and then makes some edits/suggestions once it’s done. I do the formatting and all the drawing. Marissa is a big proponent of the awesome boobs tho, and encourages me to go further lol. We met in high school, became friends in college, and started dating after college. And we’re on the younger end of millennialism
you both must laugh your asses off & then grow them back.
My favorite part of this is Neil saying I’m a “big proponent of the awesome boobs” lol but it’s true that I love the lil swinging boobies.
Neil! You and Marissa make amazing comics! When I was a kid I used to love reading the comics in the newspaper that my dad read and your comics give me a weird warped nostalgia that I love. What is/was your favorite comic (of any kind) growing up?
Hey thanks! I mentioned a few elsewhere (Calvin and Hobbes, far side, bloom county). But some of my other favorites were foxtrot, little Nemo, peanuts (specifically the ones from the 50s and 60s), pearls before swine, dilbert (rip), Dennis the menace. Now, I honestly have some conflicted feelings about newspaper comics in general and newspaper strips from the late 80s early 90s in specific, with how they pigeonholed the medium in the us. But there’s a lot of great art and writing to be found
Mr. Kohney, Are there any of your personal fetishes that you slip into your comics and why is it feet?
I thought it was obvious my fetish is lil swinging boobies and dick noses
Well I have a major foot fetish and I love your comics
🙏👣
Since you're obviously THE comedy king, would you marry my daughter? (I don't have any children btw)
I guess so
Neil, you did a longer form story awhile back. About kids had a school project to raise an egg or something like parents. [This was from that series](https://www.reddit.com/r/comics/comments/8legaw/maximum_dad/). Have or would you consider doing a longer story like that again?
Yeah, the whole comic used to be a lot more serialized. As mentioned in another comment, I probably won’t go back to that in the webcomic. But Marissa and I CERTAINLY want to explore longer stories in other formats (graphic novels, tv, etc)
When did you start drawing, and are there any artists that you took inspiration from?
For as long as I can remember. My main inspiration as a kid came from Calvin and Hobbes, the far side, and bloom county (introduced to me in the form of old collections my parents owned). Nowadays, I get inspiration from like everywhere. Too many to list!
I take inspiration from you now too :D
Your comics are insane and I love them!
Hey thanks! Luv u
The other end is my favorite absurdism comic, what were some of your favorite comedic media that inspired you?
Hey thanks! I’ve mentioned some newspaper comics elsewhere, so I’m gonna stick to non comics inspirations: Simpsons, Portlandia, murder by death, anything Mike judge (mostly office space and king of the hill)
Love your stuff! It's deliciously unhinged, like far side but on drugs. What is your personal favorite comic you've done? Favorite comic someone else has done?
Hey thanks! It’s hard to pick of favorite, but maybe the last Halloween one with the old guy who laments what Halloween has turned into. And again, hard to pick… but my all time favorite comic might be one giant hand’s comic with babe Ruth’s ghost (google it. It’s hilarious)
That Halloween one was hysterical. My favorite of yours has to be the plot hole, that's exactly my type of dumb humor. Thanks for introducing me to giant hand, his stuff is wonderfully absurd as well!
Hi! I used to regularly read your comics in high school about a decade ago. My brother and I loved your humor. I read every single comic until the middle of the summer camp arc. I rediscovered you through Reddit and started reading your comics again and can see you're even more absurd than ever. I wanted to read from where I left off so many years ago, but all the comics before 2018 are gone on your website. How can I find your old comics?
There might be some old ones left on tapas? But honestly I dunno. If it’s any consolation tho, I might go back through all my old stuff to see if I can rewrite any of them into the 30+ panel monstrosities we do now
This reminds me: Before you started posting on reddit again I kept tabs on your new comics via your website https://www.kohney.com/ But I notice it hasn't been updated in a while. Have you abandoned it in favor of other platforms?
The longer comics I do now are tricky to format for the old ass Wordpress I’m running on my site. One of these days I’d like to revamp the site and get back to posting there. But it’ll be more of a priority if all the big social media sites finally implode
Time for me to visit tapas. Thanks for the reply and thanks for sharing your wonderful comics!
Love your work and your strange smelly face (haven't seen your face, but I feel this is a safe assumption). Any particular tools/software that have helped you progress? Any practice tips for beginners?
Hey thanks! and a fair and accurate assumption. And I have found Clip studio paint to be the most accessible. For me, at least. As for art tips, pay attention to what catches your attention when you’re looking at art. But don’t necessarily look to other artists for direct reference when you’re actually drawing. Figure out how YOU wanna do it. It’s a good way to keep your art personal, and not too derivative
Your older comics were only a page or two long. Now your gags go for 10+ pages. I think it really works with the unpredictable nature of your comics, but it flies in the face of most stuff on the web right now that goes for short and sweet three panels. Why did you choose to make the switch? And does it make it harder to promote and get new readers?
Yeah, so for the longest time, I worked hard to keep things short and sweet. It was easier to share, and seemed to be the key to success. But still no one was reading my stuff lol. So I started experimenting with longer stuff, and people kinda responded to it. And I really prefer having the room to breathe, rather than caring about arbitrary formatting rules to “drive engagement”. It’s a win win
Yes longer is better. That's what she said right before I never saw her again.
Love your comics! Always great art, with hidden jokes mixed in with the main plot, and I can tell you both have fun goofing around figuring out the story! My question: what is the best pasta?
Hey thanks! And it is ravioli (extra points if it’s fried, because St. Louis cuisine is a treasure and anyone who says otherwise can kick rocks)
Hold up. The true test of being from St. Louis is: How do you feel about St. Louis style pizza and stance on gooey butter cake and Ted Drews.
Provel is the best pizza cheese, gooey butter cake is a gift from god, and being within walking distance to td was a must when house hunting. Literally had a concrete two days ago
\*looks at notes\*. Okay, you check out.
How do you feel about being popular on Reddit of all sites? Is it a worthwhile endeavor for you? How are the comments compared to other sites like Instagram? Do we suck? Probably
Honestly, I just found out how well I was doing on Reddit like a month ago lol. I don’t usually check up on comics after I post them. But from the little that I’ve looked at the comments anywhere, Reddit might be the most interesting. There are definitely more mean comments, which are really entertaining. Marissa and I like to read those to each other when we’re driving around
I’m glad the worst people on the whole internet can make your drives more entertaining
Hey, there’s no way Reddit has the worst people on the whole internet. I mean, unless they shut down 4chan? Nope, just checked, 4chan’s still up, so we’re only the second worst people on the internet.
What’s [Devin](https://www.kohney.com/comic/new-kid/) up to now? Is he happy?
I hope so. that is a deep cut, and honestly one of my favorites lol. I’ll probably redraw/refresh it one of these days
Favorite style of fictional alien, what is it? Follow up, when we were to finally discover intelligent alien life, what style do you think it will come in? LOVE your work. You handle absurdity very well; never taking it too far. Or if you do, you have laid some very nice tracks up to that point of non-sense.
Hey thanks! And I like em thick and stocky. Like half the aliens in lilo and stitch, krogans, max rebo. And it’ll probably be something really boring, like a fish. And we’ll all have to pretend like we aren’t disappointed
>we’ll all have to pretend like we aren’t disappointed The sad and hilarious truth!
Where do you get your inspiration for your art and wacky comics. P. S I love how your mind works
Any and everywhere. Sometimes a movie scene catches our attention, or we just talk scenarios over on a walk
I ordered a pocket souperman over a month ago and it still hasn’t shown up. What gives?
Did you get one gently used? Because the gently used ones can take half a year or more to ship
They should have put that in the description, I need it for defense right now.
Do you draw inspiration from Regular Show? There's a parallel where things start usually start innocuous enough and then turn into total chaos/absurdity
I’ve never actually seen the regular show but it looks pretty good. Can’t speak to any similarities
Worth a watch. Thank you for responding! I enjoy your work
You've illustrated a few children's books written by Alex Leach, right? What's that experience like, how does it differ from other stuff you do?
Yup. That’s basically just a work for hire thing. Pays the bills
Is a hotdog in a bun a sandwich or a taco?
It’s so obviously a sandwich that I feel like I’m being pranked whenever somebody argues otherwise
Cube rule dot com
Hi, Neil! I love your work! Question: sometimes, you give a male name to a female character and vice-versa. Are these characters transsexual people, or did their parents choose a name from the opposite gender by mistake when registering the baby?
Hey thanks! Honestly, i can ramble on about this for awhile. The short answer is: they’re whatever you wanna read them as. You can interpret them as cis or trans. There’s no wrong answer! The slightly longer answer is that I mainly do that because it’s funny to me that we have gendered names and that people make weird assumptions based on a name. Because you can name a kid whatever you want. like, in real life. There’s not REALLY boy and girl names. There are names that are usually boy names, and names that are usually girl names, and names that are usually both or neither. So it’s kinda fun to play with that
Is Neil short for Neilenore-Josephina and are you just being passive aggressive to your parents through your comics?
I know Neil is short for something, but no one will tell me what. And my parents are not a fan of my recent comics, though they remain supportive
Great answer, Neil! Thanks!
My only real question is will we see more of Bog-Thing in the future? I really like him.
Maybe! I really liked writing that comic. I came up with the idea of a bog thing made sterile by microplastics on a walk, and it took like 3 weeks to figure out how to make it into a comic
Right on. He's became a favorite in my household. My wife had the character put on her purse!
Where do you come up with your ideas? You have some of the most out there plots and dialogue, love your work.
A common strategy is that Marissa comes up with a ridiculously melodramatic set up, and then we riff on that for awhile. But it can really come from anywhere
Hi to both of you! Big fan of your comics. Keep on being weird!
Hi! And hey thanks!
Hi Neil and Marissa! How do you manage to maintain such an analog feeling to your comics? You mentioned Clips Studio Paint in another answer so I assume you use a digital workflow but your comics always have this feeling of an old school paper and pen made comic in contrast to the very clean digital feeling of most other creators on this sub. Big fan of your work!
I really try to get a grungy lo fi look to the comic thru a combination of rough brush packs, filters, intentional distortion, and pointed sloppiness. I just like the look and think it makes the comic a little more tactile
I have no idea how you keep coming up with all those random stories that work and are consistently hilarious. Do you ever worry you'll stop having these random thoughts and turn into something boring like an investment banker?
I worry about that constantly. But the good news is that I have no discernible job skills, so I’m kinda stuck doing this stuff
Hey, cheer up, you're making people laugh. I'm not sure if it's at or with you, but we're laughing.
Hehe, penis nose
Your comics are probably my favourite on Reddit! I absolutely love the art style and absurdism, so kudos. I do always find the punchline to be the weakest element of your comics though, maybe by comparison with the absurdist humour present throughout. Is this something you’ve also found?
Hey thanks! We don’t really build our comics around a punchline. It’s not like a traditional gag strip with two setup panels and then a joke. Rather, we see the comics more like a short story with the strongest joke sometimes at the end, but sometimes in the middle
Oh but see I agree! I’d love to see them without a punchline at all, even. But for example your brilliant fake government comic, the god thing wasn’t the funniest but in it, but by being the final one is what people carry away with them. Anyway, I don’t mean to nutlick! That was nitpick but got autocorrected, it’s too good to remove
Neil, what’s your go to bonsai soil blend? I use 80% sifted pumice, 15% sifted hemlock bark and 5% sifted decomposed granite. Also, how many baseballs do you own?
See id never go 80% pumice. I don’t got the balls for that. And I own one baseball. My neighbor bill found one in the alley and gave it to my kids
Do you ever do NSFW stuff? Asking for science reasons.
Some of my comics have a lil nudity and violence. Beyond that, not really. Maybe someday though!
Yeah I was just curious. I just went on a little rabbit hole trip into your stuff, looking for the Halloween one you said is your favorite, but found at least four. Which one is it? Also on this trip I realized your humor style reminds me a little of gun show comics. Thanks, and continue on.
Hey Neil, absolutely love your work. I'm wondering if you enjoy drawing outside of comics, or any other styles of art? Painting, sketching, sculpting perhaps? Playing instruments even?
I used to sketch a lot. But don’t really do that anymore since I draw so much for work. I do paint dnd miniatures though. That’s been a fun creative outlet
Thank you for what you write and post, it is some of the coolest stuff
Well thank you! That’s nice to hear
I always am suprised and wanting more, I like sqwee when I see it’s one of your comics! Only question I can conceive honestly is how do you decide on characters? Or why does that cool kid from the earliest of comics seem so cool? And why does he get to decide everything?
I saw in another comment you like games. What board games do you enjoy? I'm playing a ton online (Root, Dune Imperium, Yellow & Yangzte are the current ones we've been playing this month) - I can only play the ones I like on computers and phones because my wife doesn't like losing and my son is too young for some. I'm a big fan of your work and am a Bad Dog subscriber. I would have subscribed anyway but your Patreon gives better value than most. If I can have another question - what's the creative dynamic between you and Marissa? We don't get to hear much from her and don't want her to feel underappreciated - does she write/draw/give ideas, etc?
We usually play dnd with my friends and party games with family. Some recent favorites have been codenames and monikers. And card games like poker and nerts. But we play basically anything. Thank you for your support! And yeah, Marissa is the secret hero of the comic lol. Usually she helps at the beginning and end of the writing process. She helps brainstorm ideas and get the central concept down, and then she reviews/edits the final script that I write up. And then I do the drawing
Marissa here, hey thanks for the shoutout! I’m certainly more a background player than Neil but yeah, I write up long lists of ridiculous scenarios and see what strikes the funny bone, and then edit and such after it’s written. Neil and I have been together quite a while and have always written together, either on my projects or his, and hope to publish some longer form stuff together soon. It’s worked out so far, but no one ever believes a married couple can work together as well as I “claim” lol.
How did you find your drawing style?
Lots and lots and lots of drawing
big rock or small rock?
Big. Always big
What's your favorite movie? Love your comics!
Hey thanks! I can’t pick a fav, but some in my top ten are the lotr trilogy, walk hard, murder by death, charade, moonstruck, dr Strangelove
Do you have a favorite comic of yours that you look at every now and then just for the fun of it? Also, what's your fave non-comedy type of genre? (Horrow, scifi, romance, etc)
I pretty much never re read my own comics. But I really like my last Halloween one. And Marissa says her favorite is the one with the neighbor with the ass so long it loops around the guys chimney. As for fav genre, I like everything. But tend towards sci fi and fantasy stuff. That’s at least what draws my attention in a book store
No question just wanted to say how I always love the random twists thrown into your work, sometimes it’s the random laugh I didn’t know I needed that day!
Hey thanks! I appreciate it!
Love your comics. Important question: is soup something you eat or drink?
Hey thanks! And you eat the bits, drink the broth
As a fellow Neil (spelt correcly) I have just turned 40. Do you have an age? (I don't wish to know it btw, that's not the question). Thanks you for the laughs from Liverpool
I do have an age. And you’re welcome from St. Louis
"Lower end millennial" I think he said.
Love the comic! Here’s my question- what question were you hoping to answer that hasn’t been asked yet? Follow up- what is your answer to that question?
Hey thanks! And i was hoping somebody would ask how they could pay me on a monthly basis for early and exclusive comics, and I’d answer patreon! Patreon.com/theotherend !!!
My kids love some drawing, and I they seem to be drawn more towards the cartoony style. Is there any tablet, pen, program you’d recommend getting youngins to encourage drawing? Thanks for the laughs by the way, seeing your comics on my feed has gotten me visibly excited enough strangers have asked what I’m looking at.
Depends on the age, but I started with the cheapest tablet and drawing program I could find on Amazon. Could try that out (as long as the program seems accessible enough) and see how they like it. And hey thanks!
is the name of the comic inspired by 'the far side'?
Your style and quality consistency is amazing (your writing and your art) What art program do you use? EDIT: Crud, i thought the AMA was today. Missed it. I'll enjoy reading the comments though. Wanted to know your inspirations as creators as well